Alfa Romeo Repair: starter, alfa spider, positive cable

Question

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Followup To

Question -
I have an '86 Alfa Spider Veloce.  Can you tell me where the
starter
is located?  Thanks

Answer -
It goes into the flywheel on the right (passenger) side of the
engine.  Remove the distributor to remove the starter. It will just
barely get through...

Would you like to know how to test to make sure it is the starter
at fault...

Yes, I absolutely would like to know how to test it!  Thanks!

Answer
First: use a jumper from battery positive to the small wire on the solenoid of the starter. If it starts working then the fault is probably the ignition switch. If it does not start working, but, you hear the solenoid click then...

Second: with a voltmeter put the positive lead on the battery and the negative lead on the battery cable connection at the starter and turn to start while watching the voltmeter--in the start position the voltmeter should read 1 volt or less. If the reading is higher then the positive cable  from the battery is at fault. Now...

Third: put the voltmeter negative lead on the negative connection on the battery and the positve lead on the engine.
Now the same readings will tell you if the ground cable is good.

By the way, when you jump the solenoid in the first test and do not get a clicking then you already know the starter is
bad.  And if you get a constant click,click,click,,, then you have a bad battery (check it with the voltmeter--a fully charged battery reads 12.66 volts and a too weak battery can read as high as 12.45 volts).