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My 115C's starter button operates with the key in the "Off" position. I like this feature as I can turn the engine over without it starting. Handy for priming carb and getting some oil circulating after a long snooze. Also convenient for "bumping" the engine over to adjust points. I recommend you keep this feature and not change the wiring around. Good news on your wiring trouble shooting. It's always the simple things that cause the problems.

(o{}o)

That is good news. Also glad it was simple, not something wrong with the wire loom, and you didn't have to tear things apart to find the problem.

The starter button on my 39 120 works as well with the key on or off. If you are lucky, you will have an old style starter relay on the starter that has a button on the end, next to the fire wall. The button has a metal screw on cap covering it. You can push it to spin the starter. That makes it really easy to line up the rotor and adjust the points. I haven't seen one of these in a long time, but I've bought old starters at swap meets just to get the old type relay. And they don't seem to fail.

An active starter motor circuit without an active ignition, whether by button, toeboard pedal or whatever, was pretty much the standard of the prewar era. Ditto the thermostatic breaker on the headlight circuit, at least for Packard and other higher quality cars, going back to at least the early 30s and perhaps much earlier than that.