How can I test my starter to see if it works & to see if is getting power?

 

Jump it across at the solenoid

 

Check for voltage at the stud when in the start position. If there's power there, it's the starter.

 

Make sure it is park. Take a battery cable and attach it to the + terminal of the battery. Hit the other side to the low side of the solenoid. You will see sparks. If she cranks the starter is okay.
Then, as above, check for 12 volts on the wire to the "S" terminal of the solenoid when wifey puts the ignition in the start position.
You can take it from there on a bad ignition switch, solenoid or starter.

 

If off the truck, strap it down before applying B+.... it'll wanna torque over and that's not a good thing to have a live lead flailing about.

 

Exactly as Hio above.
Have any of you salts ever started an engine hanging from a chain hoist? We did once- in 1958- a Chevy six. Quite a show.

Semper Fi

 

LOL John, I bet there were dirty drawers evrywhere

 

Never cranked one on a hoist, but I watched my dad crank a air cooled corvair motor sitting on the garage floor, using a boat tank and battery. That was different! It ran just fine!

 

Crank, hell, Speedcat. We fired it up. Danced all over the garage on the hoist.
We all get out brains sometime in life. The cluster of jerks around me sure didn't have ours when we fired the 216 Chevy when we were teens.