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Rusty..... ...1st off, yer ignition switch only controls yer sparkies; 2nd off, yer 2-terminal roundcan starter switch on yer steering column only controls yer starting motor. 3rd and most importantly, make certain you are using yer voltmeter "correctly". Make yer voltmeter measurements from 1-terminal to GROUND; then try yer other terminal to ground. Bettcha only the BATT TERM reads battery volts and the STARTER terminal reads "zero-volts" to ground. This is the correct voltmeter way. You do realize that "GROUND" has NO POLARITY and can be ennythang metal but commonly is yer engine block, yes? And that paint and rust are insulators, so you kinda haffta 'scratch' yer meterprobe THRU the paint and rust for a quality connection. Understand? Heres the deal, and it really kinda technical; but voltmeters are specified by how many ohms it takes to make the micro-micro ampmeter read "FULL-SCALE" at its MOST SENSITIVE range. Typically, analog voltmeters are about 20,000 ohms/volt, digital electronic voltmeters are about 10,000,000 ohms/volt. (more sensitive) Both meters will be operated in the 10-volt FS range. That means 10v digitalmeter will have a TOTAL input resistance of 10x10,000,000 ohms to keep all the volts inside the meter range reading. This is almost perfect insulation. And since yer 6v starter motor needs about 150-AMPS to turn the engine over and the meter will only allow 6-micro-micro-micro-amps (the equivalent of 6-volts) to go thru its guttz, the meter won't turn-on the starter motor like yer jumper cable does. But why does the meter read "across" the 2-terminals? Becaust the starter motor internal copper guttz has such LOW RESISTANCE, the meter thinks the starter motor is ground. Simple, eh? ..... ..respectfully, Dell 50yrs of electronics
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