I just finished an engine rebuild on my 87 240 DL. Got it all back together. Turned the key and... nothing.

I started tracing wires and figuring out what was what, but nothing seemed to work. So I took the starter out and got it bench tested. It passed, put it back in, still nothing. I went back and got a new starter just to be sure. Put it in and nothing. Now I'm trying to bypass my ignition/parking break sensor so I can at least start with a push button. I have it set up with a direct wire from the battery to the top large terminal. I have another wiring going to a button then a fuse then the smaller right terminal.

When I push the button I get a click and the starter bounces a bit but doesn't engage further than that. I tried having the large wire go directly to the lower large pin (the one for the starter itself) and that just made some of cool fireworks. I also ran a large ground wire directly to the starter (using the mounting bolts that hold it to the flywheel to attach the ground) just to be sure it wasn't that.

Can anybody help me figure out what exactly I need to feed to these four bolts in order to get the starter to engage from a push button? Once I have that I can work backwards and figure out why the key won't turn it on, but at least I could start driving the car around.

 

You have a push button with two wires. Attach one wire to the small wire on the solenoid and the other to the positive battery terminal. Push the button - if the starter does not spin the engine - either the engine is seized, the starter is bad, or there is a bad connection - usually at the battery or THE GROUND WIRES GOING TO THE ENGINE from the body/battery.