Thank you for the input, yes I need to get a good battery before any other tests can be done. I should maybe clarify some, that I shortcutted by saying "my" referring to the DR when it's actually my fathers, and I don't use it as often as he does. I am also a snow state and it's in a pole shed in a snow state so.... freeze thaw freeze thaw repeat.
- The approach of "it looks good and tight" has tricked me way too many times to count.
Oh yes been there, it was about the best I could do at the time just given the tools I had. I would almost have preferred to see a nice green rotted connector half hanging on.
I can see someone at some point ran a new ground just because of the obvious wire difference. When I was starting the initial diag I saw there was no battery cutoff, I tried to explain this concept, not that a cutoff would solve that issue but good practice for this use case IMO.
- Low Amperage from a weak battery creates excessive heat and that kills solenoid contact and damages the starter armature.
Valid, it's been a hot while, Felt like an "on the edge" type deal, just the somewhere could be a few things, I didn't think about what I said above, applied over years, certainly would not be helping.
I have an amp clamp, and can do that test, at the time I just had some cheap whatever multimeter, was going to bring my fluke over when I can look at it again in the next week or two. At min, I have a meter I can trust. Load testing, since it's been a while, I go where a load is applied, not a jumper to see if it spins as you mentioned. But I see what you are saying and fully agree.
-There are a lot of great You Tube videos about voltage drop testing. Most are on automotive, but the same principles apply.
Oddly my background was ASE, just not professionally for a decade+. But my niche was European and electrical, the things everyone generally groans about or turns away from shops.
So I guess maybe distilled down, and this is just due to the hours I have to put in to do things correctly. Since this has been on going, and I know the battery storage issue has been at min an issue (forgot that bit in my first post), reasonable/unreasonable to part hang a starter? My goal is to have this run all season, and next. I am trying to avoid having a slightly weak starter that fails next season when needed. I'm only defending the part hang based on the time it would take me to do things correct. Apply a shop rate hour (on site) and I feel it would be unreasonably high with a greater chance of maybe next season that's when the starter wants to fully fail. I could then take the old one to get rebuilt and put it on a shelf for a rainy day backup as well which is a plus. Or am I grossly overthinking this?
-Ohm's and Kirkoff's Laws are both handy to know and apply here.
Yup, V=I/R or, or. Kirkoff Vodka and working on machinery = poor decisions.... maybe I mixed that last one up
Edit: A few for formatting
Edit 2: The solenoid. It's over spec'd for factory, but the part cost seems to be the same if not cheaper or easier to find in todays part world. Maybe I will guinea pig that should/when things change again sourcing parts. I could pull a datasheet for the cole, could not find one for the Generac. I'm hoping at least this comment may help someone down the road during a google search if no one has input one way or another on the subject. Will do my best to post the results should I go down that avenue for some extra luck.