Well I whipped the starter motor out and took it to the auto electrician.
He tested it and reckons it is fine (a little noisy though).
He seems to think the voltage coming to the starter might be low.
He wouldnt tell me any more than that. I think he wanted to get some money out of me for further info. The hide of him!
What would cause the low voltage?
The only 2 things it could be would be the relay or the immobiliser. As far as I understand, they are both essentially just "on/off switches". I wouldnt have thought these would be the problem.
Can any of you guys shed some light on it?

i reckon hes trying to pull your leg, but i cant solve your prob

Quote:
Well, on a B110, there is no starter relay except the solenoid on the starter. The solenoid has the relay built-in (the copper bits discussed above).

Just take the starter apart and look at it. If the solenoid contacts are bad, the starter might work fine w/o a load on it. But when trying to turn the engine, the contacts spark out. Just like a dirty battery terminal, they might run the headlights, but stop altogether when you crank the engine.

Not sure what an immobiliser is, what's another word for that?

Quote:You can check like this: put your voltmeter directly on the battery terminals. You should get near 12 volts. Now put the voltmeter earth lead on bare metal surface of engine (like the aluminum manifold) and the other lead on the big solenoid terminal opposite the battery cable. It should read zero. Have someone attempt to start it (be careful of moving parts). The voltage should go from zero to 9-12 (?) volts or thereabouts. If it stays at zero or close to zero with the key held at start, that would indicate a bad connection somewhere. In start, the solenoid coppers should be directly connecting the battery cable to the output cable, and it should read battery voltage. Most likely the bad connection is inside the solenoid, but could also be a bad earth or bad cable connection.

My ute has a relay between the ignition and the starter. It is not a standard item.
It is screwed on up near the headlight relay.
When you turn the key, and it doesnt start, you can hear this relay click.
An immobiliser is an engine immobiliser. (Part of a car alarm)

Oh yeah, immobiliser, I don't use car alarms ... forgot about that.

Quote:
As a test, bypass it. Bolt the two cables on the relay directly together. If it now starts, you know it's the relay or the wiring for the relay.

Most likely, the relay needs replacing.

You'll need to learn how to relays work,
to determine if it's something else.

Chris

Already had a pretty fair idea about how relays work.
Replaced the relay, and it seems to be behaving itself now.
Hopefully it will stay this way

Cheers
Wayne