Starter clicks, won't turn

[dn010]

More often then not, when I go to start the engine, my starter will just click but will not turn, sounds like the gear is extending and meshing with the flywheel it just won't turn. I have to try again repeatedly and it will finally go, sometimes after one try and sometimes after a dozen. Starter / solenoid must be bad - so I changed the starter. Problem not solved. I looked at the wiring and didn't see anything obvious. Is this a typical symptom of a bad ignition switch?

[Bitsyncmaster]

How is your battery? When trying to start what do you read for voltage?

[dn010]

Battery is AGM, about a year old now. I will test the voltage when I'm hitting the starter tomorrow. When the starter does engage, it is a nice healthy cranking.

[David T]

Battery is AGM, about a year old now. I will test the voltage when I'm hitting the starter tomorrow. When the starter does engage, it is a nice healthy cranking.

Is your car an early one? There was a Service Bulletin about the wiring to the starter for the early cars. If you hear the starter solenoid loudly clicking but the starter motor doesn't run it is usually one of 4 things. Either the solenoid is bad and the internal switch that connects the starter motor to the battery is bad or the starter motor has a "dead" spot in it or the brushes are sticking or worn out. In all cases the starter comes out. Once you pull it and get it on the floor you can "hit" it with jumper cables and see what happens. Sometimes hitting the starter with a hammer can get it to work but if that does work it still means the starter is coming out. These days you can't trust even new parts, it is possible the one you put in has a problem too. Get a voltmeter and see if the starter motor (the connection AFTER the solenoid, not the one connected to the battery) gets battery voltage when the solenoid clicks.

[DMC5180]

More often then not, when I go to start the engine, my starter will just click but will not turn, sounds like the gear is extending and meshing with the flywheel it just won't turn. I have to try again repeatedly and it will finally go, sometimes after one try and sometimes after a dozen. Starter / solenoid must be bad - so I changed the starter. Problem not solved. I looked at the wiring and didn't see anything obvious. Is this a typical symptom of a bad ignition switch?

What Starter do have? OE Paris Rhone or the newer light weight version.

Another place to check is the Start inhibit relay in the back row of the relay compartment. Pull it out and make sure all the wire terminals are fully seated up in the housing. I have friend who experienced a similar issue. We discovered one female space terminal for the wire to the starter was pushed down out of the housing but was making some contact with the relay terminal this made a poor connection. Per a service bulletin you should have a brown wire going from the that relay housing to the Fan thermal trip breaker. If wired properly, that breaker should have 4 wires attached to it. 3 with black terminal housings and 1 that looks out of place. That odd small brown wire is the 12V feed to the starter solenoid.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dn010]

What Starter do have? OE Paris Rhone or the newer light weight version.

Another place to check is the Start inhibit relay in the back row of the relay compartment. Pull it out and make sure all the wire terminals are fully seated up in the housing. I have friend who experienced a similar issue. We discovered one female space terminal for the wire to the starter was pushed down out of the housing but was making some contact with the relay terminal this made a poor connection. Per a service bulletin you should have a brown wire going from the that relay housing to the Fan thermal trip breaker. If wired properly, that breaker should have 4 wires attached to it. 3 with black terminal housings and 1 that looks out of place. That odd small brown wire is the 12V feed to the starter solenoid.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well shit I think you win. I just discovered the same thing, connector going to the starter was pushed down. I pushed it up and it *clicked* into place. Started it now a dozen times and it has not missed a beat.

I wonder how the hell that connector got like that, I have not messed with these relays in decades but I think I?m really due to get a new kit to change them out so I will look into that.

Hopefully it will stay solid and is not just some sort of coincidence. Either way, happy BTTF day, I can go drive around now.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20251021/d360f61ea9962baa25f1205e9e1407f3.jpg

[Bitsyncmaster]

When you install relays, don't just push them down. Rock them left, right, back and forth while lightly pressing down. The socket pins "float" so some wires pull the pin not centered. Rocking them lets the relay center the pins.

[DMC5180]

Well shit I think you win. I just discovered the same thing, connector going to the starter was pushed down. I pushed it up and it *clicked* into place. Started it now a dozen times and it has not missed a beat.

I wonder how the hell that connector got like that, I have not messed with these relays in decades but I think I?m really due to get a new kit to change them out so I will look into that.

Hopefully it will stay solid and is not just some sort of coincidence. Either way, happy BTTF day, I can go drive around now.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20251021/d360f61ea9962baa25f1205e9e1407f3.jpg

Your welcome [emoji847]

Tip: whenever I experience a terminal back out of its housing, I normally bend the terminal locking tab out a bit further than normal to ensure it solidly clicks back in then do a little tug test.

The clue, to me, was when you stated you had changed the starter, but the problem persisted.

The OE starters are also known for the solenoid end caps to melt, which leads to intermittent Starter operations.

Usually the contact bolt with the starter motor wire gets hot, this causes the plastic to liquify enough that the Split lock washer under nut expands effectively sinking the head of the contact bolt deeper into the moulded cavity inside the cap. At that point, contact bridge/bar isn?t able to complete the circuit between the two contact bolts. You?ll get Solenoid clicks with no motor spin.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dn010]

I had the whole row unscrewed so I was able to put pressure on the wires/terminals from underneath when inserting the relays, making sure they didn't back out. I did the tug test too prior to installing them, still have no idea how that one terminal could have backed out but stranger things have happened. I'll get some more testing in this weekend when I have to get out on the road to get some tuning done on the engine. I'm sure I'll be shutting it down and starting it up a lot, giving it a good workout. I'll be satisfied and convinced it is fixed after that.

I dumped the OEM starter probably 20 years ago. I've had the smaller Eagle version in there since then. The latest was a reman but when I thought the starter was the problem, I bought an installed a brand new Eagle starter instead of a reman this time. Now I have a spare kicking around that I need to figure out what to do with.

[82DMC12]

Well shit I think you win. I just discovered the same thing, connector going to the starter was pushed down. I pushed it up and it *clicked* into place. Started it now a dozen times and it has not missed a beat.

I wonder how the hell that connector got like that, I have not messed with these relays in decades but I think I?m really due to get a new kit to change them out so I will look into that.

Hopefully it will stay solid and is not just some sort of coincidence. Either way, happy BTTF day, I can go drive around now.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20251021/d360f61ea9962baa25f1205e9e1407f3.jpg

I had that exact same problem for a number of years, in fact it was very hard to predict when the car would fail to start, and it seems like it would fail a couple times in a row and then work fine for a few starts before failing again. I was never able to figure out the issue until FINALLY it failed a few times in a row and I was able to get a multimeter on the starter and finally figured it out. Same issue, the female terminal had pushed downward too far and was probably BARELY touching the relay.

[dn010]

Just to finish this thread out, I have not had a problem since fixing that connection. Thank you all for help with this, who knows how long it would have taken me to identify that being the problem.