Quick question, Bench test a starter?
 

I think the starter is shot on my 69 project. I have it out of the car and in the vise on the bench. When I hook the batery directly to the solonoid via the jumper cables still nothing. My only real question is the correct way to hook up the jumper cables when trying this. Can anybody help?

My local auto parts store will test starters for free.

When the starter failed on my '88, I pulled it out and replaced with the hi-torque unit. Out of curiosity, I "tested" the old one on the bench with a battery, and it seemed to work fine (on the bench with no load). So I'm not sure that bench testing like you mention will really tell you much. At any rate, there were three leads - ground, battery +12v, and trigger +12V on the '88 starter. Hope that halps somewhat.

Positive cable from the battery to the large lug on the solenoid.

Negative cable from the battery to the case of the starter.

Take a small jumper wire from the positive lug on the solenoid and touch it to the "trigger" connection (the small spade termial on the solenoid) and please be ready to hold it to the bench when you do this as it should move around a bit if it does work.

Joe A

What Joe says.