i stop for gas, fill it up, check oil and I'm about to take off but it wont crank so i work the key back and forth for a sec thinking its a bad spot on the armature of the starter... end up rollstarting it by popping the clutch.... now here's what is really strange..
-while driving up to my Sis's house to get to my tools the brake light flashes on and off at random AND whenever it comes on it sounds like an electric motor is winding up in the engine compartment (only thing i can think of is starter..)
-does not sound like it is engaging the flywheel at all

so the brake light comes on and then the starter runs..... wtf??
possibly something with the tumbler in addition to the starter not catching?

I'm on her Mac right now and about to pull the starter to look for shorts and see why its not engaging...
thanks for any tips

 

Check the ring on your flywheel.

 

UPDATE: ever run across a starter that turned backwards?? well thats what this one was doing! i pulled it from the car and checked the teeth first off.... grounded it and hooked it up to a battery and jumped the crank trigger.... well once i jumped it, it spun the wrong way (yes i hooked it up right ) and it would continue to pulse on and off even after I REMOVED the wire going to the trigger (male spade)...
well thats a new one... threw in a reman-ed and its golden...