amdx wrote:
Question 1) The battery voltage sets at 12.7, when I energize the
starter it drops to 10.7.
Is that a normal voltage under starter load?

Yeah. The starter can be drawing up to a couple of hundred amps, so
it's normal for it to go down some. I have heard various values for
the line between "good" and "bad", usually somewhere between 9 and
10 V.

Question 2) In the old days, you could remove the coil wire to run a
starter without starting the motor.
How do you disable the spark on these newer vehicles without a
distributor cap? (newer 1997) :-)

Probably the most common is to remove the fuel pump relay or fuse, or
unplug the fuel pump. Note that if the vehicle has been run recently,
there might still be enough pressure in the injection system to run the
engine for several seconds the first time you crank it after removing
the fuse/relay or unplugging.

If you have the style where multiple coils sit on an ignition module,
unplugging the low-voltage connector to the ignition module will
usually kill the spark.

Matt Roberds