hello ya'll! I got this 83 F100 with a 4.9 300 inline six banger. It recently started not starting. It's done this many times before so i thought i knew what it was, the starter relay switch mounted on the fender. I have replaced it now 7 times since i bought the ol truck about 4 years ago. it started up just fine, then died and did the same clicking sound as before. Any suggestions?

 

Welcome to FTE.

There isn't much to that starter motor circuit:

From Franklin2's diagrams:


Make sure all your big connections are clean & good - battery posts; grounds from battery to engine block (and maybe also to frame, depending) and also from engine to body; cable connection to starter motor.

The small terminal at Connection #5 is fed 12V when the key is turned to START, this causes the electromagnet in the solenoid to bridge the two fat connections (3 & 6) thereby sending power to the starter motor.

A perpetually-clicking starter solenoid is generally indicative of a low-voltage situation; assuming your battery is good, first make sure all the above is up to snuff and go from there.

It's not at all unheard of for aftermarket Chinese-made solenoids to be bad out of the box but the failures generally don't manifest themselves as clicking like you're describing.

Replacement aftermarket battery cable terminals are notoriously bad in long-term use, the connections as well as the cable itself corrode easily resulting in reduced current-carrying capacity.

 

replace your main ground from the battery to the block with a new cable

 

My biggest problem was the ground. Not the solenoid. Check that.

 

Thanks everyone who repsonded. It was a small task but i replaced the cable ends, and trimmed the cables, fired right up and kept firing up after that. I appreciate the help, was at my wits end on this old thing.

Ok, it worked for a couple hours, now not even getting a click out of it......

 

If it was clicking before, and it was a low voltage situation because there was corrosion on the ends of the cables, and fixing/replacing the cables fixed that problem, and now it's not even clicking and won't start then that makes me think the solenoid went bad (providing the battery was good and hadn't died).

Does the motor still turn over and just no spark? Or does it not turn over or anything? You said you replaced the solenoid several times.

 

check battery voltage. check with a test light on the solinoid that the ign switch is working properly, could be that it;s loose.

 

It makes me think that the copper wires in the cable(s) were disturbed enough to allow more current to flow for a while but corrosion is again taking its toll.

Copper corrodes when exposed to the elements, and this corrosion will will permeate through the cable (beneath the plastic insulation).

But, before throwing parts at it, do a few tests....

First, pull the small red/blue-stripe wire from the solenoid. This removes the ignition switch and associated wiring from the situation.

Next, use a small piece of wire and jump 3 & 5 in the picture above, this will be the same as turning the key and should result in the solenoid activating and the starter motor turning.

If it doesn't turn (or even click), use a single battery jumper cable to jump the fat ends of the solenoid; this will send battery power directly to the starter motor. Expect lots of sparks with a good battery & cables.

If you can get the starter to turn by using the jumper cable but not by jumping 3 & 5, the solenoid is the problem.

If the solenoid clicks (rapidly) then look at the grounds and fat battery/starter cables.

I'd personally replace the battery cables, I'd only replace the ends if I had no other choice and, even then, I'd leave it that way only until I could replace the cables properly.