[Albany Tom]

Thank you Joe. Per your advice, I confirmed a good current path between starter and battery. (By the way, battery positive post goes to the starter, neg to the frame (through cutoff switch), so negative ground).

I took the starter switch apart and confirmed everything was electrically isolated as it should be. The little rubber "T" pin that pushes the copper flap seemed fine.

Put the switch back on the starter and dang: No electricity to anything again. Voltmeter testing showed elec. continuity between the switch casing (or any ground) and the brackets that hold the starter switch fuse. So something's shorting.

I took the fuse out. I tested continuity again between ground and the _starter_ side of the fuse and there was none--it was correctly isolated. So now it seems to be something on the junction box side of the switch fuse.

So
1) If i connect the starter battery cable directly to the wire to the fuse setup, without the starter, I get lights, horn, etc.
2) If I connect the starter back in with the fuse in, I get (bad) continuity between ground and anything positive (e.g. starter post or fuse brackets).
3) Remove the fuse and what should be electrically isolated is again, at least on the starter side of the fuse.

So I think this means the problem is in the junction box or coil?

(And as nice as you guys have been helping me today, please know this can wait for after your July 4th parties). Tom