USAF93

I went to start my truck the other day and got a click. Tried getting a jump from a buddy and it still just went click. I left the truck at my buddies house and came back the next day to have it fire right up. I took it to Autozone and they hooked up their machine and said the alternator was putting out 14 volts but the battery needed to be charged. I had been out of town for a couple of weeks so maybe the battery dropped some. I put it on a charger all night and then took it back up to Autozone the next day and they said it was still reading as needing a charge. Since the battery was 5 years old I bought a new one (Sears Diehard 890 CCA). I also went through every connection I could find on the top side and cleaned them and then applied dielectric grease. I took the crappy aftermarket positive side terminal and cut, crimped, soldered, shrinkwrapped new lugs and reattached the wires. EVERYTHING was shiny and reattached. I just got this done today and I went out to make a beer run and CLICK. WTF, luckily I turned the key and it started but what could be causing this periodic click? I'm going to crawl under the truck tomorrow to clean whatever contacts I can find on the underside. Is there a way to test solenoids? In the past three years I have replaced the alternator and starter (Autozone stuff). Am I missing something obvious?

roachey

Replace your ignition switch. I had all the same problems you had

superduty

Next time it does that jump the solenoid on the passenger fender. If it fires right up then you need a solenoid.

zoom zoom

These solenoids are horrible. I also wouldn't put anything past a duralast part, they're almost as good as my wife at destroying a man. You think everything is fixed and BAM, time to do the same thing all over again. I refer to duralast as "13 month" brand, usually that's how long they last. Sometimes you get lucky and they'll throw a name brand part in the box.

USAF93

I replaced the ignition switch about 5 years ago. I did go with the $17 version so maybe its crapping out. I just hate throwing parts at a problem to find out whats wrong.

5Rangers

You can check the efficiency of the starter relay by checking voltage drop with a volt meter. To do this you put the meter in the vdc scale, put the leads across the 2 large contacts while another person puts the key switch to start. The meter should show 0 volts on a good relay, a bad relay will show between 0 and 12 indicating the contacts have resistance and "dropping" the amount of volts indicated.

This is the best test for checking a relay and is easy to do on the starter relay since all the terminal contacts are easily accessible.

USAF93

The relay showed zero so I checked the wires at the starter and they may be suspect. The big wire looked corroded and the small wire was really jacked up. The surrounding heat has made the protective sheath of the wire brittle and in places left the bare wire exposed. I wanted to pull the whole harness while the truck was on the lift but its hung on something I can't see from below or above. I disconnected the O2 sensor but I couldn't see anything else holding the harness up. Ideally I would pull the harness and put a new lug on the end of a clean wire and replace the small wire. Since I need my truck tomorrow I cleaned what I could, threw on a heat shrink wrap on the small wire and reattached everything. It started right up but only time will tell if it will keep starting up. I really don't like knowing the condition of the starter wires so I will keep searching for ways to pull that harness out. Thanks for all the replies!

5Rangers

Yes you are missing the obvious. The wire to the starter is shot. Look at the top of the passenger side frame rail just out board the engine there is a ground stud there for the negative lead. To get both wires out you will have to get this off. The battery ground lead has a mid point frame bonding point there.

You should replace both of the wires and clean the bonding points. You can go with out the mid wire bonding point but you will need to add a wire from the engine to the frame at another location.

USAF93

I will look for that midpoint bonding point. Hopefully I can get my hands up there to reach it. Off the top of your head is it easier to reach it from above or below? Inside the wire loom is it just the small wire (does that go to the solenoid?), 4ga wire and the O2 sensor wire? If I am going to replace the 4ga wire would it be beneficial to use 2ga? Thanks again!

5Rangers

Better to get it from above with a long extension and I think a 3/8s deep. Could be wrong on the size, im older and my memory sucks. There are several wires in that loom and I believe O2 sense is one of them.

Its always better to replace 4 ga. With 2. But...your going to want to replace all the wires with 2 otherwise every 4 gauge left is a choke point. Wire is like a water hose only current flows thru it. A smaller hose anywhere is going to result in less flow.