bad starter?

[LoneWolf]

So yesterday my car didn't start, happy 4th to me!

I didn't take too much time to diagnose the problem yet and am looking for input on what to troubleshoot and how to proceed.

The car is a 91 318is with m42.

Thought that at first it was just a dead battery, but had no luck off of a jump. And voltage seems to check out, if that matters.

The car is making a single click when the ingnition is turned, but is not turning over the motor at all. When I try to start it the interior lights dim. Everything else in the car is working properly, windows going up and down fine, fan runs, all lights are working. So I don't know if it could be an electrical problem.

Last weekend I installed the ge keyless entry set up. I did tap into the red ignition under my dash to power that system. I did so with a butt connector to splice that wire into the line. Could this be suspect? It seemed to work fine for a few days though.

My money currently is on the starter being the problem. I have a pepboys one bought and ready to swap in tonight. (I know I should get an oem starter, but I need the car up and running asap. I figure I can buy one of those and swap the pepboys one out on my own schedule, not wait for it to leave me stranded again.)

Anybody have any ideas or anything that I maybe looking over?

Any ideas on how to troubleshoot what I'm dealing with?

Big thanks to anyone with some input


****Update****

I finished the job today, here is what I did.

Checked all of the grounds using continuity test. Everything checked out.

Double checked the battery voltage. Everything checked out there.

Now I went ahead and climbed back under the dash, where I had recently installed a keyless entry system from german engineering. Great piece, I love the flip out key, works great, easy to install, and just a great thing to have on a dd.

I had tapped the ignition wire for the 12v to power the keyless brain. Double checked this connection and the neighboring ground, making sure that I did not bump or short anything. This all checked out.

Then went to the started, and sure enough I had voltage there and the starter was still not kicking over. Must be this.

To replace the starter I did all of my work from the top. Just took off the upper manifold and was given enough room to swap the starter. Pretty straight forward to swap it out, 2 bolts with star heads though. Make sure you have that star socket set.

Hardest part of the whole deal was just using some blind feeling to thread the nuts on with fingertips. (That sentence reads kind of dirty ha)

Buttoned it all back up, Andddd.....

Viola!

The car started perfectly. Now it is just a waiting game until this pepboys starter fails . So I am going ahead and ordering a re-manufactured Bosch unit to have waiting on the bench.

Thanks for the input guys!