Wow, this has become quite the cluster unfortunately. Just to give you an update, I've tested voltage at the valve box prior the non-working zone (zone 1 not working, zone 2 is). I find approx. 25volts to work that zone. But, when I cut the wire to zone 1, and check that with the common at the valve 2, I find only 5 or so volts supplying zone 1. The crazy part is, I have an extra wire (it's 5 zones and 6 strand wire), so I tried the spare wire and get the same result. I believe that tells me that the problem with the wires, has to be before zone 2 and has to have affected both my red(zone 1) and brown(spare) wire, but only those 2 wires since all the other zones still work. Now, as a test, I ran some spare wire and un-hooked zone 1's controller in place of zone 2 (at the valve) and that still did not make this brand new valve turn on. So, in addition to the 2 bad wires(zone 1 and spare wire), the new valve I put in must also be bad. So I believe the right course of action is to continue working my way back towards the controller, by zone, cutting the brown and red wires' to validate where the breakage is. Once I find 25 volts on those supply wires, I can replace from that point to the non-working zone. Agreed? It's about 75 feet from controller to 1st zone with sidwalks and planting beds between so replacing the wire from controller to zone is last option I hope.