Thanks Klaus,

The obstruction was at the bend where the bottom of the tubing entered the plastic doo-dad.

The gas cap lock motor worked fine off the battery with some jumper leads.
I checked the two wires with an ohmmeter back to the trunk lock motor.
They were OK. Grrrr. The trunk lock works OK.
anyway I fooled around, had the trunk lock out and looked at the BS in that assembly, a microswitch and maybe 6 wires...ACH more complex than I imagined.
I put all that stuff togeteher and voila' the solenoid is now behaving.
except the gas cap is really flimsy with the locking part really loose.
Maybe someone forced it before.

The real surprise was after this business with the trunk lock and using
dielectric silicone on the connectors, suddenly the car alarm started working.
I didn't know it was in there until today even though I noticed the speaker on the firewall. It showed up after testing the gas lock, when I pulled the lock lever and open the door...beep beep etc. So I guess it's suposed to warn if someone gets into a locked car without the key? eh?

Now I gotta get the timing belt job done before some sudden tragedy appears!

Bill