I swear if it's not one damn thing it's another.

Our Subaru decided to give us crap starting Sunday. The wife was driving it and things went weird. Cyl1 started misfiring. She got it home (was only 1/4 mile away when it happened) and now it won't start.

The battery is good and the starter is good. The starter is out of the car and I'd like to test it using my battery. I'm going to be putting new cable ends on. How would I go about "hotwiring" this thing to see if it will spin? Obviously I need to connect the positive but where do I ground the negative to complete the circuit? Again this is completely out of the car. Battery, wiring, starter, everything. Thanks!

jon if it's out of the car, just take it to autozone and they'll check it for free right there.


Brian

You should just be able to clamp the neg to the starter case, it just needs to be grounded. But make sure you secure the starter to your workbench, it will "hop" around.


"Project 69'"
1969 Chevrolet C/10, 1/2 ton, 2wd
-Boosted LS1?
-Richmond ROD 6-speed(will get sometime)
-Posi 12-bolt(built w/eaton posi unit and richmond 3.73 gears)
-Disc brake and 5 lug swap
+little extras

if it was misfiring and now won't start, i'm gonna guess the starter is not your problem. for piece of mind though, take it to autozone and have them test it.

i'd check your cam/crank pos. sensors and plugs/wires/coilpack/igniter... chances are one of those is your culprit for the misfire and possibly the no-start problem

I did take it to autozone to test it. They said it was fine but also recommended to try it this way to make sure it worked with my battery. Why, I dunno but figured why not, it's out of the car.

Turns out the problem was the crappy job I did installing new clamps when I put the new battery in. Put better clamps on and now it starts fine. So I ripped that thing out and spend the better part of a day screwing around when it should have taken me 30 mins to fix including running to the parts store. Gotta love it.