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MG MGF Technical - Starter motor dead

Hi, hope someone can help. The starter motor has stopped working on my '96 MGF VVC. The battery is fully charged and healthy, and the car will bump-start without any trouble, but there is no life from the starter motor when I turn the key to start.

A search of the archive said it's probably a bad connection on the starter solenoid, but I had a quick look this morning and couldn't find anything wrong. I was expecting to find a spade connector that had worked loose, but all the wires to the solenoid appear to be attached with ring terminals and are all secure. There is in fact a spade terminal on the back of the solenoid, but nothing is connected to it (and I couldn't see any loose wire that might have fallen off it).

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance for any help.
J Nuttgens

Below the spade terminal that you can see, reach down (take your watch off - it's a narrow gap) and you'll find another with a connecting lead attached. Pull it off and give both parts a good clean. That'll probably do it.
Steve Madden

And do not bump start - jumped cam belt and unburnt fuel ending up in cat - not a good idea!
Julian

Other possibilities, the starter relay may have quit. My daughters 96 has an external relay wired in parallel to solve the problem. The braided lead to the spade terminal was corroded, I had to chop it off and crimp a new terminal on. You can test the starter motor by ensuring the car is in neutral, turn on the ignition then use a long insulated screwdriver to short the solenoid terminal to the main power terminal.
Ken Waring

Has the 'firm tap' to the solenoid housing been tried? If it's the solenoid stuck, then replacing the assembly is the simplest solution, since it would be liable to happen again, undoubtedly at a particularly annoying moment...
Mike Hankin

Thanks all - I found the spade connector, gave it a wiggle (it's a tight fit - I couldn't pull the connector off by hand) and it solved the problem. Hopefully a blast of WD40 will stop it corroding any more, but if it does happen again then I'll know what to do!
J Nuttgens

This thread was discussed between 20/02/2007 and 26/02/2007

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