Thought I'd report back since this may be useful to someone else in the future.

The strange fluctuation I mentioned regarding the battery voltage turned out to be a bad main ground. It occurred to me something similar had happened to me several years back on my 300sd. I cleaned all the terminals and removed the main ground and gave it a thorough cleaning. Installed the fully charged battery (trickle charged it during the night) and she fired right up. As a preventative maintenance, I will clean the engine/body ground and any other obvious ground straps that I come across.

This might be a good bi-annual preventative maintence for all those that park on the street.

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"Time's never wasted when you're wasted all the time"