Hi peeps

I have been told by a couple of people that the cog in the starter motor is supposed to spin quite freely both ways by hand!
I was told today that they are not! I was given this starter motor tonight and it does the same as my one and only spins 1 way.

Which is it?


Both ways or just one way?

Thanks

 

only spins one way as it push's it's self out when you crank the it over

 

yeah only spin free one way

 

What they said one way, if it spun both ways it wouldn't turn the engine over!!
It freewheels one way so when started the ring gear doesn't overspeed the starter, whilst you release the key.
tabetha

 

Thank you peeps

So I now have another question.

If I can turn the pully's via the bottom pully and when I turn the key it just clicks (rather loudly) what else could be the culprit of the car not starting?

Its getting a bit confusing now

 

sounds as though either the attached solenoid is fault or the main heavy red live wire is broken from the battery to the starter

 

I disconected the live wire from the battery and run a seperate wire from the live terminal to the sarter motor and it still clicked.

 

Is it a bosch starter ?
Could be a few things, instead bridge the terminals from the battery(input) and output to the motor, with a 50p or similar, does the motor spin, it won't engage as the solenoid has not been activated.
If it spins it may be ok, and could just be a stuck solenoid, then try a wire direct from the battery input to solenoid direct onto the wire where the ignition feed goes.
It sounds as though power is not getting through fully, plenty voltage but not enough current, sometimes the solenoid terminal builds up a high resistance, so doesn't hold the solenoid contacts(inside) firm enough to bridge the contact points inside for current to flow across into motor part.
Sometimes the laquer comes off flakes off the solenoid piston surround, the "tube" effectively surrounding the solenoid piston causing it to jam, normally worse when hot if this is the case, roll some old knackered 1000grit wet and dry paper in a roll, so the rough side is outer most, oil it and clean the inside of the solenoid to remove all the loose flaky pieces, drench afterwards with wd40 or similar, and dry out, will be perfect for another few years after that.
tabetha
tabetha

 

I will try what you have suggested tomorrow in the day ligh Tabetha

But I did try to use a wire direct from the negative terminal and the positive terminal on the battery direct to the starter motor. Now I don't know if this would do anything or not, but nothing happened! No click, no spark no nothing. I have put the battery back on charge again and I will see what will happen tomorrow, but would anything happen with direct terminal contact?

 

tbh it's very hard to get a good enough contact using jump leads.
At the worst it will need new brushes, very easy to do, around Ł10-Ł15 then gently undercut armature grooves, on some you just replace the whole brush box as it is cheaper, the worst thing that can happen is the nose cone bearing seizes, but as spinning it's not this.
tabetha

 

So best thing to do is to put it in the engine and hook the battery up properly?

Not a problem

Thank you

 

Well I put the newer starter motor on this morning and connected the battery back up and turned the key!

It turned over I am happy now as the worse wasn't true

Just got to change the matrix over now lol