Ok, here is what I did:
I pulled the wire off the solenoid terminal (the thinking was this would isolate just the wire to the switch):
Turning the switch I expected to see 12V at this wire - but nothing.
But its not obvious (to me) what wire goes where on the back of the switch. The plug on the back of the switch looks like this:
The blue, and the double whites go to ground when tested with a meter.
The black one shows 12V
Some things I dont know what are:
This fuse hole is completely missing:
I dont know what this is:
It does have this oil idiot light - cant imagine it would affect turning over the starter:
And a pleasant discovery of an external oil filter, do all 1811 series have this?:
Anyone want to suggest whats next? Im thinking of making a jumper from one of the terminals on the switch directly to the solenoid. But would be better to figure out why there is nothing going there from the current harness.... Which one should it be?