Triumph Repair: Cable Voltage Drop Test, voltage drop test, starter solenoid

Question
Howard

You've helped me on several occasions figure out problems with my MGBs.  I was reading the Triumph questions and was confused by some advise you gave for performing a cable voltage drop test.

You said "you need to put a volt meter on a low volt scale and put the "positive" lead on the positive post of the battery (not the cable end) and put the "Negative" test lead of the volt meter on a clean metal part of the engine and go to the "Start" position and when it buzzes read the meter. If you see more than .5v then you have a bad cable connection either at the battery or at the solenoid."

Unless there is a dead short in the starter solenoid you will certainly see more than .5V from the positive terminal and the clean metal ground.  Did you mean to measure the voltage between the positive battery terminal and the solenoid high current input terminal instead?

I understand the second part about measuring from the negative terminal to ground.  Am I not getting something here or was that just a cut and paste error?

Thanks

Dave

Answer
Sorry Dave, If I said that on a negative ground car I must have been sleeping at the wheel, as I answer these questions late at night. I should have said put the positive test lead on the battery post (not the cable end) and the negative test lead on the battery post of the solenoid and hit the starter. If you see any amount of voltage over .5v then you have a cable or cable connection problem. My bad. If that Triumph guy tried that he is probably still scratching his head.

Thanks, I'm glad someone is reading these things.

Howard