bendix stuck

[roffey]

so... I did give it a tap, not a whap just a few taps with the hammer and it did not fix the problem. The starter is now clicking as if the battery was low and I know my battery is good a with a full charge. I jumped from my truck and still no change..so you guys think it might be the solenoid... and I believe that is on the starter so I will have to take the starter off and replace or test it.

[phatdaddy]

can you take a known good battery or jump box and go straight to the starter?

[smokeonthewater]

my "old style" GM starters all the way back into the early 70's all had permanent magnets... don't beat on it.... you can add busted starter to whatever other problem you may have

there are TWO solenoids... one on the starter and one remote mounted
USUALLY it is the remote one that causes issues.... you COULD also have corroded connections

You can trouble shoot this with a volt meter and a helper to turn the key

hook the positive to the battery positive and use the negative to trace the path of electricity .... at each test point the voltage should drop from near 12v to near 0v when the key is turned to start.

You want to test the large power connection on the starter solenoid mounted on the starter, and the "s" terminal on the same solenoid.
If both of those pass then the problem is within the starter and or it's mounted solenoid
If the large terminal fails you have either a bad battery or bad connection(s) in the battery cables (check both pos and ground)
If the "s" terminal fails move the test to the slave solenoid and repeat. Next test will be the ign switch