I cut through the transformer in haste and cut too deep totally screwing up the winding so I don't know if it was the leads or not. I did pick up a new vertical block oscillating transformer to replace it though. The impedance on the primary and secondary are lower than the original but I put it in and I'm going to hope it'll oscillate. I may have to tweak the circuit with resistors inline with the new transformer to make it linear but I'm crossing my fingers it'll be ok as is.
Again I don't have a variac at home so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to fire it up and see what how I did.