Starter Works But engine will not turn over

[tabtyrone]

I'm driving home from work and my Car dies on me. (91 325I m20). So, I get my car towed home, I check the fuses they all look good. When I try to start the car, all I get is a buzzing sound from the starter and the engine will not rotate. So, I put a jumper wire on the starter to see if that will rotate the engine. All i get is the same buzzing sound from the starter. then I removed the starter and hooked it to my car battery to see if the rod and gear work. The rod extends out and the gear spins. Then I put a wrench on the crank shaft to see if the engine and fly wheel turn freely, and they do.

I know that none of these issues have anything to do with the car dieing on me. that's my next problem.

So, what could be the issues with my car? Could something be causing my starting to loss power from my ignition? I thought that by bypassing the ignitions with the jumper wire to the starter that it would rule out any ignition problems.

[spdracrm3]

check the teeth on the ring gear thru the starter hole ,make sure its still attached and that the flywheel turns as you spin the motor, its possible even though with the starter out and the bendix moves and the gear spins that under load it does not or bendix doesnt move out to engage flywheel teeth (meaning bendix is broken) .another possibility is a voltage drop in the system not giving full voltage to starter in the car while cranking (do you have a DVOM , test voltage at the battery terminal of starter while cranking should be a minimum of 11-12v )

does seem weird that both of these happen at the same time almost makes one think its flywheel related but the crank sensor reads off toothed pulley at front of motor not the ringgear teeth . and your right jumpering directly to the starter eliminates the ignition switch as an issue for the no cranking issue not for the dying issue .

[dnguyen1963]

Have you checked your battery?

[cgk_iii]

Check ignition switch