VR6 wont start. Starter solenoids? With vid

[MarkGolf 6]

Hi all,

I had a starting issue appear when at Early Edition...

I came home and stripped the starter motor off after doing various tests. I had to get it off anyway to change the mounting body for a newly chromed one so this was an excuse to do that and give it a once over.

I tested the obvious.. Volts across the battery posts, volts across the wire terminals, volts at the starter solenoid, all showed consistent values of 12.9V..

Before the starter was stripped off and then rebuilt, you would turn the key and you could hear the starter make a sound but all power would die and clocks reset. This has happened for a while now but only now the car won't fire.After 2 or 3 attempts, you get no noise and the starter is warm to touch.

When the starter was off, everything appeared to move freely..

Could this be the solenoid? I also noticed a soldered joint look a bit melted, possibly due to the excess current draw of trying to start.

In the vid, I was ruling out the ignition switch being the issue, I ran a jumper cable from the solenoid live to the starter pin.

Click link to VID

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f99/MarkGolf/D550A813-5C05-4551-A998-5A457D7B1057-1607-000002ABD7DD4855.mp4

[wardycatt 7]

I might be totally wrong here, but the clocks resetting etc. makes me think about a short circuit or a bad earth somewhere. Would the clocks die if the car simply wasn't starting?

However, with a bad earth the starter shouldn't be drawing a current, making a noise or heating up. You'd get a single click from the switch, and no starter activity at all.

I can't play your vid with sound (at work) so I'll try and remember to do that later and come back with some more amateur advice.