Hey fellas, back again for a bit.

My 2wd has been doing fine, then all of a sudden, I come out of the gas station and it's not turning over/starting.

I started by jumping power from the battery to the starter solenoid, nothing.

Removed starter and took to advance for testing. It ran fine and test results were normal. Re-installed starter.

Check out the splices, looks like I already gave them some attention. A couple of them were soldiered/heat shrinked. The remaining stock ones looked alright. Only ones not replaced were a 10ga green link that appears to go to the starter and a 22ga white link of unknown origins. They don't appear fused or corroded, perhaps I should replace anyways?

I tried bumping the shift lever hard into park and neutral as well, nothing. Neutral safety switch appears to work as the reverse lights still work, but I didn't use a multimeter on anything yet.

Checked the wires in the steering column going to the ignition switch, nothing seems out of the ordinary. Key still makes lights and buzzers go, just does nothing when turned to start. Sometimes it'll make the starter solenoid click, other times nothing.

Battery was on the trickle charger and is full.

Swapped starter relay from the 4wd, 4wd still started, 2wd still dead.

I'm guessing it's still something with the splices, NSS or ignition switch, but I'm not sure what to do next. Any ideas?

 

sometimes the ignition sw needs adjusted. this might be different but i had 82 ram that the contacts in the ignition sw for the A/C burned out. but didnt effect starting. getting the old VOM out might be next.

 

Check for good grounds, especially the starter ground if everything else seems to be working -oil and vibration will sometimes work ground connections lose. It may check OK with a light or meter but be too weak of a ground under load.

Also, check that splice area carefully. I think that green wire (does it have an orange stripe?) may be going to the ASD (auto shut-down) relay.

 

I'm not seeing a ground on the starter, just the two wires going to the solenoid and motor terminals. Does the main engine ground work as the starter ground?

The green wire has white lettering, no stripe. I tested it by cutting back the insulation on either side of the slice and checking for continuity with my multimeter. It had continuity.

Solenoid definitely clicks hard when I turn the key, but no turnover. Haynes manual says if that's the case, problem is either the battery (fully charged and swapped other bat, ruled out), starter relay (swapped and ruled out), main solenoid contacts (ruled out with testing at advance), starter itself (ruled out w/ testing), or the engine is seized (seems unlikely since it was acting normal beforehand).

Guess i'll check the main ground and maybe try replacing the starter with a new one. Perhaps the starter spins on the bench but doesn't have enough brush left to actually crank the motor.

 

An easy way to verify the battery ground is by running a single jumper cable from the negative post to ground. Incidently, you may be aware, but batteries sometimes develop internal connection problems that also show up only under a load.

 

I ended up testing the starter myself by unbolting it from the motor and hanging it from the underside, connected. I turned the key and the starter spun like it did on the test bench. I figured that meant the truck was running the starter, but it didn't have the gumption to crank the motor. I bought a new starter, threw that in and she started right up. Splices/relays must have been fine.

Wish I had just bought the new one the first time I had the dang thing out. Good thing it only took another 20 mins to bust it out and in the second time.

 

Nice work, you were onto something with that starter when you mentioned it might have bad contact with the armature.

Too bad the shop doesn't load 'em down when they test.