i told you just to buy a starter and be done with it! damnit!

Then how did he test the starter?

Honestly, if you had power at the starter lead at the starter (likely a purple wire) with the key turned, then the starter or solenoid is beat, or your battery cables are bad - all assuming your battery puts out decent amperage.

I never saw a starter tested on a bench at a store. How do they load it? I mean they don't just throw 12v across it and see the bendix spin, do they?

^ yea... what exactly did they test? The fact that with 12v on the starter it makes noise and spins?

http://tvmedia.ign.com/tv/image/arti...1229026831.jpg Al might know how they test them in-store

http://buy1.snapon.com/products/diag...1B&dir=catalog

You can test em while they are on the engine... but I really dunno how you would simulate a load on it while on a bench.

Yes, I used a VAT 40 for years. It's off the car I am wondering. Either way it is bogus test since on the car gives you much better view, including theose pesky battery cables and impact of heat, etc. But they must have some way to simulate load - more falses = more sales.

they put some aligator clips on it depending on where the arrows on there little screen says to put them. they dont load test them, im pretty sure they bypass the solenoid and just hotwire the motor

then they do not test the starter properly. fail

I bet the contacts in the solenoid are burned and not allowing the full power to go through to the starter. I remember reading somewhere that they said majority of the starter problems are not actually starters going bad but instead solenoid issues. I know the Toyotas burn the contacts really bad and will eventually stop working properly. I took the solenoid apart on my SS396 and cleaned it up and it worked fine. On my old Toyotas, you can actually pull the contacts and rotate them 180 to use the other side since only 1/2 of it gets worn down when it engages.