About 1 in 4 times when I start my truck, I get nothing but a click (solenoid?). If I turn the key back an forth a bunch of times, it will catch and start. I pulled the little wire off the solenoid and cleaned it, and the thick cable looked fairly clean, so I left it as is.

I'm assuming the solenoid is the only thing making the click sound, there isn't a starter relay in addition to the solenoid is there?

I'm guessing its the starter...anyone have any ideas of anything else? could it be the ignition switch? and how would I know?

Thanks,
93 f150 5.0 4x4 e40d

 

Your truck has a relay and a solenoid. The relay (often incorrectly called a "solenoid") is on the passenger side inner fender, just like the older trucks that didn't use a solenoid on the starter. That's probably what you hear clicking. More than llikely it's the starter solenoid going out. I don't know if you can buy just the solenoid, and it's probably best anyway to just replace the whole starter anyway.

 

Look first for bad grounds and look very carefully at the positive cables at solenoid and at the battery feel them with your fingers - any hint of softness or movement inside insulation indicates bad cable. A bad battery will cause the click - just enought current to pick upsolenoid but not to turn engine; waht do your headlights do when you try to start with the headlights on?? You can try the old screwdriver trick across the big terminals (lots of sparks -be very careful!!) or if you have a good multimeter check the voltage out of the solenoid with someone trying to start the truck it should be 9 to 10 volts under load.
it is very easy to mis-diagnose battery dying, bad solenoid, or bad starter problems and replacing all is expensive easter egging. Do your homework first. The solenoid is probably the cheapest and most likely after bad battery, cables and grounds; the solenoid has a copper washer inside that makes contact with the two large battery leads (in and out), I have taken them apart and turned the washer over and sanded contacts in past and reassembled with screws but replacement is to cheap once you determine it's bad. Good luck.

 

I have seen a lot of people replace the Starter, Solenoid and Relay and still have the same problem.
More than likely it is the spade terminal down on the starter solenoid, just cut back about 1 inch of wire and crimp a new spade terminal on the small wire.
Here is a diagram.

 

Ford dealers are instructed to remove the spade connector and replace it with a butt spliced ring terminal. Also while you are down there... make sure the heat shield is installed over the bendix on the starter. Heat from the exhaust leads to premature failure of these units.