[roger1]

Originally Posted by dataway

So I'm guessing the signs of heat damage in the console to my donor console harness was someone staying on the starter for an extended period? Probably far beyond the factory recommended cranking time?

It wasn't horrible damage, just the factory female spades melted into the connection for the neutral switch and some shrinking back of the insulation on both switch end and plug end.

I replaced the female spades with tin plated brass double crimps, after trimming back the wire a bit, covered the crimps with shrink tubing, left the females uncovered to help dissipate any heat, so no longer a "connector" on the switch end, just the separate terminals. Just cleaned up the plug end connectors and used anti-corrosion grease.

I'm one of those people that if the engine doesn't start within about five seconds you stop and find the problem. Preferable about one second

My guess is that the connections were loose, dirty or both and caused them to heat up. Btw, starting in '69 the purple wire doesn't run to the console like it does in yours. The park/neutral switch is on the steering column and the back linkage turns the inner shaft to lock the steering wheel and also controls the P/N switch.
I bought a kit to move it back to the shifter in the console for my '69 only because I've changed the transmission to a 200-4R. The original back linkage still locks the steering wheel but I don't have to worry about if the P/N switch still would have worked since the detents for the gears aren't the same as the Turbo 400.