Howdi y'all. Just wanna have a whinge about the Rustylux. I recently spent a few $$$ on the old girl, sort of a birthday of all the things I usually neglect to do. I bought her some new injectors, got the fuel pump serviced, new battery, replaced the timing belt, full service, some 2nd hand 31x10.5 rims and tyres and a new fuel filter.

It gave the old girl a noticeable gain in power (being a gutless diesel every little bit helps) and got rid of the black smoke/bad fuel economy. So I finish telling all my mates about how well the old girls running so much better. On the drive home I stopped by the chemist shop and could smell a little diesel fuel. Just figured it was a bit of excess from burping air from injector lines and didn't worry about it.

Went to start her up to drive home and CLICK CLICK. The starter solenoid did a big poo and would refuse to start. Popped the hood to have a look and the fuel filter leaked about 2 litres of diesel all over the starter motor. So after an hour of mucking about I finaly bit the bullet and got her towed home. $100 later and shes back in the driveway. Nothing worse than watching your rig being towed home behind a tow truck, especially from somewhere boring like the shops rather than a trail. The engineer who designed my ute needs a good clump over the head with a lump of 4x2. They mounted the huge fuel filter over the starter.

So I'm thinking my starter is up poo creek unless you guys can suggest anything. The solenoid contacts look good so I'm guessing the brushes/windings have given up the ghost after being submerged in diesel. I'm sorta low on cash at the moment (due to splurging on the lump of crud) so any suggestions would be muchly appreciated. Sorry for the mini novel.

Break ou the volt meter and check the solenoid voltage when you hit the key (and it clicks). Might not be the starter after all:
http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/Starter.shtml#EasyTest

I would just pull it off and dry it out. A lot of things electrical don't like to work when they are wet with the voltage seems to want to go places except where it's suppose too.

Of course, I don't know how diesel handles current, compared to water. But removing it, drying it off, and replacing the solenoid contacts while you got it off, certainly couldn't hurt.

At least the fuel filter wasn't located over the exhaust. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

spray it out with carb cleaner.. some lube in it.. vs brake cleaner.. give it a shot.. what the heck.

Thanks Roger... you're a lifesaver. Big voltage drop in starter circuit. I bypassed all the factory wiring and used a 50 amp relay from my ford falcon wreck car and 4 gauge wire. I kept the main + wire from the battery though. I found the fuel leak over the starter too and rectified it. I was going to get a push button starter switch for it but I'm running out of dashboard room for switches... lol

MissoriMan... I tried carb cleaner and some CRC on the starter before calling the tow truck... didn't do anything but give me a little buzz haha.

The thing that peeved me is that once I got her towed home and up the driveway I tried to start it again and it started perfect but then died again.

Thanks for all the help guys.... you saved my wallet and probably my marriage.. lol

Usually just adding the relay in between the ignition switch and starter is fine. The relay pulls about 1% of the current that the solenoid does and with the load taken off the ignition switch, it should work fine. I put a relay on mine about 4 years ago and it starts perfect now, before it used to act up from time to time.