Here are the final steps that lead me to the problem. Put both starters on the bench again. This time used a spare 12 battery I have and connected battery positive to the positive on the solenoid, ground to the starter body. Put the remote starter on the positive solenoid and the solenoid trigger tab and squeezed the trigger.
My original starter: solenoid kicked out and motor ran like a bat out of hell. The NEW Hall starter that I've had for 3 years & never been on a car, solenoid popped out and the starter motor barely turned. I could stop it with my hand. So the Hall starter is dead. Will have it repaired.
Next, pulled wiring harness from the bulkhead back and laid them on the ground under the car. Just to check, hooked up the Hall starter, turned the key, click, click, nothing more. Hooked up my original starter, click, click, nothing more
Took voltage readings. (Exchanged the old battery for a new one today) 14 volts at the battery, 14 volts at the main power 4 wire block in the steering column, 14 volts at the battery cable connected to the solenoid.
Hmmm....only 2 other connections. One is the female terminal that attaches to the solenoid trigger tab and the other is another hot lead from the ignition. They felt solid, showed no signs of burning or corrosion. Being there was nothing left electrical connection wise, I cut both ends off, stripped the wires and put a new connections on both ends.
Hall starter still dead. My original started worked like it should when the key was turned on to start the car sitting on the ground
Fingers crossed, put my original starter back on the bell housing, reconnected the 2 wires and battery cable to the solenoid, turned the key and the biggest grin on my face you can imagine appeared
Problem ended up being the 2 wires that connect to the solenoid. One being the solenoid trigger wire and the other being the power lead from the ignition. Battery cable to solenoid was fine. Needless to say, something so simple turned out to be quite the adventure. But once again, learned a lot.
Cost of repair: 0.76 cents, Time figuring it out: 8 hours.
End result, PRICELESS !
For everything else, there's MasterCard.