good tip on the fuses. I hadn't thought of that, and car was not used for a few months before I bought it so maybe some corrosion has formed or whatnot. Only thing is the fusebox card shows other components on the same circuit as the radio and I recall mentally noting that those other listed components do work. I'll check it out regardless

1.) the mystery lever I don't think is the manual overide for the sunroof. The owners manual shows the white plastic hex bolt on the side of the motor as being the manual overide. The tire wrench seems to fit that hex bolt. The mystery lever sticks out the back and doesn't appear to be connected to anything (?). I can't remove it by pulling, can't push it further into the motor and because it does have a bit of a crank shape to it I rotated it a bunch of times but it doesn't seem connected to anything. That said, even rotating the hex nut doesn't seem to move sunroof, and pushing the sunroof button I hear no sound at all (no motor buzzing or humming or anything)

2.)check, good to know I need to get the radio going before worrying about the antenna. And those OEM radios didn't have any sort of reset sequence to power up specially after the battery was disconnected did they? The nighttime illumination on the radio does work when the headlights are on.

3.)thanks for the clarification about the central locking vaccuum line. I'll leave that for now then until I get the more pressing things done.

4.) The screech is so very specific with regards to engine speed and load. I'll see if it can be duplicated in drive but stationary with foot on brake. If so I'll get someone in the drivers seat while I look around with the hood open to see if I can narrow down where it originates. Detonating (imploding?) vaccuum pump sounds bad.......is this seriously a worry?