I have a 96 Accord EX, 4 cyl that I just replaced the starter in. Hooked everything up, but when I went to start the car, it just struggled and wouldn't turn over. While my buddy watched, he noticed that the big terminal of the starter was sparking. Thinking the new starter was bad, I took it out and brought it down to O'Reilly (where I got it from) to have them test it. The guy ran the test three times and said it was fine. I thought maybe the cable running from the positive terminal of the battery to the starter was corroded, as it was reading 1.5 ohms. I replaced that as well, along with the ground wire that looked corroded. It's still sparking. I'm about to take the starter out again and bench test it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I did take the distributor off to reach the starter, which I now realize was unnecessary. But I made sure that I got everything lined up and all the plugs in the right place. I doubt that has anything to do with my issue, but I figured I'd offer up as much new information as I could.

EDIT: It's no longer sparking. The nut on the post connecting the solenoid and motor was loose. Tightened it up, bench test was fine. Put it all back in, still no start.

 

When trying to start the car, measure the voltage on the "big" and "small" wires going to the starter - measure the battery voltage as well.

Tell us what those three reading are/were.