Many thanks to all the bricksters who responded to my earlier plea! This being the wifemobile, my nerves were as frayed as some of the wires I replaced. I thought I'd gotten in over my head on this one, and I've still got the '81 to do (which passed 250,000 miles last week, though I know that's not much to some of you)!

I did try jumping the remote starter connection to the battery. As expected, that behaved just like putting the jumper to the solenoid -- sparks but no action. Plan B was to rap the solenoid on the assumption that something was just stuck (since I had power and current draw to the solenoid but no action) -- and that worked.

Now the questions: at the first activity from the starter, I turned off the key (yea, I'm chicken). Then when I tried again, with the key at "start," I would get relays chattering and the dash lights blinking, but no starter. Then no response at all. Another round of tapping on the solenoid, and it engaged. After that, it seems to be working fine, starts every time. But I'll give it a couple of cold starts before I make any claims about "mission accomplished!"

Here is what I think happened: the first time I tried the ignition after installing the new harness, despite several rounds of checking connections, I had missed the battery to solenoid cable! (Add that to the list of dumb things I've done.) So when I did turn the key, the solenoid was trying to draw power "backwards" from the alternator cable and/or the blue/yellow wire. I assume that messed up the solenoid contacts somehow, but it doesn't make sense to me. Does that make sense to anyone else?

Final question (remembering that this is the wifemobile): should I be worried about the solenoid, even though it seems to be okay now?

Thanks again, many thanks ...