The inside blower motor works, just the outside unit will not turn on. Everything is fairly new. I replaced the capacitor, contactor, and the Hard Start Kit. Everything looked fine. Niether compressor nor fan will turn on by itself. I pushed on the single pole contactor and the unit jumps to life and will cool the house. It runs fine as long as the contactor is held in. The following was answered by another member but as you can see he left out what he had done and replaced it with a dash. SEE BELOW
"Appearently there was only 24v + going to the contactor. I just took the - and screwed it to the unit housing, and it works fine now".
Can you tell me what he meant?

Sounds like the - 24 volt wire was broken going to the outside unit and they picked up a ground on the metal cabinet on the outside unit. This is not a real professional fix. Better check the wiring from the outside to the inside unit and repair as necessary.