I've done alot of searching and found alot of posts on this... But none that were ever resolved. Any ideas would be appreciated, I'm getting on this today. If anyone knows of this same exact issue being resolved I would love a link to the thread.

Just as I said, I'll turn the key over and "click" from the solenoid, but no crank. When it DOES start, it fires right up like a champ. It's been doing it intermittently for 2 years now, but it's recently gotten bad. Then, out of nowhere yesterday I started it outside my buddies house and it had a gnashing sound after the motor was started (like the starter was running on for a second, very lightly hitting the ring gear). I go home, come out a few hours later and "click" worse than ever before. I'm pretty sure the starter is finally just toasted so I'm going to get a new one, but I need to solve this "click" before it eats my new one too.

Things it's not...

1. Ignition Switch/wire in the column - I wired up a starter switch. It worked flawlessly for a couple days, then started doing the same thing. I've been using the starter switch for months however and it just recently started doing it regularly like it did with the key.

2. Starter/Solenoid itself - Yes, I've had two different starters (two different brands also) and it did not fix the problem, so I took them back.

3. Shims - It was the first thing I tried. I shimmed it out until the starter was barely skipping on the ring gear teeth before I aborted the use of all shims, since the problem stayed about as consistent as before.

4. Connections at the starter itself - I went through all that when I was swapping new starters on there last summer.

5. Battery/cables - Tried that, all new, still same thing.

Today I'm going to get a few fusible links to swap them out (mine look ok but I have to try SOMETHING), clean up everything real good, and verify good ground connections. Any ideas would be great.

 

Ive had a problem like this on a BMW in that case it was just a bad relay....dont know if the helps at all.

 

check for voltage drops across the entire starting system. dont forget the ground side.

 

well, the starter finally WAS toast after a year and a half of "clickclickclickclickclickstart". My fusible links were looking burnt and halfway hanging on. After I got the new starter I got it in and started the car and "poof" fusible links up in smoke (the new ones I installed while installing the starter).

So I got to inspecting closely and the wire the fusible link was protecting was chafed raw and grounding out (really badly now that I was under there pulling on the harness and such during the starter swap). So I got some liquid tape on that and some electric tape along with a little wiring loom modification. But then it was dark so I couldn't get some new fusible links in.

It started perfectly for the one time it got started, but since it's an intermittent problem I won't know for sure until it's fixed for a couple days. So today I'm off to get some fusible links and swap those out