Car (2000 Ford Taurus) Troubleshooting please

[Draven]

So my car is acting up, and I am upstate at my girlfriend's with no transportation... and my car croaked. It was having trouble starting so I assumed it was the battery... went to Autozone and they checked the battery, it was almost fully charged, and charged up fine. Today (well, yesterday now) it was a little rough to start, and when I came out of wal-mart, it wouldn't start. It wouldn't jump-start either. Turning the key results in a SINGLE click from under the hood.

The 'live' cable from the battery is a little loose... its fully tightened but if you wiggle and jerk it, it will pop off the terminal. but a jumpstart box, or another vehicle, connected to the car won't start it so even if it is affecting the ability to start, it may not be the terminal (but I am fine with replacing it)

So... starter or solenoid? or maybe even the starter relay?

I am supposed to be driving home thursday and need to get my car up and running... sigh...

And if anyone is nearby and can help, even running my gimp ass to autozone, it would be great... (Sacramento)

[Draven]

Can't shoot her, left range bag at home...

but yeah, no startie now, CLICK when you turn the ignition...

[Erik]

but yeah, no startie now, CLICK when you turn the ignition...

I used to have a car like that. When it failed to start in the morning I pushed it out of the parking lot and down a hill. When it started rolling I jumped into it and jumpstarted it as if I was being towed. It worked, but I don't really recommend making it a habit. (Would that even work on more modern cars?)

[Draven]

only on a manual transmission

[Erik]

only on a manual transmission

yeah of course... Sorry, I keep assuming that every car has manual transmissions. Over here it's more or less the rule to have manual, there are very few auto and those are almost only used by people that for some medical reason cant use a manual. It's just the last few years that I hear people actually getting automatic transmissions without a medical need for it.
Of course, when you have the kind of cars I had back when I started driving, it's pretty nice to have a manual transmission. We had to push start them fairly frequently.

[Rustyv]

Can't shoot her, left range bag at home...

but yeah, no startie now, CLICK when you turn the ignition...

Sounds like a bad starter. Autozone or any of the other auto parts stores should have a replacement. Or if you can get it out of the engine take it down there and they'll test it for you.

Now... As for getting the starter out of the car... Hopefully it's not as bad as my grandfather's old working on my grandfather' old Taurus.

Good luck

[Draven]

Can't shoot her, left range bag at home...

but yeah, no startie now, CLICK when you turn the ignition...

Sounds like a bad starter. Autozone or any of the other auto parts stores should have a replacement. Or if you can get it out of the engine take it down there and they'll test it for you.

Now... As for getting the starter out of the car... Hopefully it's not as bad as my grandfather's old working on my grandfather' old Taurus.

Good luck

Yeah, just wanted to make sure it wasn't the solenoid, which is replaceable seperately from the starter (and probably not part of the replacement)

and i think the starter is goin to be a pain...

[Rustyv]

Click-whirrrrrr or just click?

At least on the cars I've worked on, click-whirrrrr is a bad solenoid, click is a bad starter motor.

[Draven]

just a single click...

[Netpackrat]

Smack the starter solenoid with a hammer a few times and see if anything changes.