Wiring up a starter from scratch, I have power going to the starter, and power coming off it for my feeds the same way the factory did it, and my feeds have power at them, yet for some reason it will not engage when I put power to the purple feed wire, also, if I put a test light to the feed wire it shows its grounded?? Is it normal for it to show ground when not getting power sent to it? I have also tried putting power directly to the wire bypassing the start switch(which works fine) and bypassing the NSS switch as well, and nothing happens, I am nearly certain I have the wire in the correct spot as well, where does the starter solenoid ground at, I am wondering if that is possibly my problem...

 

One would suspect the solenoid is faulty then ( assuming you put power direct to solenoid terminal where the purple wire attaches?)

Off course
The solenoid has to be grounded to complete the the solenoid circuit for it to work
( how would the 12V power from batt get back to Neg batt terminal otherwise? )
so reasonable to see ground on solenoid terminal

 

Right, but Its a known good starter and solenoid, and as for the ground, that was pretty much my thinking, though I wasn't sure if it should ground when open, or only when closed, perhaps I just don't have enough juice in my battery, but usually if that's the case you at least get something.

 

See starter circuit diagram above
The solenoid circuit is "opened or closed " at the Ign switch end not at the solenoid ;
wire at solenoid just goes through the solenoid coil windings direct to ground
Only thing opened or closed is the main batt feed to starter motor itself