[RESOLVED] Starter spins but doesnt crank

[bigal07]

I just picked up a 1990 talon tsi for dirt cheap, guy said the starter was bad and he was moving so had to get rid of it. i tested the starter by hooking it up to a battery charger and it works just fine, i pulled the starter off my 95 gsx and put it on the 90 and the starter just spins and wont engage. I stuck my fingers into the starter hole and all the teeth are on the flywheel, had someone crank the car and watch under through the access plate and the flywheel doesnt spin so no timing belt issue. My only other guess is the power wire because i jumped the terminals with a screwdriver and same thing, also put a jumper wire to the signal wire straight to battery pos and same problem. Any suggestions? ground or power issue maybe?

It engages and spins with a battery charger with the neg on the starter housing and pos on the power terminal and then a jumper wire from the signal wire to the pos terminal. In the car i used a jumper wire from the signal terminal to the pos battery terminal and also tried jumping it with a screwdriver from pos terminal to signal on the starter and just spun both tries. So i took the signal wire to the ignition out of the equation.

 

[dsmfa9nutter]

It spins but doesn't crank the flywheel? You should find out if the previous owner replaced the flywheel, he may have used the smaller awd flywheel.

 

[98gst14b]

Try this....I have had a similar problem when I bought a dsm. Are you sure its the starter your hearing? It maybe the fuel pump turning on and the starter get no power to the solenoid at all.....what kind of fuel pump does it have?

 

[bomper04]

bench testing a starter is not an accurate way of testing a starter's pull and hold-in windings. remember, the starter has to engage the starter ring gear on the flywheel which is a load.

+1 on the smaller flywheel

 

[bigal07]

I'm absolutly certian there isnt a different flywheel, there are no mods on it at all, and i used a starter that im certain is good. im going to put in new power and ground wires right now.

Oh and 98gst14b, i had my head under the car when i had someone turn the key to check if the flywheel was moving so the noise was the starter

So heres the story of the problems. I raised the car on a hoist at work and saw there was no driveshaft. The car has a rear axle but no driveshaft or transfer case. this guy put a fwd tranny in a talon tsi. so i pulled the tranny out and saw the destruction... the clutch disc was not aligned right at all and there were 2 bolts holding the tranny onto the motor, the tranny was misaligned so bad that the flywheel dug 1/4 inch into the trans case and ruined the input shaft. all in all im not upset because i just pulled the motor out since its a good 6 bolt with 30k on it so im just going to sell that, also has a evo3 16g on it im selling. i guess we were all way off and couldnt of seen this one coming haha. thanks for the help guys.