New starter not engaging. Help :(

[peytonracer4]

So I just put a new starter in my 325. Is spins fine unlike the old one but it's not engaging. It's just spinning freely.
All wires are how they were before. What could be causing this? Cleaned all connections as well

[peytonracer4]

the little green and black wire makes no difference when it's on or not on the starter. not sure what that means.
tried installing it on the 9 o'clock bolt and the 12 o'clock both. neither made a difference.

[BMWManiac]

Is the starter fully inserted? You have both bolts tightened?

[peytonracer4]

Is the starter fully inserted? You have both bolts tightened?

Yeah. It's fully installed.

[Balleristic31]

Is the trans plate installed as well? If not you may have a faulty starter or the wrong one.

[peytonracer4]

Trans plate? What is that?
It's possible that the starter is faulty I suppose. However it can't be the wrong one as its identicle to the one I pulled out.

[Balleristic31]

There is a plate that goes in between the trans and engine that helps align the starter. If its not in place the starter might be slightly out of alignment

[Balleristic31]

Looks like this http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&c...s-8&mvs=0#i=27

[peytonracer4]

the starter seems to be aligned correctly and is screwed in tight.
the thing that makes me wonder is the green/black wire does not have a loop connector at the end. it's just loose copper wire. i still managed to make a seemingly positive connection on the 9 o'clock bolt but i'm not too sure about it.
can you confirm that's where it goes? when i remove the green/black wire the starter has the same symptoms as when it's connected.
what does this wire do? and where does it go?

[Balleristic31]

The green/black is a ground for the windows. Unhook it am try rolling them down to confirm that I'm not crazy

[peytonracer4]

The green/black is a ground for the windows. Unhook it am try rolling them down to confirm that I'm not crazy

will verify tomorrow. that's really weird if it's true.

so then would it be worth having a shop look at it? or should i send the starter back for replacement?
it doesn't seem like there's much more i can do

[peytonracer4]

went to get the starter tested. the gear is extracting.
this is disheartening. i don't understand what's wrong :(
the old starter worked fine. it died so i replaced it with this one. now this one sounds like it either wont engage or the flywheel is stripped. the flywheel isn't stripped.
i think i'm done with cars after this. that's sad to say but this makes absolutely no sense to me. it should work, everything checks out.

[BMWManiac]

See if you can swap to another starter. If you have the same problem again, it is not the starter. Like you said, there really isn't anything besides installing it correctly, reinstalling all the wires and there you go....