No Crank Issue - Bad Starter?

[Deemar]

Hello everyone, I have a no crank issue with my car, it's a 1983 base 944.

I spent the last month replacing the entire braking system, pulled the starting motor to bleed the clutch slave and realised my slave cylinder bleed nipple is cracked off. I thought I will bleed the clutch later and reinstalled the starting motor. The car fired up first try, I drove it around the block and parked it for the night. Came back next day, turned the key, nothing. All I get is a single loud click from the starter and then the starter whirrs as it spins but it doesn't engage the flywheel.

I've had it charging on the CTEK for 2 days so the battery is fine.
I've tried jumping it from my other car, same result.
I thought maybe the clutch had air in it and wasn't engaging but it springs back just fine. I assume it's engaging.
Someone else mentioned speed / reference sensors but that wouldn't stop the engine from cranking.

Is this almost certainly a sticky bendix gear and ultimately a failing starter? Or is there something else I can try here? I need to drive this car to the shop for an unrelated appointment by end of day Wednesday (July 16).

Thanks, you guys are great!

[Tom]

Sounds like a bad starter solenoid to me. You can take the starter to most nation auto parts stores and they can test it for free. Once you sort that and get the motor cranking, you may find that you have additional issues to diagnose, but first things first.

[Deemar]

I fixed it thanks to Tom!
I disconnected the wires going to the starting motor, cleaned them up and reattached them. After that the car fired up first try! So it was just a bad connection on the starting motor which Tom had suggested elsewhere.

[Tom]

I'm glad you fixed it. I don't comment that much on Facebook, but that thread belongs in the FB hall of shame, and I couldn't take it. You were getting both barrels too: terrible advice and a scolding for asking the question. Good for you keeping your cool -- you are the kind of people we want here! Carpokes doesn't have the level of traffic FB has, and probably never will, but we have a highly knowledgeable group of 944 folks here (including lifers, pros and even the PCA's National 944 expert) so the advice you get here is really second to none. And no one here will ever scold you for asking genuine questions, we'll see to that. It's gratifying to get prompt and plentiful answers, but one high-quality answer is better than 20 bad ones.

On a separate note, if you were also having an occasional no-start issue before the starter stopped cranking, we can help you with that too. These cars tend to fail in very predictable ways.

[Deemar]

I'm glad you fixed it. I don't comment that much on Facebook, but that thread belongs in the FB hall of shame, and I couldn't take it. You were getting both barrels too: terrible advice and a scolding for asking the question. Good for you keeping your cool -- you are the kind of people we want here! Carpokes doesn't have the level of traffic FB has, and probably never will, but we have a highly knowledgeable group of 944 folks here (including lifers, pros and even the PCA's National 944 expert) so the advice you get here is really second to none. And no one here will ever scold you for asking genuine questions, we'll see to that. It's gratifying to get prompt and plentiful answers, but one high-quality answer is better than 20 bad ones.

On a separate note, if you were also having an occasional no-start issue before the starter stopped cranking, we can help you with that too. These cars tend to fail in very predictable ways.

Thanks! I have Autism so I ask lots and lots of questions to understand everything and people often get mad at me for asking so many questions. Thanks for your patience.

I'm putting everything on YouTube so you'll eventually see it all over at Autoism.

[Tom]

I'm glad you fixed it. I don't comment that much on Facebook, but that thread belongs in the FB hall of shame, and I couldn't take it. You were getting both barrels too: terrible advice and a scolding for asking the question. Good for you keeping your cool -- you are the kind of people we want here! Carpokes doesn't have the level of traffic FB has, and probably never will, but we have a highly knowledgeable group of 944 folks here (including lifers, pros and even the PCA's National 944 expert) so the advice you get here is really second to none. And no one here will ever scold you for asking genuine questions, we'll see to that. It's gratifying to get prompt and plentiful answers, but one high-quality answer is better than 20 bad ones.

On a separate note, if you were also having an occasional no-start issue before the starter stopped cranking, we can help you with that too. These cars tend to fail in very predictable ways.

Thanks! I have Autism so I ask lots and lots of questions to understand everything and people often get mad at me for asking so many questions. Thanks for your patience.

I'm putting everything on YouTube so you'll eventually see it all over at Autoism.

Well, trust me when I say you didn't do a thing wrong! There was nothing remotely annoying about your post or questions, and you handled yourself amazingly well.