starter is spinning, not engaging. please help diagnose, event soon!

[jrsink]

after melting the harness in my friend's KA and completely switching out to a new complete/non-ghetto harness, still no start. no crank at all.car was running absolutely perfect until the harness got damaged.

only thing that happens is the starter is spinning but not engaging.we also switched starters too, same ****. just spinning. sounds like an old rc car or windup matchbox racer...?anyone; mechanics?

[Chaotic_Warlord]

First off the starter you switched to was it brand new? If so it may be bad.

If your starter is good and it just spins but the car doesn't turn over you are looking at an ignition issue. Your best bet is to go through the entire ignition system and check every piece or replace everything one at a time until you get ignition. Start with your cap and rotor. If your ignition system is good and/or new and the car still isn't turning over then check out your fuel since it takes fuel and spark to start to a car. if everything checks out there then you have a much larger and complicated problem, meaning either the ECU is bad or there is something wrong with the engine internal that won't let it turn over.

I'm not a mechanic but I have lots of experience with starters and starting issues. The easiest and most overlooked thing is to go through and make sure all connections are on and secure, it may sound stupid but you may have forgotten to plug something in or something may have come loose or disconnected.

[kona240]

it sounds like ur starter is bypassing ur solenoid. did you replace ur starter with a new one or a used one? check the back on the starter and make sure the solenoid is not getting bypassed.

[BUILT S13]

you might want to re-check ur wiring, like he said, you might be accidently bypassin ur solenoid.

[jrsink]

thanks guys, we'll see...

[ShadowSkills]

i am having the exact same problem. 92 240 coupe 5spd. as far as i can tell, the solenoid is not engaging, the starter motor is spinning but the gear is not protruding into the flywheel. just a lot of whining noise. however if i am persistant, it sometimes turns the motor over... then seems to sit on the flywheel for a second then retract. im thinking its just sticking or the solenoid is garbage... and i would say in your case it is highly possible that you have two bad starters becuase i have found this problem to be very common in early japanese cars.

[frosti108]

well thats about the same sound a broken timing chain makes too lol

[ShadowSkills]

lol yeah not a timing chain problem... car works fine when it eventually starts... and yeah the starter motor IS a small electric motor, however it has two components... motor and solenoid... in my case: motor works fine... solenoid does not. right now it seems to start fine first thing in the morning... then dead the rest of the day. Im guessing it is a problem in my ignition switch.. its giving power to the motor and not the solenoid (like vancouver said 12v from ignition is not working.) could this have anything to do with the clutch interlock switch? should i be able to start my car normally without putting in the clutch?

[ShadowSkills]

Ok so.... i finally got some time to get my car on the hoist and pull out my starter. Upon disassembly of my starter i found the problem (for me at least). The solenoid was and has been working fine... the problem was the "shift lever" as the FSM calls it which is a PLASTIC lever, kinda looks like a pickle fork, was melted and disformed. The plastic lever is connected to the solenoid, which pulls up on the lever which in turn pushes the pinion (the gear that connects to the flywheel) into the flywheel. Mine was so messed up that it actually didnt push the pinion it just slipped over it, so i took it out, and with a blow torch, I (very carefully) reshaped the shift lever so that it would push the pinion out. With the starter removed, i realized that the pinion was moving freely, if i turn the starter upside down, the pinion would slide back and forth, this is not right. After i modified the plastic shift lever, the pinion stayed in place as i inverted it. SWEET. reinstalled the starter motor and BINGO it rolled the flywheel over no problem and i had a running car !Sorry for the jibberish, but i hope this helps you out the same as me !

[jrsink]

gave me some good ideas!

when i removed my starter, the teeth on it had gouges about all the way around it

[vancouverbc]

The starter motor gets power at the same time as the solenoid. The starter motor can start while the solenoid fails to move or be energized.If solenoid does not move or get power, the shift lever will no be able to cause starter to engage engine. Even when the starter motor and solenoid work, you can still have mechanical problems with shift lever that causea failure of starter to engage engine. Also, the starter needs a healthybattery to work properly.

Question: If the solenoid gets stuck with starter engaged to engine, does starter motor burn out? I have never heard of this happening.

[ShadowSkills]

the pinion just stayed engaged on the flywheel for a second or two.. no real damage, although it could explain the chewed up gears that jrsink is talking about... maybe it wasnt fully engaging?