Starter turning when battery is connected

EDIT - thought it was the SAI pump but it's actually the starter! I just replaced my alternator plus the starter/ground wire. Put everything back together again but surprisingly when I connected the battery again the SAI pump turned on without the key even being in the ignition! Disconnected the battery, reconnected, and the exact same thing happened. How or why would this be happening? I left everything disconnected again because I'm afraid I might have a short somewhere. But I don't know how as everything is pretty easy to figure out where it all goes. Anyone have any ideas?

The SAI pump gets its (positive) power from the engine bay "+" jump point (via a 40A fuse and the SAI pump relay) so it bypasses the ignition. Sounds like either your SAI pump relay is stuck closed or somehow the DME is powering the SAI pump ON (can't think of why though). I suggest you remove the SAI pump relay for now (under left rear seat parcel shelf) and see if you can start the car and everything else operates correctly.

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Thanks Ahsai! I'm heading to bed now but will try that when I get home from work tomorrow. I thought I'd be able to take a test drive this evening but I guess at least one more day!

If you don't want to trouble shoot it yet, you can just unplug the SAI pump (at the pump) for now. CEL may show but it can be reset by any scanner.

Believe it or not it isn't the SAI pump I'm hearing but the starter motor! I disconnected the SAI pump and still heard it. Then I went to the engine and found that the sound was coming from behind the alternator which points to the starter. So the question is WTF did I do to get this to happen?!? I'm pretty certain I wired everything as it should be but obviously I did something really wrong. Should have known better when I saw the big spark when I hooked the battery cable to the terminal.

What parts did you replace again and do you connections look like this? A starter will be much louder than the SAI pump. So the engine spun and the car was in neutral?

Engine compartment fan ?

When the wires were reconnected one of them touched the wrong lead.. Now you have power going into the starter windings but not through the solenoid... I'll betcha.

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I replaced the cable that is showing on your image. That's the only connection I remember touching but it would appear somewhere along the line something was done incorrectly. The engine didn't spin thankfully. Even though I did have the car in neutral but what a disaster that could have been as the car could have lurched ahead in my garage. That's what I thought too but it was coming from within the intake manifold area so the only motor I know of in that area is the starter. That sounds exactly like the problem but how or why is my question. I'm going to disconnect the starter again tomorrow and see where I went wrong. The alternator/starter ground cable doesn't really have many options for how to install so somewhere in my installation process I must have a wire touching another one where it shouldn't be. What threw me off is that the engine isn't being engaged, it's just the sound of an electric motor which is why I assumed the SAI pump.

If the fat black cable you replaced touches the white cable terminal in the photo, it would produce the symptoms you described but the question is HOW? There's a divider in the middle separating the two terminals. I'd like to see a photo of your connection just for fun

Yes, I think a photo would be helpful as well. Just please please remember to disconnect the battery while checking out and working on the starter terminals. 12V power and the amperage is enough to weld with. Don't stick any tools in there even to just check the terminal connections w/o disconnecting the battery. Edit - I know you know that, just a reminder.

If OP installed the power lead upside down, it could bridge the plastic divider...there's not a ton of room and visibility kind of sucks, especially if you have meaty hands.

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Your wish is my command. Here are two photos showing how it's connected. One with just a photo from a bit of a distance and another where I'm pulling back the rubber boot. I might be mistaken but to me it appears to be hooked up properly, would you agree? Absolutely worth mentioning considering if this car would have lurched and I were in front of it, it could have been fatal. Thankfully I had heard stories about near misses so always disconnect the battery when working around anything like this. But thanks again for the reminder!

Yup, that's the problem. The lug needs to be rotated 90 degrees clockwise from where it is now. The big metal lug must be shorting to the exposed wire of the white cable that's close to the starter casing.

I think I found the problem!!! I noticed that on everyone else's pictures the black cable to the left was pointing to 9 o'clock while on mine it was at 7 o'clock. I thought maybe if that rubber boot wasn't protecting the entire metal portion then maybe it was grounding with the case of the starter. Well I reconnected it to point to 9 o'clock and plugged the battery back in - no motor running now! Of course I still have to put the air meter and filter back on to really test it but so far it appears that I'm on the right track. Will update again when I have everything buttoned up.

It looks as if there i a very convenient slot there to insert a big ugly piece of plastic to prevent another short ? A piece from a black plastic plant pot for example !

SUCCESS!!! Believe it or not connecting the ground cable on the starter at a 7 o'clock position will ruin your day, connect it at 9 o'clock for best results. Started the car real quickly and it was at 14 volts which is why I began doing all of this to begin with. It's a little loud to test and check out (don't want to upset the neighbors) so that'll be the task for tomorrow. Looks like I'm stuck using the beater for at least one more day, but I'm feeling the end is in sight soon.