Took the kids to see Red Tails last night and when we left went to start the truck and it wouldn't start. kept hearing a clicking sound so I found a nice gentleman nice enough to give me a jump. We made several attempts to start it but nothing. I even went under and hit the starter a few times and at one point it wanted to turn over but went back to clicking. After about 30 minutes of trying i finally gave up and called my mother in law to come get the kids. I towed it home and decided to take a look at it this morning with better light. It was getting late and we were really tired.

This morning I had my son turn the ignition while I listened for the sound. I keep hearing the sound coming from the solenoid, not the starter. I don't hear the starter clicking, what's going on? I'd hate to buy a new starter and that not being the issue. The sound I hear is the solenoid clicking. Please help!!!

 

damn that sucks... hey i just post a solenoid question to. who new 2 solenoid question today lol!!! but mine is not fried

 

Do you have full battery voltage ? if so, pop the starter off and have it checked at advance or O reilly's...since you couldn't jump it straight at the starter..... and if you have a good battery I don't know what else it could be.

 

I have good voltage. I can't hear the starter doing anything at all. If I take the started down and put the jumpers to the terminals and it works, can it then be my solenoid?

 

Yes........but I thought you effectively did that already....you don't have to take it down .....unless the hot post is too hard to get to.......clamp the ground right on the starter body

 

No I hadn't tried that yet. I did however put the jumpers to the solenoid. Now thinking about it it didn't make sense since I know it's getting power. But not sending it to the starter. Im gonna wait till mt mother in-law come from church and I'll try to jump the starter. So if it starts will I still need to replace it since it's not working right?

 

Yes...if directly jump the starter and it works I think your soleniod is bad

 

Had similar issues this past summer. I had ZERO clicking though. I turned the ignition and nothing happened. All the electronics turned on so I knew it wasn't a battery issue. Cleaned the terminal posts and replaced the starter and still nothing. Put in a new solenoid and that fixed it. Turned out that my old starter was good but I left the new one in because the old one was already 11 years old and had 200,000 miles on her.

 

Got a new starter and it fixed the issue. The old one had a couple of teeth missing and some were bent. I think it was getting stuck on the flywheel or something. Anyway, problem solved. Thanks

 

Clicking but no turning means 99% of the time dead starter. You can test it by taking a jumper cable from the battery to the LARGE post on the starter. Only do it real quick, if it spins like crazy, the big cable needs replaced. If not, the starter needs replaced. You can take that jumper cable to the small power post too, that moves the starter gear over, to engage the flywheel. That's the clicking sound you hear, and is the solenoid.

If you get screaming spin, then the solenoid is not working. If you get click, then the starter is not working. You can use a jumper cable from the positive battery post to either large or small post on the starter to test whether it's the connection or the starter or solenoid itself. If the solenoid is bad, do not just replace the solenoid, replace the whole thing. Vice versa applies too.