I brought a brand new battery the other day for £30 and thought, as its my grandads birthday today, we would try to turn the engine over electronically.

I wanted to try the motor on its own first to make sure it worked after 2 years standing. Connected the +ve to the solenoid and touched the -ve to the housing but nothing. Moved the -ve around a bit and we got a big spark and the motor spun for a split second but wouldnt move after that.

We then realised that the thread for the +ve was loose, tried to open it up but the heads on the screws were worn (donors previous owner must have noticed and worn them ) so now on the look out for a new one and im skint

Oh well, maybe get it sorted for next week but i was really looking forward to some progress today.

what type of starter is it? pre engage or inertia?

Pre-engaged

As its ruined so have nothing to lose clean up the metal and try soldering the wires in place.

I take it you are on about the solinode to motor wire?