[WindstarOwner]

First of all -- PROBLEM SOLVED!! Thanks to Selectron and others for your assistance!

Now, to elaborate on the details, in order to help others with similar situations... The root cause of the problem was a nicked wire right between the battery and the driver-side headlight. The wiring from the passenger-side headlight routes up across the front of the radiator, joins the driver headlight and that harness heads back into the firewall. Most of the wiring harness is covered with black plastic wrapping, but a small portion was exposed -- right next to the battery. I do not know how it got nicked -- battery replacement, engine service, whatever, but it was nicked. There was corrosion inside the covering of the wire almost seeping out, and the core had corroded through. I cut through the wire, stripped it in both directions, and soldered in a 2" extender to make sure I had good connections. Then I sort of over-killed with wire-nuts, electrical tape, and even a small piece of plastic wrapping to keep moisture away. Works fine.

As to the color of the wires (per Selectron's comments) -- I suppose that the wire I called Green/Orange could be considered Lt. Blue/Orange (it's sort of a slate or sea-blue-green color)...but the 12v line is certainly yellow/red not white/red on my model. I don't understand why it should be different from the wiring diagram.

For that matter, I checked Chilton's wiring diagram, and it's totally out-of-date. Chiltons published a manual in '95 and they updated the same manual for 7 years without updating all of the things that are changed. Theirs does not even show the FEM and the colors they claim are Black, Brwn, and Lt. Blue/White. Not much help.

Anyway, the most helpful advice to me was the idea of inserting pins into the wires to check for continuity along the way. Thanks again. Best of luck to others with this same problem!