The safest way would be to take it to yer FLAPS and let 'em bench test it.

Otherwise, if I'm reading you correctly, you wanted to attach the negative
cable to the body of the starter to establish a ground.

Having said that, your question makes me nervous- the time to ask was
beforehand; live battery/jumper cables are not the sort of thing you want to
do trial-and-error experiments with, not to mention the possibility of
setting your battery off like a bomb from making errant sparks.

I saw a battery explode in a Jeep about 50 yards from me- luckily no one was
in it. It blew the hood off. It landed about 30 feet in front of the car. It
messed up a whole bunch of other things too, but the impressive part was
watching that hood sail through air like a Frisbee.

Cya,
Robert

----- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Demarest" <dougdemarest@YAHOO.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2005 2:46 PM
Subject: am I troubleshooting my starter correctly?

> With a new battery, my van wouldn't start today. I can
> hear the fuel pump, but no noise from the starter. I
> pulled it out. I took jumper cables connected them to
> my battery and touched them one to each of the large
> bolts coming out of the solenoid. (the one that is
> connected by a short wire directly to the starter was
> rusty, so I sanded down to metal). No sound or motion.
>
> Is this a convincing procedure to determine that my
> starter is dead?
>
> thanks,
>
> doug