[mrmittens]

Forgive me if there are threads detailing my exact problems, I searched and did not see anything, so I will ask, and give some history to explain. If you just want the ending, skip to "Long story short[...]"

During the spring, as I was going to school and working, I bought a car (1992 240sx Fastback). Previous owner was obviously someone who wanted to make it into a drift car but had no idea what they were doing, but I didn't know at the time, so I bought the car. Over the next 5 months, I worked minimum wage to pay for my expenses, go to school, and work on my car, finding and fixing (mainly) minor problems.

At once point, my car wouldn't turn on. Resorting to forums and Google, I read that I should jump my car, so I did and everything worked fine. Soon after, my car started stalling and I had the throttle body cleaned -- twice, because in the span of less than 1 month, it had gotten filthy to the point where a shop couldn't tell it had been cleaned recently.

After the second cleaning, I drove to school, a 300 mile trip encountering no problems. I spent the next 6 months studying, having one instance where, after driving my car for a little while, it wouldn't turn on until it cooled down. Soon after, that stopped happening so I didn't worry about it. Christmas break happened and I drove home, another 300 miles, and then back to school, 300 miles with plans to replace my timing chain with a few friends as the rattle was there.

I have been driving my car carefully recently, just in case, feeling that something was wrong, and a few days ago, I had a few idling problems and stalled 4 times on the way to school -- a 5 minute drive. Didn't happen again.

But today, as I was about to go to school, I turned on my car, the car barely turning over enough to start, but start it did, and I had no problems getting to school. I spend the day at school, my car sitting in the parking lot for about 10 hours, and go back, trying to turn it on.

Long story short, it doesn't turn on. There are no clicks, it does not turn over, and there appears to be no electrical problems. We tried jumping it, watched the lights in the car (which never dimmed as I tried to turn the ignition or disconnected the jumper cables), and came to an idea, that the problem lays in the starter.

My question is, to all members of Zilvia who choose to read this, is what do you think it is? I was planning on taking a screwdriver and hammer to it tomorrow, as recommended to me by a mechanic friend, but are there any other suggestions or possible reasons for this to happen? Due to my course work, I would like to sell my car as I do not have the time needed to take care of it, and I do not believe in selling broken goods, so I would like to fix it well, but in a way that won't break my bank. I am a poor, starving college student (and I am sure many of you know the feeling), so money is tight for me.

Oh, and this all happens less than 4 hours before my birthday. At the time of posting, happy birthday to me. I feel like this is a premonition for the rest of the year for me.