So due to the fact I'm not only new to hardware hacking but electronics in general for the most part I made a mistake that ended fatally for the router I was targeting. First there are no headers on the debug ports of this board. I planned on soldering a pin header to connect to but before I had a chance to get some I decided it couldn't hurt to connect to the UART interface by just resting the wires down in the hole of the pinout. Well it turns out that was a stupid idea as it seems the GND must have disconnected at some point. Although the board never just died while I was using it the next time I went to use it the router refused to power on.....Lesson learned!

All hope for this project is not lost though thanks to thrift shops selling cheap routers! I was able to get a brand new sealed package D-Link DIR-601 for $7 today, So let the fun (re)begin!

Update: So I got curious again about the router I fried and managed to track down exactly what I did to cause it. It had nothing to do with me connecting by stuffing the male end of the wire into the female pinout and GND wiggling. After checking the specs of the USB to TTL serial adapter I bought off ebay again I noticed that it was a 5v and the router requires a 3.3v. So that was in fact the cause of the problem.