87 supra turbo auto
 

hope someone can help here. I had what i thought was a starter problem. spent hours on my back trying to get at the top bolt and finally gave in and pulled apart the intake. had the starter rebuilt, put it all back together and still have the exact same problem.
The car has been stored for over a year and periodically i would start it to get the oils moving. one time after about 5 mins it started running rough, wouldn't idle. would restart if i feathered the gas. next time i had to move it, ran great, but that was only for about 1/2 min. After that nothing.......
all electrical systems worked, but when i turned to start... nada, zip
Then and now after changing the starter, when i cross the starter wires, all i get is a small electrical spark, no noise from the starter or seleniod.
I hear a faint click, but it sounds more like it's from inside the car.
O' on a bench test the starter worked as should. when installed, nothing
anyone have an idea?

Sounds like it could be something as simple as a discharged battery, the positive or negative terminals are not connected securely on the battery, possibly a bad positive wire running down to the starter (the large diameter one).

An easy test for the first two would be to use another vehicle, hook them up with jumper cables (large diameter, something around the 4ga size), and then try to start it

yea agreed. low power flow through the wires or a bad starter switch, dunno if the mk3 has that though, my truck does and its an 87 (why i put a push button in.. :bigthumb:).

thks for the replies, have moved on and determined the clicking sound is coming from the relay assy circuit........ supposed to click? or is that an indication of broken? clicking stops and no spark at the starter when it is pulled
I have put a meter on the battery , 12.5 volts and the same at the starter (12.5) I am, just for the fun of it all......... (ya, who says i need a life) pulling, cleaning and testing the main leads ................... see what happens

Keep in mind, you can still have good voltage at the starter with a bad connection. The problem will be when trying to pull the large current through the lines.

And I believe the Supra's have a starter relay, that may be what is clicking.

okay, i did have that in mind and a helpful mechanic that i know dropped by and help test things........ as a point of curiousity he asked if i had an alarm system........... well i do, aftermarket, and what is happening is exactly what it did before when i sat inside and armed it. problem is it won't disarm. How it got armed i do not know. The car is in a spot where there is no need for me to use it, so i just never thought about it.
the alarm i believe is overiding the start function, so no matter how many wires i pull and clean it will be the same. Well gonna drop down where i had it installed and see if they can tell me how to override so i can at least eliminate it. keep u posted, least that way if it is the problem some other poor smuck won't go what i went thru.

to those of you that helped
 

thank you. finally got it running. Was the simplest thing to do.
I went thru the tsrm list of possibilities, starter/ leads/battery/ relay and it was on the final one that i hit on it.
Was the nuetral switch. And even then the switch wasn't faulty.
I was about to pull it till i saw how buried it ws behind the exhaust, so i thought first i would clean the connections............. a shot of gunk, folled by a shot of brake cleaner and a liberal shot of elec contact cleaner. wipe it down. then when tried to start, it started when i held the key and went thru the shifter. Kicked over on my way back into nuetral. Has been good since.
I assume the connections were corroded.
thks again.