I got the car towed back to my place from out of town and so am able to trouble shoot more extensively. Nope...the air intake hose between the AMM and intake manifold tends to collapse, restricting air flow *some*, but it is not ruptured, so there isn't un-metered air entering. Like I said in earlier post, it has a code set for missing AMM signal. I found that the air mass meter on our (running fine) 92 740 (turbo version of B230) is the identical part number (-016), so I swapped it into the 89 740. Still does not start/ run. Put suspected bad AMM into the 92 740....it still runs fine, so the code the ECM was setting for missing AMM signal, at least is not due to a bad AMM! The connector appears perfect. Engine seems to have resistance to turning, there is some compression there. I checked for spark at the coil lead (disconnected from distributor....I get only ONE spark to the valve cover for each rotation of engine, instead of four! Also it is very weak, comparing it with the spark developed by the 92 740. So I subbed in the coil and coil-to-distributor lead from the 92 740....still had the same bad spark! Checked the coil ground terminal, its grounded...and the other terminal for the control pulses from the ignition control computer is OK. So now I need to sub in the ignition control computer from the 92 740 and see if that is what is killing the ignition (if it also has the same part no., that is). But...where is it located? Seem like when I worked on the brake pedal, there was something that looked like an ECM module to its right. Is that it? I know the ECM is what monitors the system and sets failure codes....could it be bad, making it think that the AMM signal is bad, and causing the ignition control computer to malfunction? (just trying to think of a common cause for both the bad ignition and the AMM fault code). Thanks all.