Well theres good news and bad news. This morning I went to school and when I went to leave there was nothing. Lights gages, and proper voltage just no starter. Got it home and put it on jacks and found out what my rattle was. A flex plate bolt had worked itself loose and was lodged in my starter. The other two were loose as well. I figure take the bolt out. tighten them all back up and we're good to go right? Wrong. Now the starter is not working. I removed it and took it to the local parts store and it checked good. Fired up like a champ. Strange I thought, so I brought it home and hooked the wires back up to test it....nothing. I checked all the fuses I could find that said ignition on them and they're all good, under drivers side, and the big ones under the hood. I have to believe that the loose bolt getting lodged in there has something to do with it, too much of a coincidence not to, but what? From what I can tell the starter is just two red wires, big one to the battery with juice all the time and the little one back into the harness somewhere that has juice when you turn the key. I dont have a volt meter or anything, so I cant really check the wire, but why would it suddenly go bad? Am I missing a fuse somewhere? Having the starter laying on the chasis (ground) and turning the key should engage it right?

I thought it better to not start a new thread, but I will if need be.

Ok, the starter is typically *NOT* run through the fuse block on GM cars. But it does have inline fuses (Fuesable links) in the wiring.

You got the wiring nailed..

the small diameter wire going to the starter solenoid (can looking thing on top of the main starter motor) activates the solenoid that drives the gear forward into the flexplate and closes an internal switch that turns on the starter motor.

The big diameter wire going from the body of the starter back to the battery is the main feed for the starter motor.

Now, start tracing the wires from the starter. You will run across these black things of the wire that look like a big chunk of insulation around the wire. These are fuseable links.

The way it works, if you put too much current through the wire, it melts inside, just like a regular fuse. Having the starter stuck in the flexplate probably kept the starter engaged while you were driving around, and that melted the fuseable link.

Once you track down the link, you can check it with a volt-meter, and if blown, you can cut it out of the circuit and splice a new one. In a pinch, you can test by just jumpering around it with a suitably large piece of wire.