hi folks, sounds to me like starter solniod just wanting 2nd opinions

starter motor turns, but its not engaging the flywheel, so engines not turning over, not yet been under the car to see if a cable is off, but as the starter is turning that suggests to me that power ( both starter heavy power, & solenoid light power) is going though to  he solenoid but the soleniod internal ciol is not working

what do you think

 

I don't know that car, but are there not usually two 'power' wires to the unit - one to the motor and one to the solenoid.

It is possible that the latter connection is 'bad'.  But yes otherwise it seems likely that the solenoid has failed.

The starter solenoid and the starter motor are a combined unit on your Fiesta.

The main battery positive cable (heavy red lead) goes directly to the main positive terminal of the starter solenoid. When the ignition is turned to the start position the coil of the solenoid is activated and it closes the heavy duty contact to the starter motor.

If the starter motor is powering up and running then the fault is either the pinion on the end of the starter motor shaft is broke, or worst case you have some teeth missing of the starter ring.

The solenoid and motor have to be replaced as a complete assembly.

thanks unofix, I'm still hopeing its solenoid coil fault, not sure if soleniod has to operte (ie throw pinion forward) to close mains power contacts (thus power to starter motor) OR if they are 2 different parts inside solenoid 1 throw pinion, 2 closes mains power contacts

not got old starter motor here to try

how to get the car here to work on tomorrow

7 minutes ago, the goat said:

to close mains power contacts (thus power to starter motor) OR if they are 2 different parts inside solenoid 1 throw pinion, 2 closes mains power contacts

Just one coil and one action. Solenoid coil energizes causing the pinion to be moved forward and at the end of the stroke the contacts to the starter motor are closed.

The fact you say the starter motor is running means the solenoid has energized and completed the full travel in order to close the contacts to the motor. Hence the description of "pre-engaged starter motor" meaning the pinion is already engaged before the motor starts to turn.

there is a youtube vid showing simalar fault, but his starts second try, poster says he changed starter now works

I've got to take starter out to check if its starter or pinion or teeth off flywheel

 

About 50 years ago I did have a ring gear come loose on a flywheel moving out of the range of throw of the pinion. No missing teeth. Haven’t heard of any recently though

like many of us in our late 60's had to replace the flywheel on our cars we mostly had Ford Anglias when we started driving, remember sticking flywheel in freezer and teeth gear in oven then bring the 2 together

taken old starter motor off, and the pinion does not go to the end, it sticks about halfway alond shaft

just waiting on the new one to arrive (tomorrow) hope that fixes fault

just to update anybody that reads this thread, the video above gives the sound the car made when trying to start, I've change the starter motor and everything is ok,

lots of videos onlive show how to remove the start motor, I'll add the mounting bolts on car hard to undo I used a ring spanner & extention tube to crack them loose, also I couldn't undo the connections on the starter motor so I took the starter moter out twisted it and then could easily see the connections and undid them