Defender 200Tdi 90 1993 - 20yr old fuel in tank

Don't Disconnect the battery, just bridge the contacts together as the big red wire is direct from the battery.
How I've done it in the past is get a separate battery, connect positive terminal to the big red wire on solenoid, negative terminal to a good ground/earth like anywhere near starter motor, then get a female spade connector crimped to a piece of wire, connect to the exciter wire. Make sure vehicle is in neutral and ignition off. Touch the other end of wire (that's connected to exciter wire) to positive terminal of battery. Something should happen hopefully like turn over or a click meaning something wrong with starter. Doing it this way bypasses all the vehicle wiring/bad earth's.
Have you checked your earth's for good contact? Think its on the back of the transfer box and might be another one from engine to chassis

 

I suspect the "hit it with a hammer" advice is fast approaching.

 

I’ve located a few ‘earth’ points on the vehicle, one being at the back of the engine bay on the bulkhead. I’ve tried to clean them up with cans of contact cleaner (also awaiting the CAIG deoxit to arrive) and elbow grease. I’m going to replace all the fuses and as many of the relays I can find replacements for too. I’ll give the ‘shorting’ methods a try and I’ve hit the starter gently with a small hammer ( not much swing room in there anyway) , so we’ll see what happens.
Realistically though I think even if I get it started with the incumbent starter motor , there’s no guarantee that’s it’ll last long anyway, I’m the only owner of the vehicle, I’ve never had the starter motor changed ever, so it’s almost 30yrs old anyway. So I’m going to buy the ‘Hella’ OEM version from paddocks (ERR5009G) …. If the original is serviceable, then I’ll have a spare…. Not looking forward to removing the original or installing the new one… any hints or tips ? I’ve got the down pipe already out the way , so some of the work is already done … wish me luck peoples

 

If replacing is the same as a 300tdi (I believe they are) then I think 2 of the bolts are captivated and one has a nut on it (been years since I did it so might be wrong). Easy enough job, make sure you Disconnect battery first though

 

A long socket set extension bar with a wobble drive end is handy on this job.

 

Not on topic, really, but the three photos below indicates another slice of fun in stall for you.
(the three photos are not all the same - 3 times i had to stop)

My 2015 resurrection had been running on a britpart pump, which then died. I guess the britpart had just been passing the junk through to the filter, and then it finally killed it.
Delphi replacement, and this was the result of the first trip.

As i think i said before, i went to some effort to flush the tank also.

Currently browsing ebay for sedimenters!

 

Good point ! Sorry to hear of (see) the effects , I’ll be checking mine asap !

 

Well after trying every trick in the book and all suggestions of ‘hot wiring’ the starter motor in situ but without anything more than sparks flying , I decided t bite the bullet ordered a new one and took the old one out. After seeing how easy it was to remove a starter motor from a 300Tdi (YouTube) , I can promise you that removing one from a 200Tdi Defender is an absolute #### by comparison! Plus I’ve got two broken ribs to boot, not an easy job for sure, but I got the little basket out after much blue mutterings.
I then tried to start it from a new battery with lorry jump leads….no sign of life what ever I did to it… so 20yrs sitting dormant definitely kills yer starter motor… just wondering if they can be serviced ?
So until the new one arrives I’ll be checking the fuel system !
Here’s a photo of the little ### !

 

At least that's one problem sorted, hopefully it will fire up once the new one is in.
I would have thought they can be serviced, wouldn't know how to do it. I took my old gmc 6.2 starter to shop that rebuilt starters/alternators (gone now unfortunately) he said i was better off just to buy a new one

 

Just a question, what engine is this from ? I’ve looked at mine and can’t find anything that looks similar. Any advice would be much appreciated thank you.

 

Its on the drivers side of the engine, a bit behind the injection pump. My engine is a 300, but 200s have, basically, the same part. Your units pipes may be coming off differently, but the parts are, so far as im aware, interchangeable.

It (schematically) goes on the fuel line between the tank and the fuel filter.

Ive just looked it up - yours is ETC7869R

 

Ah yes the fuel lift pump…I used mine recently to prime the new fuel filter… didn’t realise you could take it apart like that… I’ll have a look tomorrow. Many thanks.

 

Most of them you cant. The delphi ones you can.

 

Thanks for the update, much appreciated. I had looked at mine and it didn’t look like the one in the photos and was wondering how you’d get into it - apart from removing the whole thing.

 

Well… fitted new ‘Hella’ starter motor… removed the fuel pump solenoid, turned the ignition until the oil light went out, reconnected the fuel pump, started the engine… started first time ! Success ! Now to get the other bits ( brakes etc) all sorted.