John Deer 410G starter troubleshooting

[Kiamikapusher]

I've been trying to start my Backhoe to no avail. I hear clicking at the starter but it won't crank. Batteries are new and charged. I looked at the troubleshooting manual and became confused. It states:

"Listen for “click” from starter
solenoid. If “click” is not heard, the
starter control circuit is functioning. If
“click” is not heard, repair starter."

Is this accurate? My intuition and years of farming tells me that if there is no click, you have a wiring issue as the solenoid is not activating power to the starter. And if there is a click, the wiring must be OK as the solenoid receives power when the key is turns but the starter fails to engage=bad starter.

Any help would be appreciated. Such as, is there a safe way to jump the starter and bypass the solenoid, in order to see if it will crank?

 

[edgephoto]

Measure the voltage drop at the solenoid.

 

[Kiamikapusher]

Thanks, I inspected the start relay and it was all melted. Then I jumped the relay to push current to the solenoid and nothing but the jumper wire (4 guage) started heating up--hence the melted relay. My assumption is one of 3 problems: bad starter; bad solenoid (has signs of overheating on the outside); or bad wire between relay and solenoid. I can easily diagnose the latter but to remove the starter without lifting the loader seems almost impossible. Any advice?