Just before you crank, hit the solenoid with a hammer. not too hard at first mind!!

Sticking solenoid could be fixed by stripping it off( the starter) and getting a recon place to repair it and get them to do the starter bushes as above  FFRR MY06 facelift With TDV8 Alloys Zeros/ATR's
Mantec Sump Guard, Rigid Load liner, MY10 BT upgrade.

Yup, tap the solenoid and give the starter a jolt. It's possible for the dog tooth of the motor to not engage properly on the teeth of the flywheel when its thrown forward by the solenoid. A jolt can be enough to turn the dog tooth a tiny amount to engage properly.

Anothe reissue I once had with a starter motor was that the solenoid did throw forward with a click, however, it was worn out such that it didn't throw the connection bar far enough to connect the two terminals to let the main current pass through to the motor.

Starter motors aren't normally difficult to remove and refit, the issue is normally being able to get the motor itself past other parts of the engine if space is tight.

I don't what the td6 is like for that. V8 or else ...

Tapping it with a hammer worked this morning, so I moved it off my driveway. That's taken the urgency away, as my wife can now use the 90, which was previously blocked in. So now the rangie is parked on the street and won't start again. I am going to order a new starter and fit it this week. 2005 FFRR Td6 Vogue
1991 Defender 90 200Tdi

Dont bother Nick, Just get that one off and refurb it. much cheaper and if its not urgent then a day waiting for the refurb is worth the pennies  FFRR MY06 facelift With TDV8 Alloys Zeros/ATR's
Mantec Sump Guard, Rigid Load liner, MY10 BT upgrade.

Been down the route of trying to get a new solenoid for the starter and I was told by various companies throughout the UK and online they are not available seerately - hence the new starter motor. Seems daft when you know they have a shelf full in the factory - but no - they will not sell you one ! I think my starter motor was £100 and after fitting a used one previously can do it quite quickly now There are 3 x bolts and they are torque star ones - ie the reverse of the allen key versions - the awkward one is at the top and you have to lay on top of the engine and use an AF ring spanner and it's the longest bolt in the world

Same happened to me on my old freelander - the copper contacts inside the solenoid that link the high current from the battery to the starter motor (when the solenoid is energised) were heavily corroded and worn - I stripped and cleaned then and it worked fine then it went again a few months later. I took it to a local auto electrics place and they replaced the contact pads for me.

Apologies if I am teaching grandma to suck eggs but here is a video showing a similar starter and how the copper contacts can be accessed / replaced



IIRC first time I repaired mine I bent the contacts slightly upwards to get a better connection but it didn't last very long

The guy I saw at the auto electrics place just pulled open a draw with lots of spare parts in and handed me 2 of the half moon connectors FOC

The plunger I think I got off ebay but never bothered fitting it as the original was fine when cleaned up with wet & dry.

The symptoms I had were intermittent 'click' when turning key, repeatedly trying would eventually cause it to kick in and start then it would be fine for a while.

Just had a look on ebay for starter solenoid repair kit - there are loads on there ~ £10, not sure what one you need tho.