Firstly I have an e34 535i (1990) and I have recently had my starter reconditioned after it had broken the internal fork that physically engages / disengages the starter gear.. Well i dropped the starter in and hooked up the leads went to turn the key and no start.. well I can hear the starter gear spinning but not engaging the flywheel.. so I pulled the starter and bench tested it and it seemed to work fine.. back in the car ok.. try again.. this time checked the voltage to the switched wire and it only reached about 8 volts?!?! WTF.. Well I have 12.40 at the jumper terminal under the hood and 12.4+ at the battery.. What could be causing this much draw? I'm figuring bad continuity but seeing that all I did was switch out the starter I'm kinda stumped on where to even start.. What circuits should I chase down?

Any help is greatly appreciated,
Aaron