Dirty starter spins dirty cheap

Let's see what I accomplished today. First, I tested the starter in the car. I connected a wire to the solenoid signal pin (pin 50, red in the following picture).
After placing the other end of the wire (this is the same one I used to power the fuel pump), I plugged the battery to the car. Let's just say I do not like unplanned sparks and zappings. The reason I plugged the alligator clip end to the solenoid signal pin was that for me to manually spin the starter I need to short this small pin against a 12V source. The chosen power source is the bit fat cable coming from the battery and attaching to the back of the starter (green). It is rather large and hard to miss. But, the connector #50 is kinda small; if I were to try to touch it with the banana plug side, chances are I would ground the wire instead.

Instead of taking pictures, this time I made a video of this test. I will post it once I figure out how to make it look nice in youtube. In the mean time, I will upload some frames. Here we have me actually touching the wire against the positive wire I marked in green before. Note the spark. Yes, that made the starter engage and spin the engine, but that is not good enough.
You see, when I first touched the wire, nothing happened. I touched the large U-shaped metallic cover around the fat wires. Nothing. I touched the bolt that holds those wires onto the starter. Nothing still. So, I started rubbing it finally made contact, sparking. The spark tells me there is not a good connection there: the electricity is trying to jump across the air as it could be an easier path. But, I spun the engine.

(20071016) Here is the video as promised:

At this point in this episode we need to talk about something stupid I did. When you park a classic Saab, you put the shifter in reverse and then can turn the key and remove it. I forgot the car was still in reverse. So, when I hit the starter the car jumped backwards. Well, besides the surprise, that tells me my reverse gear must be working. I did put the shifter in neutral before continuing playing. I still have connectivity issues but the starter works. Now all I need to do is to clean the connection and try again... maybe this time for real.

Now that I finished messing with something that could be causing lots of very beautiful sparks, it was time to finish draining the rest of the (old) fuel. For those who remember, I drained 4 gallons out of the car in a previous episode. Today I drained 3 more, which was about as much as was left in the car (it acted like the pump could not suck any more fuel). Fuel gauge still did not report much, or it did before and I failed to pay attention. Still, nasty yellow fuel, as seen here while I dumped it in the Volvo fuel tank.
Before closing the car for the day, I had tightened the fuel line back to the fuel rail. I do not know how much torque I need to tighten it though, so I may have to punt.

Well, I think it is time for me to start putting parts back together in the Saab and try to start it. I feel confident that my little tests indicated that I should give it a try. Maybe this weekend I will put enough time on it to get it alive. We will see.