starter motor's been replaced - giving problems disengaging

Hi everyone,

As documented in this thread at Saabscene:

I've replaced the defective starter in my 1983 900S with the early-style 'H' engine (it was a lot of work with the tight access, hard to get to bolts, etc.), and the new starter (it's a factory-rebuilt one that's been on a shelf for a few years) gave problems yesterday when I cranked it for the first time.

The first couple of times it would not disengage, even with the key turned back to 'off'! That suggests that the solenoid on the replacement starter might be having trouble retracting the engagement gear mechanism off the engine's ring gear, and about the only thing I can think of is that it needs some lubrication on the sliding shaft for the engagement gear.

I dont think the wiring is wrong as I set it up exactly the same was as it was connected to the solenoid on the old starter motor. What I can't find is any documentation on the fitting of the auxilliary starter solenoid relays into C900's. The Bentley book doesn't seem to have anything on it, and the few web resources which I found useful didn't say anything about the auxilliary relay either.

Could the problem by the wiring to the solenoid and/or relay? It worked fine prior to the old starter starting to show problems with the solenoid engaging the ring gear (it didn't seem to be mis-aligned).

I'll post more info here and in the Saabscene thread if I can up with anything conclusive.

Craig.