Originally Posted by Diseasel300

I recently went through this in my SDL. PO had installed a newly rebuilt starter 2 days before I took the car home. Worked perfectly every time I used it for the last year, then suddenly started this business where you'd hear the solenoid click, but no starter. Cycle the key a couple times and usually it would pull in and the starter would fire, until one day it stopped clicking, though you could tell it tried to do something because the dome light would dim slightly.

Pulled the starter and opened it up. Whoever did the rebuild had slathered the plunger on the solenoid with axle grease. Big no-no. In time it gummed up and wouldn't let the plunger move. Stripped it out and it's been fine since.

The solenoid has to make full-travel in order to close the contacts for the motor to run. If there's anything in there that prevents it from bottoming out, the contacts aren't gonna close and the motor isn't gonna spin.