multimeter (multiple 12v yellow and black ground wires from my psu). When I plug in the unit and switch on the PSU, the green LED illuminates, I here a click, then about 0.5-1.0 seconds later the PSU powers down. I think there might be a short somewhere in the blade. It's 100% reproducible every time I attempt to turn the unit on. if the unit is not plugged in, with the green plug wired up, I do not have any issues and read 12v across the screws so I'm pretty sure it's not my wiring.
Any ideas?
Its the PSU. Since it is not connected to the mobo, it shuts down.
Use this method and try.
http://www.corsair.com/en/blog/testing-your-corsair-power-supply/
And if you have not so yet, read the OP again. Its mentioned in the OP
So how do we plug the blade into a PSU? First we need to tell the PSU to always be on, as there isn't a motherboard to do this. We use the old paperclip trick. http://www.corsair.com/en/blog/testing-your-corsair-power-supply Similar to that but instead of using it as a test, we'll cut the paperclip short and tape it up for safety.