Sir Nibble

Yea, the resistor is being used instead of a warning light to provide initial excitation.

I've not had a lot of experience with the 203 and it's an unusual system. I used to deal with them on later Bristol buses, but where Bristol buses are concerned, "later" is a relative term. One thing I do remember is a conversation with a guy who wanted to sell me a gauss meter particularly for the AC 203. According to him, they are prone to a partial winding failure which leaves the rotor unable to achieve magnetic saturation. This may just be sales talk, I can't comment further except to say that a nice bright warning lamp may well cure the problem.

I think this solenoid has an ignition supplied hold in winding and the pull in winding connected to the starter.

Yes. I'll try it loaded with a heavy discharge tester next week.

No. Just, no. So unsafe. I've done this stuff, but with all the sensible precautions and proper waste disposal. Interestingly, only the negative plates have any cohesion. If you drop one on the floor it goes thud, a positive plate goes splat and there's no way there's enough solid lead to weld. All the plates this guy is reusing started as negative ones. Since every cell has one more positive plate than negative, building a battery with reclaimed plates would need three donor batteries.

The absolute best was the customer who's truck wouldn't start. Does the dash light up when you turn the ignition on? No, nothing. Does the starter make any sound when you try it, clicking or anything? No, nothing. So out I go, turn on, dash lights up. Try the starter and it cranks the engine briskly. Customer: See, nothing.

This is one of "those" things isn't it. Unlike bizzard, I've never seen a problem with it. I must have done thousands and thousands of starting problems over the last 50 years and not one was due to vaseline, dozens due to corrosion. This is like never using emery to clean a comm, you should use glass paper. Tried it once, glass paper just not up to the job, 50 years with emery and no problem.

Added advantage that the ducks wouldn't have to come out for blacking either.

The trick is to not get the paddles wrong.

Going up. Bowline on the centre rope over a bollard towards the back of the lock, forward gear, tickover.

Looks like the easy way to me.

Could try aralditing nuts to the inside, with the windows out and screws to hold them in place.

If the starter in question is one of these, then the common (very common) fault is burned solenoid contacts. New ones are cheap. Access by removing the 3 screws on the back of the solenoid.