ingnition problem, really need help! (electronics "pros"- this is for you)

[Pulse]

aftter removing and painting the valvecover on my 1990 hatch base model, i turned the key to the reponse of nothing. (youre going to want to reference this pdf as you read, http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/24...W.pdf got to pg.10 ) It is a m/t, so i was hitting the clutch all the way, but by-passed the saftey lockout anyway b/c it had given me problems 2 nights before. Both relay and fusible link are active which means there is a ground and there is a break in the hot between the relay and the starter. We pulled the starter and it is functional. We tried to directly power the starter by shorting from the battery to the hot terminal on the starter via a piece of wire, and at this point the starter did not turn, i say that in sarcastic italics because we just ran a full circuit to the starter and it didnt turn, even though the starter is fine. My dad and i believe its a grounding problem, but the oddest thing is that the car will start sometimes, but otherwise all you get is the sound of the relay and fusealbe link. The ground from the battery runs from the terminal to the battery trey (grounding the body) then from the battery trey to the engine (grounding the starter to the body).

I am extremely aware of the how complex i made this problem sound, but if you take a look at the pdf and read, its a little less confusing.

Any help is appreciated, i need to be able to drive to school without push starting every morning/afternoon.

[vancouverbc]

try hitting starter. it might be intermittent. you can directly ground the starter from battery also for testing. sounds like a bad starter so hit it.

see starter tutorial to make sure you are giving hot to right wire.

[Pulse]

issue resolved, wound up being a faulty starter solenoid, so had to get a new starter.