Re: How to Bench Test a Starter II

Posted by BigKev On 2010/3/11 12:57:10

Also most O'Reilys and Autozone's will test starters for free.

But if you just want to make sure it spins, then you would ground the case to positive (+6v car). Attached the negative from your battery to the open large lug on the starter. Then attach the remote start button (or a piece of wire ) to the large lug also. Then when you touch the other end of the wire to one of the small legs it should activate the solenoid and engage the starter. If one leg doesn't work, then try the other one. On more modern solenoids the second small leg was there to provide a 12v bypass around the ballast resistor for the coil during starting operations.

Now keep in mind this doesn't test the starter under load conditions.