Starting with hotter summer days we had a week or so ago: From time to time I will turn the key and get a single "CLICK". I turn the key off and try to start again and it turns over and starts with no problem. It sounds to me like the silenoid on the starter and wanted to see what everyone else thought.

 

Have you checked/cleaned the connections to the battery and the starter? Also check all the other ground wires on the motor and chassis. I would also charge the battery up and have it checked.

 

The battery is perfect. I will continue to double check all of the other connections.

 

Yea, make sure all the connections are tight and clean (not corroded) but your solenoid is probably going out.
Replacing the starter isn't hard. I have a how-to floating around this site somewhere.

 

my 88 did that for a year. you just had to keep turning the key till it would finally turn over. or hit it with a hammer and it would start right up. you could take your starter apart and sand and clean up all the terminals and the plunger. that should make it alot better. it made mine last acouple more months.

 

Sometimes my 93 dakota clicks like da batterys dead...but wen i take off da clamps to da pos n neg...than put back on n retighten it starts ryt up...so wut i started doin was...i cleand off both post...n clamps...than sprayed with battery cleaner which is this red looking spray paint...n i havent had a problem since...yee!!!!

 

I had the same thing happening on my '90 Dakota, and was almost positive it was the neutral safety switch. I went under the pickup and adjusted the linkage from the gear selector (it's an automatic) and it seemed to help. Then it was back to turn the key, "click", run the selector from park to neutral and back again, and then it would start.

Eventually that quit working. So I pulled the starter off the engine, shoveled the grease and dirt off it, then disassembled it and the solenoid. The solenoid has a sliding copper disc in it that is shot forward when the starter key is turned, and the copper disc is supposed to bridge across two thick copper contacts and run heavy electric current to the starter motor, but I could see that the disc had worn down almost paper-thinness where it was supposed to touch the contacts.

I telephoned a local alternator and starter repair shop and the man said it was probably the disc that was the problem. I put the whole thing back together and brought it to him and he had a new copper disc in there before the day was ended.

Since putting the starter and solenoid back in, I haven't had a moment's trouble with "click" and "no-go"!

 

it if it was the battery you could not turn the key back and forth to get it to work. a dead battery is a dead battery. check your connections on the starter solonoid and battery terminals. if there good than the solonoid is shot. it will sound like click, when you turn the key, but the engine does not turn over. rotate the key back and forth and it starts. (the 70's fords were bad for that).

 

Yeah the battery is perfect. I recently cleaned the terminals and posts then used those discs that are supposed to keep corrosion away. They are still clean. The symptoms have been getting worse thought they are fewer now. I will see about replacing it maybe next payday. 80 bucks for a reman. starter is pretty pricey.

 

I just remembered , that on my 88 all I did was remove the starter and replaced the brushes. It has been working for 15 years plus since the prob. And it's the original starter.