Hi all-

Thought I'd start a new thread since I'd moved forward with the repair. ...or should I say "repair" with quotes, as it's not exactly up to code.

Looking at the starter wiring showed one wire with a new spade, one bare wire with an old spade, and one bare wire without a connector, none of which were connected to the starter, as well as the big + cable. No sweat! I can fix this!

I snipped the plastic cover back as far as I could, and the wires were melted together-looking, the insulation was crumbling to dust, and there's obviously no way I was going to be able to fix that without R&R'ing the harness.

My brother in law, the PO, evidently wasn't kidding when he said it looked like a nightmare.

So... what I did was this: cut the CSinjector plug off the harness, hooked the white wire to ground, and the blue/yellow to the pushbutton start switch's wire to the starter. Now the CSI fires whenever the starter is engaged, regardless of temp. Not right, but hey! It started right up this morning!

Some Google searches have turned up some archive messages about this, but I didn't find any explanation for this problem. What gives? Some environmentally friendly insulation? Does this affect the rest of the car, or just the engine harness? What all does the engine harness run, guessing the CSI, TTS, ignition, temp sensor, oil sensor, alternator, starter? It sure seems like this would be an easy thing to completely remanufacture, using new plugs and terminals as required. This would allow to route the harness someplace more sensible than between the fuel injection and the block, and be cheaper (?) than a new or used replacement harness. Or are new harnesses readily available and not susceptible to the same misery as the originals?

Happy it starts, not happy I had to jimmy-rig it-

Kyle
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1980 242GT 197K, 1990 744Ti 113K