So, the potential of a bad master switch leads me to a couple of other
questions I have had....

Is there an advantage of having the split master (alt/bat) vs. a single
master?

Along those lines, I have flown 172's with an avionics master, and have
been told that it would be pretty easy to add one. I thought that
would be pretty nice, as you could shut down the whole avionics stack
with one switch rather than each individual component.

Any thoughts on what the ideal configuration might be for a master and
avionics solution? I don't have a ton of money to throw at the plane
for major panel upgrades, which would be ideal, but I would like to
take the approach of improving things over-all as I touch/fix things.

Finally... Can anyone point me to any documentation or literature on
doing these kinds of things myself? (Of course I would have an A&P
looking over my shoulder or checking my work)

Thanks for the input!

Todd