So if it wasn't clear, I'm pretty new at PCBs and such. I only kinda have a feel for my multimeter. Assembling and repairing something visibly broken, though, I'm solid. 

With the most recent set of this project, I took reference photos of the mechanism in the other, less broken shoe. I used that to map out how all the wires had previously connected to each other and the board/battery.  Cool cool.

 Feeling like I was getting closer to a win, I cut some new wires, and soldered the whole think together following this new info.

No dice.

I have a feeling my wiring is actually pretty good, but I haven't puzzled out exactly how the board/battery work. Somewhere I'm missing a positive line, I just know it. Ah well, time to actually knuckle down and figure that little tangle out.