> To summarize the problem, my '79 Spit won't start. It had been
> sitting in the garage for a little over a week. I tried to start it
> and the motor turned fine, but would not start. I tried several
> times, and then suddenly, CLICK CLICK came from the solenoid and....
Either the starter is big-time dead or the connections from the solenoid
aren't getting joice to the starter. You should be able to test this by
putting the car in neutral and using jumper cables from the battery to jump
directly to the starter hot-lead. (BE CAREFUL! ALWAYS WEAR GOGGLES. You
have the power of a welder in your hands and it can spit molten metal in your
face in a literal flash.)
One other weird idea. My Lotus would sometimes "click" but not engage the
starter, despite having a perfectly good solenoid and starter. It turns out
that dirt/oil had eventually made the ground-to-ground contact between the
starter body and the engine a poor electrical path and there wasn't enough
current flow to kick it in.
I would carefully clean every connection and try it again. Of course, you
need to pull the starter to do this, so you might as well have it tested
while you're at it.
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