Hi Guys,

Been driving my GSL-SE for the past month after it sat for a year without any problems. Running like it was brand new. This morning I went to start it and forgot to put clutch in (and as we know it will turn over without clutch in) and only for a second before I realized it was in gear and it turned over. I disengaged the key quickly. Put clutch in and tried again and there is nothing there. Slight sound but nothing from the starter. No spin, chug nothing. Just a click. Battery is brand new and everything seems to be working electronically in car. Any suggestions? I have never had a starter issue at all in the past so thinking a wire or something must have come off when car lurched forward. Possibly solenoid??

 

Solenoid. (*or could be your fusible links or ignition fuse - so check those first!)

The way these (and most) starters work is that the 'Bendix' solenoid is designed to be energized first under 12v power, and that's to throw the pinion into the flywheel ring gear. Once the pinion is seated, then the solenoid can make contact with the motor switch to allow the motor to turn. This prevents the pinion getting chewed up or chewing up the ring gear from spinning while it's being seated.

Very straightforward design, but what happened in your case is that the car lurched and stopped the pinion from spinning the ring gear, and in doing so put heavy current load across the motor switch and/or the solenoid, frying it. You can try replacing the solenoid first and see if that fixes it, but my guess is you'd replace that at $40-50 and reinstall the starter only to find that the motor switch contacts are carboned up or burned, and you can only replace those with a new starter.

So, looks like a new starter is in your future. My last one made it about 80k miles, and then started getting a sticky solenoid that wouldn't fire all the way until you whacked it from underneath with a hammer, freeing up the solenoid to contact the motor switch - very annoying, and a new starter fixed it. Good luck,

Oh, and post back with your fix.

 

Thanks so much for the detailed response. I gave the starter a couple whacks with a hammer and that did the job. Well I mean did the job and allowed me to start the car. It started a few times and then needed another whack... So today I am online ordering a starter!

Thanks again for the explanation as to what happened. I do appreciate it!

 

Just a note that reman starters are very unreliable. I went through a couple last time I had one to
replace until I got a winner.