Triumph Repair: 76 Triumph spitfire 1500: no power at starter, triumph spitfire 1500, starter solenoid

Question
I am trying to revive my old college ride. It was running fine when I parked itv(9 yes ago - I know mistake...).
Here is what I have done:
1. Replaced starter
2. Replaced battery
3. Hired mechanic to test voltage to starter
Mechanic tells me no power is being delivered to starter...

On a side note the car was in a friends field covered with a car cover. While this sounds like a good thing at first what it really provided was free housing to mighty mouse and rocky the squirrel friends. You wouldn't believe the nuts that came out of this thing! Plus a copper head snake( another story....)

I'm wondering there is a problem somewhere between the ignition component and starter or if the fetters have chewed through my wires between the starter and ignition. Ant advice from the experts?

Note : I believe the mechanic said all comp nets had power except the starter but he is not familiar with triumphs.

Any ideas?

Answer
Hi Mike,

The starter system uses the ignition switch to send power to a starter relay and the relay powers the starter solenoid which connects the starter to the battery.

You can start from either end but I always like to start at the load (starter) and test toward the source (battery)

You need a 12v test light and start by having someone turn to the start position with the key while you test the post on the starter motor to see if it lights the test light or not. If it does and the starter did nothing then you have a bad starter. If not move up the line to the starter solenoid and test both large posts for power. One should have power all the time even with the key off. Put the prob of the test light on the post that has no power with the key off. Then have someone turn to the start position and note if you then have power. If you have power then you have a bad connection in that cable between the solenoid and the starter motor. If there is no power, then test the two small leads on the solenoid for power with the key in the start position. If you have power then the solenoid it bad. If there is no power then you need to move up to the starter relay and test the plain brown wire for power at all the time and test the black wire to see if it is a good ground and then test the other two wires for power with the key in the start position. One is the power from the start position of the ignition switch and the other is the out put to the solenoid. The wire from the ignition switch is either white w/orange tracer or a white w/red tracer. Check both anyway as the color codes were not always the same on that car.

Somewhere in that you should find the failure.

Howard