No starter condition

[Tom Nas]

"Phil Payne" <quattro at isham-research.com> wrote:

>Turn the key, and everything lights up but the starter doesn't fire.  No
>click even from the
>solenoid.  Batteries are fine.
>
>I've previously found two causes for this condition.  The first I saw was
>corrosion of the
>short braided grounding strap between the starter solenoid and the casing
>- that was about
>eight years ago on the MB.  The second is a failure of the ignition key
>switch - I've long
>assumed this is caused by heavily-loaded keyrings.

You assume right, I've seen several failures which could be attributed to
the owner's key rings. Since my car keys are on a separate key ring with no
more than three keys, I've been spared.

>We can exclude immobilisers - neither car has one.
>
>Before I commit a weekend (I need to put new brushes into the alternator
>regulator anyway) has
>anyone seen other causes of this phenomenon?

Is the starter solenoid actually OK? Oh, and I've had a starter jam, didn't
even click somehow (seems weird to me, but that's what it did). 'Fixed' it
by rocking the car back and forth in gear, somehow that freed the starter.

Tom