>>Today while making up the last few remaining wire connections in the
>>engine compartment, I ran into something puzzling. The wire harness
>>feeding the starter solenoid has TWO red wires coming out of it: a
>>thicker gauge one with a black plastic female spade connector and a
>>thinner one with a white connector. On top of the solenoid I can only
>>feel one connection point.  The starter works with the thicker one
>>connected. My question is, what's the other connector  for? Is there
>>some place up there I can't see where this should be connected?
>>Everything seems to work without it.

I didn't notice what year it is you are working on.

Usually this extra wire connects to the same terminal as the larger
one. The starters I remember have two spade connectors on the start
terminal.

IIRC the extra wire tells your fuel injection when you are cranking
and therefore allows it to turn on the cold start injector when it's
cold out. Also, at least on the old AFC systems it also turned on the
fuel pump. I think back in the 70's that wire was usually white.

hth,
--
  -Otmar-
82/86 Stretch Vanagon Westfalia GTI. "Power of two" Soon to be TDI.
http://www.evcl.com/vw
1 914 EV, 1 Insight Hybrid