oh..fwiw ..in all things car performance related ..I find poor
>>> connections being the real cause as much as a good 60 to 70 % of the
>>> time...and it being 'a component' that's bad the rest of the time.
>>> ...i.e. it's not 'always'  A Component at all.

As someone who teaches electronics for a living, and has spent all of his driving lifetime dealing with "old cars" (our family fleet averages 18 years old!), I want to strongly echo this observation.  Very strongly.  Very, very strongly!

Always check every electrical connection in a circuit.  Never assume that 30 year old little plastic connector and it's aluminum or brass strips is still 'all right'.  I had a Rabbit once that had a completely dead ignition system, due to a single bad crimp in a single relatively inaccessible plastic connector.... it was hard to reach, but surely that little wire was find, right???

James
Ottawa, ON