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MG MGB Technical - And suddenly it went click...

I think this might have been discussed before but here goes anyway. Went to start my '78 GT the other day and it no longer turns over the starter motor just a click. What's the most likely cause/place to start? It was working fine a week before!
Jezzer

...dud battery or soiled terminals on the sarter solenoid or at the battery terminal. Richard
Richard Evans

Jezz-
That "click" that you hear is the solenoid engaging the starter drive. If after hearing that you hear nothing else and the motor doesn't try to turn over, then the starter motor isn't functioning. Time to get out the electrical tester, burn some incense, and dance around the car chanting "Oh, mighty Lucas, Spirit of Darkness and Purveyor of Pain, hear my prayer and make me worthy to know your mysteries.....".
Steve S.

Clean the battery terminals and posts, charge the battery -- reinstall and see if that fixes your clicker.
glg gimbut

Perhaps if the starter motor solenoid is moving then the problem isnt the battery as the solenoid 'switch' requires current to go 'click'.

Another component in this circuit is the starter motor relay. This could also making a clicking noise when it engages. I have the same problem on my car. It is intermittent but I have established that when the car isnt starting there is no current at the end of the wire that feeds the 'trigger' signal to the starter solenoid. I havnt got any further than that because its intermittent and if I just keep on trying it starts in the end.

Andrew
Andrew

Among the corrosion prone things to look at when your solenoid only clicks, are the battery cable ends at the battery. They often become rather grossly corroded, and as the corrosion eats at the cable clamp, it can also move into the actual cable area beneath the vinyl insulation and back up inside the clamp itself. This corrosion can actually reduce the number of wires in the cable which carry the current to the rest of the car.

Reducing the number of strands carrying the juice is like continually reducing the size of the wire and that gradually limits the amount of current (amperage) available to operate some of the high current draw items like the starter or your headlamps. You may be getting enough current to "sort of" energize the solenoid, but not nearly enough to also pull it in far enough to make good contact across the starter motor contacts to cause the starter to spin.

Another thing that can give similar symptoms is for the starter motor switch contacts (within the solenoid housing) to have become so burned and pitted that they no longer pass current easily. Well used and beat up contacts do not always engage each other except on the ragged points of a burned and battered surface, reducing the amount of contact to a very small area which cannot flow the current necessary to spin the starter motor. Most folks deal with this problem by simply replacing the solenoid rather than trying to clean up and smooth out the contacts, although that can be done if you want to. FYI Good Luck!
Bob Muenchausen

Jezzer

One other possibility IF you have one of the modern sealed batteries. These go bad with little to no warning, unlike the conventional style that you have to top off occasionally. I had this happen on a non-MG but it would start fine one day and not the next.

FWIW

Larry
Lawrence Hallanger

This thread was discussed between 03/04/2003 and 04/04/2003

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