Hi. I have a '53 XK. When I depress the starter button in the cockpit, all I get is a click and then a strange buzz sound. Only when I have the button pushed in. Fuel pump is running. I have also turned on the ignition and depressed the manual solenoid button on the solenoid inside the engine compartment. There is no buzz sound when I do that, and no activity of any kind other than the fuel pump cadence increasing. Any thoughts or advice? First happened the other day when going out to go for a drive. The starter was spinning just fine, I paused (had not started yet), depressed starter button again, and then no spinning and just the buzz when I depress the cockpit starter button. It has been like that for about a week now. This happened on a cold start, if that matters. Thanks.
The fact that you pressed the manual button on the solenoid itself and the starter did not crank indicates that either your solenoid is dead or your starter is dead or there is a bad connection either there or at your battery.
Try the easy things first.
Clean and tighten your battery connections.
Clean and tighten connections at the solenoid, starter and ground cables at the starter and front engine mount.
I like to put Vasoline on these connections, but grease is fine too, anything to keep the water and resulting corrosion out.
You can jumper across the two big nuts on the solenoid, touching them both at the same time with pliers to see if it cranks, but be careful and don’t touch anything else, as there is a lot of amperage and you will get a big spark. If it cranks, you know your solenoid is dead.
Could it be the starter has jammed? Try putting car in 2nd gear ,ignition off , and try to push the car backwards and forwards a few times to free it .
If after following Rob Reilly’s instructions, it appears the solenoid is dead, remove the rubber push button boot. Then connect a jumper wire from the small center terminal to the big terminal that goes to the battery. Observe the shaft that was covered by the rubber boot for any movement. If no movement of the shaft is detected, then the internal electromagnet is dead, and you will need to replace the solenoid.
However, if there is some movement of the shaft, this means the electromagnet is still good but internal debris is blocking full movement of the electromagnet. It is possible to drill holes into the solenoid to clean out the debris and restore function. Click on the link below:
Lucas ST 950 solenoids with cast bodies were originally supplied to XK Jaguars, but these have not been available for many years. Cheap looking Lucas 2 ST solenoids with stamped bodies replaced the ST 950 solenoids. In my opinion, the cheap looking replacement solenoids are kind of an eye-sore compared to the originals.