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Today and yesterday as I'm leaving school, I start the truck and it dies immediately. Start back up, it dies. Start it, mess with the choke a bit, and it fires right up. The first 2 times when it dies, it makes a strange sound as you're holding the key, and when I feel it catch and let go of the key, the engine dies and you can hear a kind of winding down noise. It's hard to describe. I'm thinking it's possibly an issue with the starter? It starts up completely fine in the morning on the first try, it's only an issue in the afternoon.
Take it out and have it tested at a local parts store, not hard to take out. Or you can ground hop it yourself. I would check the relay if the starter seems fine.
There is a mechanism in the starter. It extends the gear to make contact with the flywheel, spins the flywheel to start the truck, then retracts. I believe its called the bendix drive. What can happen is that it doesn't engage the flywheel, or it engages but isn't retracting. Sounds like yours might not be retracting. Even if it retracts when you test it, it could be dragging on the flywheel if the gear isn't meshing with the teeth properly.
From my experiences over the years, these starters are notorious for that. I had to replace mine due to the same thing. Replacement cost at a place with initials A.Z. was about $50. They sell rebuild kits for around $15-20 but I did not have the time to deal with it. Three bolts and 1 wire, it was replaced. Good luck with yours.