My 1980 Bronco with a 351 developed a starting problem over the weekend. When the key is turned, a clicking noise results, as if the battery was discharged. When it was jump-started, the clicking noise occured, but it tuned over suddenly and started.

A check of the battery later and the cables revealed all to be in good order--the battery was purchased 11 months ago and the cables replaced at the same time. I pulled the small, red wire off the regulator and put a jumper wire between the + terminal on the battery and the regulator and the starter engaged and the motor turned over strongly. I thought that test was to show the regulator was okay.

I cleaned the connectoion where that small red wire connects to the regulator, and pinched the connector so as to form a tighter connection. That seemed to solve the problem until this morning when the motor did not turn over when my son went to leave for work. The clicking noise was heard, but he held the key in the start postion and the motor finally turned over and started.

Could the problem be in the regulator or is it somewhere else? All connections seem to be fine.

 

Sorry guys, I don't know why I kept writing regulator when I mean RELAY SWITCH. Must not have gotten enough sleep last night.

 

is your starter relay grounded to the fender or isolated having a secondary grounding wire? Also have you had the steering column apart lately? There is a rod that runs on the top of your column(you can see it if you pull the small trim ring off the column). This goes down to a box thats mounted farther down the column on top but under the dash. If for some reason the bolts on it worked loose you might not be getting it far enough in to engage the starter relay.

is this a tilt column or no?

 

The starter relay is mounted to the fender. There doesn't appear to be a separate ground wire from it. Should I remove the relay and check to see there is a solid connection between it and the fender?

I did have the steering column apart to replace the ignition switch which was, I thought, the original source of the problem. The ignition switch had to be turned really far--with a great deal of resistance--in order to get any reaction. I replaced the ignition switch, and made sure to adjust the switch on the actuator rod in order to engage it with the minimum amount of turn. It worked well once I THOUGHT I had located the secondary problem of the rusted connection on the pull off wire on the relay, but then after sitting all night the problem recurred.

It is a tilt column. Why does this matter?

 

Not 100% certain about a 1980 model but the starter on the 90's models has a secondary solenoid trigger wire down ON the starter. Both my 92 and my 93 had starting problems when the non-insulated 1/4" spade terminal down on the starter got splashed with crud from the road. I finally got so sick of crawling under the truck to clean and tighten this connection that I repaced the non-unsulated female spade terminal with a fully insulated one and filled it with dielectric grease to keep out moisture. Never had a problem with it after that. The symptoms sound exactly the same as mine. Might be worth a look.

 

tilt column vs non tilt column have different actuators. ive had parts break in my tilt column and never had trouble with a non tilt column.

Any rate, a clicking sounds just like your not getting enough juice. it could either be a bad ground, or corrosion somewhere(at the starter maybe). What exactly is clicking, is it your starter relay?

 

I don't knw if the starter relay is clicking or not. I was by myself when I was working on it.

If the relay is clicking, what does that mean?

 

when the relay clicks it usually means its not getting enough juice. this could be corrosion on your battery posts(even if they look clean). or a bad ground. pull your leads off your battery and make sure they are clean, also clean the posts on the relay. you can also check continuity between the red "trigger" line going to the relay and your ignition switch, you will need two people obviously.



that secondary switch on your steering colum has some large gauge wires running to it, i think they are yellow. this is power to this switch, then there will be one wire that goes from there to power your relay. its a really simple circuit and probably either a problem there or one of your connections to the relay or to the starter. If there is alot of corrosion or rust at your starter or block ground it could cause this as well.

 

If it turns over just fine when you jump the lead on the solenoid to the + terminal then the solenoid is probably fine. I would check you ground (-) wire at both the battery and wherever it connects to the truck, if you have a poor ground connection it can cause all kinds of problems. Also if you have adjusted the ignition switch I would check the gears on the linkage rod. It is very easy to do, if you look at the key cylinder in the steering column you will see a small hole just under the cylinder this is the release button. Take a small screwdriver and push up on that button while turning the key from off to run you will feel the button move when you do pull the key out and the cylinder will come with. Look down into the column and you will see the top end of the linkage rod there will be 4(I think) teeth on the rod make sure they are all there and not rounded or broken. Also look at the gear on the key cylinder. I had the same problem in my 85 where sometimes it would crank and sometimes it wouldn’t it turned out the last tooth had broken off the linkage rod.

 

Boy, this has still got me stumped. somehow, somewhere, there is a bad connection. All connections are clean and shiny but I cannot see wehre teh negative battery cable grounds. I can feel that it grounds to the chassis and then continues up to a connection on the engine. It is in a nearly impossible position to see it and evaluate the condition of the connection.

I am beginning to suspect the battery however. I was able to get the starter to turn over when i jumped directly from the + terminal to the relay, but now that doesn't work. All I get is loud clicking from the relay.

If I turn on the headlights and try to start, the headlights dim and amazingly, the tachometer needle moves! What's going on?

And how can I do this: "...you can also check continuity between the red "trigger" line going to the relay and your ignition switch, you will need two people obviously."

Thanks gentlemen for taking time for all the suggestions.

 

Go have your battery load tested. And I don’t mean one of those wimpy hand held ones go to AutoZone or whatever auto parts store you like and have it tested it almost sounds like you have a dead cell

 

I'm with Aciancio, sounds like a dead cell in the battery. Have it load tested.

 

Thought you guys woul like to know how it all turned out.

This morning I swapped the Bronco's suspect battery for a good one from my Dodge. Same symptoms. I then replaced the negative battery cable which looked pretty dicey and the connections at the chassis and engine looked as though they might be corroded.

I also pulled off the starter and had it tested. The armature was fried! This was to be the last thing I checked because I had had it rebuilt less than three years ago.

Put everything back in and the old beast roared back to life.

Thanks to all for weighing in. It helped.