Heve a '98 Ranger xtra cab 4x4 3.0 v6.

When I tried to start it, all I heard was a loud clicking. I changed the starter and it started a couple of time with a lag, then went back to the loud clicking sounds.

any ideas?

thanks,

imsorope

 

Not sure if this is same issue, but I had an intermittant non-starting issue with my 1994. If I let the fuel pump "prime/whine" complete itself upon turning key from OFF to ON BEFORE I turned it all the way to START, it would work just fine.

If I just sat in and tried to turn the key all the way to start without giving it that extra 2 seconds, I would have to unhook the battery for 2-3 minutes before I could get it to "reset" and then it would start. PITA, but at least I found a free work around.

 

sounds like you either got a bad battery or maybe a bad battery cable or connection make sure the connections are clean and free of corrosion.

 

I like Phinxters ideas. ALL electrical connections need to be clean, bright & tight. Check the battery electrolyte level & state of charge with your hydrometer, or if its a sealed type battery without cell caps, do a no load & loaded voltage test with your digitial multimeter across the battery Posts, to get an idea what its state of charge is. No load, with a full charge, it should read 12.6 vdc or higher.

Then connect your multimeter to the cable clamps & turn on the headlights, fog lights & blower motor to High speed to electrically load things & measure the voltage drop across the battery Posts & cable Clamp connections.

If that checks out ok, do a voltage drop test on each battery cable, as that can quickly determine which cable or its connections have problems. The Battery Tutorial link atop this forum has instructions on how to do voltage drop testing if your unsure on how to do it.

If you don't have a multimeter, then with the head lights on, crank the engine & see if they get really dim. If they do, suspect a battery problem, cable, or cable clamp or lug electrical connection problem, so break out your good heavy gauge jumper cables & parallel connect them one at a time along each battery cable run, so they act as another battery cable & crank the engine. If it wakes up & cranks ok, suspect that battery cable run or its connections. If no joy with the parallel test, suspect an under load battery problem, so either recharge it, or pull it & take it to your favorite autoparts store for load testing.

Let us know what you find.