Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

PS : When I talk about clicking below, I'm talking about the starter solenoid clicking - NOT the clicking you might hear in the dash. If you you have a click in the dash but no click in the solenoid you have an immobiliser or ignition or fuse or wiring problem, and need to see an auto electrician or trace the fault.


First things first

Disconnect the battery as we are working with a live 12v cable





Then remove the cables to the starter



Then the 2 bolts that hold the starter in place



You can now have this in your hand plus the heatshield



The clicking that people hear is due this cylinder getting stuck in this tube
I took close-ups to show my wear over 260k kilometers of use.
(I'm pretty confident my starter and solenoid is original as it's branded mitsu and people don't replace originals - usually )

The clicking ( and not cranking ) is due to either
- excessive sticking of the cylinder in the tube due to rust ( long standing ) or dirt
- lack of 12v to the solenoid due to old wiring or bad ground or flat battery

If you get the dreaded repetitive clicking it is usually a flat battery as the battery has enough power to get the solenoid going, but as soon as the connection is made and the starter motors draws current, the battery loses voltage and the solenoid disengages. Then the battery has voltage again and the process starts over.....click..click..click..click..click

The cylinder


The tube


When the solenoid engages it also pushes the gear teeth towards the flywheel ring gear ( otherwise the starter would always turn when the motor is running and would wear very quickly ), when the 12v is removed from the solenoid the spring pushes the solenoid back towards the original position where current does not flow to the starter.





And then the inside of the starter



I'm not an expert and the info given here might be wrong. I'm open to corrections.

I take no responsibility for the correctness or accuracy of info given above.