OK, thanks for all the help so far.
I finally extracted the wrench.
And, as suggested, tightenend everything back up.
Now I just want to check I haven't done something really stupid here.
First up, I connected the unit using the terminal shows here:
http://thumbs1.picclick.com/d/l400/p...arter-351M.jpg
http://image.fourwheeler.com/f/10469...er_mounted.jpg
The fat terminal was connected direct to my battery (via an FIA cut out switch), and the skinny terminal was connected to the ignition switch, on the 'start' setting.
So, Q1 - can i confirm this is correct?
I checked the earth on chassis/frame engine and starter body- all earths seem good.
So this w/e I tried to bypass the starter solenoid. However, I have now chickened out of this after i made some more measurements. I had assumed that the place to bypass the solenoid was to connect the battery feed to the terminal under the blue plastic covering shown in the bottom pic. This seems to connect the solenoid section to the starter motor part of the unit. However, I found that there is a direct path to ground from this terminal to the solenoid, so i was worried that connecting the battery in here would kill the battery.
So Q2: How do you bypass the solenoid on a Powermaster starter?
and is this terminal meant to have a direct path to ground?
I see that the Powermaster literature talks about an earth/ground lead, but I had assumed the unit didn't need a separate earth/ground lead, and would earth through the engine to the frame.
My patience is now running a little thin :-/
Any further comments and help much appreciated.