What we are all saying is: If the clutch is OK, then the pinion will engage, and then if teeth are bad on pinion or flywheel it would usually be a a clicking grinding type noise. Trying to engage but teeth slip and clutch kicks pinion back and forth.
If the clutch is bad or the linkage is messed up, the pinion will just rub on the flywheel and spin. If the pinion is loose on the shaft or if the shaft is loose on the clutch, is will also just spin. We can guess no further by sounds you hear. There is always that chance that motor is locked. You need to do some investigating on your own with the info and suggestions given. We are in a blogging mode now, we can't pin down the cause any further from our house.
Fun (in parenthesis) just means the fun depends on your ability and whether you think it's fun to work on stuff like that. To me is is "fun", relaxing, educating and rewarding...unless it all goes south on me. Ya ne'r know.
Negative cable off of battery, disconnects the battery. This is so that when you investigate the lever/mechanism, the starter won't try to start the motor or truck jumps forward or something burns up while you determine if the culprit is the mechanism as I described in my other post. Look at it. Look at what is going on if you can. The next step after that would be to watch it with battery hooked up and in neutral, with ebrake on, distributor disabled and a helper. These take a good flash light and maybe a mirror and maybe crawling around.
After that it's take it to the bench and examine. After that it's a new/rebuilt starter or install a clutch for $25 as I said. That is the normal general path for DIY trouble shooting.
