Ken,

A voltmeter is a useful tool even if it's only a $20 one. Radio Shack, Home Depot, Lowes, Amazon, and Harbor Freight sell them. Advance Auto might even sell them.

Have you tried putting the black jumper cable from the negative battery post to a solid piece of metal on the engine? That might bypass any faulty ground.

But realize that if you listen to me, you are taking advice from a guy whose only podium finish was a Best Team Costume Award.

Jim

Car didn't jump from any variation of negative to ground, engine, etc.

I jacked it up, put the car on stands and spent far more time trying to identify the starter and grounding wires than I would care to admit. I cleaned several connections, but I am not sure if I hit the correct ones. It didn't make a difference when I tried to start it up.

In the end, I have learned some ways to check some things related to the battery. I will try to figure out how to get the car to whoever can look at it soon (and knows what they are doing).

Thanks again for the many suggestions.
:)

Matt at Stuttgart Performance Engineering is very good, he is located in Gaithersburg MD.

Charlie and company at Intersport in McLean

Chapman says he is busy for the next two weeks or so so I'm going to start calling other mechanics hall go from the suggestions above.

x2 on Matt. Not right around the corner from you, but might be able to get you in quickly, will devote time to your care and NOT rip you off, and really, really knows these early cars attacking problems like the engineer he is (being a Porsche mechanic is his post-engineering job). I had a starting problem for FIVE years, having been to 4 shops and spent $$$$$ (and lost use of the car for months during that period). Matt figured it out from my description, and fixed it in <2 hours!!! I've posted that here before, but can't possibly express my appreciation fully after all those years.

Hooray!

A new battery WAS the solution! I knew that I should have trusted you guys more than a trusted advance auto parts.

The recharger on page 1 is on order from Amazon and should be here any day. And I now seem to have a full size battery with about 900 cold cranking amps and instead of the 730 and the battery if it came from the Georgia owner.

Thank you JH Smith who called tonight and VASteve who had other suggestions during the day today.

My wife is back on track for a happy 50th birthday.

Ken: Lesson No. 1 (I've learned the hard way... matter of fact, I continue to learn this lesson over and over) is TO CHECK THE SIMPLE THINGS FIRST;

Lesson No. 2: Don't always assume the worst.

Glad you solved the problem.

Thanks!

Glad this was so easy, and with wife happy, I am even... More pleased.

Thanks again, everyone. I am mortified at how rusty my skills have grown, and even more impressed by the help that has been offered.

I hope to help someone in the future as y'all have helped me.

Boyaaaa!