I just bought a nice 92 sc400 is awesome shape. Going to do outline for history
1. a guy had car for several years, replaced transmission. He died and his mom got car.
2. she parked it and had someone start it up once a
week or so for over a year.
3. one day it wouldn’t start, they said it sounded like a starter whining and not engaging.
4. They hired someone to put on new starter, and supposedly he did, didn’t fix problem and put old starter back on and out car together. New starter is in box looks like it’s been put on.
5. I buy car, notice several vac lines off and such. Haven’t touched it yet, just getting it moved to my house tomorrow.

Is there any problem other than starter that would sound that way.

my plan is to replace all vac lines and such back together and try to start???

new to Lexus but excited. What should I do first

 

is the fuel pump running?

 

Haven’t touched it yet, pulling it in shop tomorrow

 

Got it home, yes the fuel pump kicks on.

 

There are plenty of reasons for a car not starting after sitting for a while...but all of those wouldn't keep the starter from engaging as you describe. I'm assuming you did the bare minimum and put a new battery in it and verified all electrical connections were clean and tight.

If the starter is spinning, but the engine is not cranking, then the starter gear is not engaging the ring gear(flexplate). If this problem also occurred with the new starter, then it's likely something to do with the ring gear. Since the transmission was replaced, it's possible someone jacked something up during that process and the ring gear teeth could be sheared.

Aside from that, and you get the starter engaging the flex plate and the motor cranks, you could still wind up with problems like bad fuel, dry rotted vac lines, battery...

​​​​​​​How well do you know the seller and that you have the full back story on the car?