1997 starter relay problems

[mathewsz7]

Every couple times I went to start my truck, I would get a single click and no cranking - attempt it again and it would crank right up. A mechanic friend of mine said it was probably a bad spot in the starter relay on the fender. He gave me one that he knew was good.

I took a picture of the wiring on the original before I took it off to ensure that I had all the wiring correct on the new one. The only thing is that one of the smaller posts was naked and he told me to run a wire from that post to ground.

I installed the new one with the correct wiring and put my ground cable straight to the negative battery terminal just to make sure it would start, it started right up. I then moved the wire to another spot where a couple of other grounds were anchored and went to start and the same click, went back to the battery terminal, click. I ended up putting the old one back on, had a few clicks then it started up again. I think it may have something to do with how I was grounding it. Any thoughts or suggestions?

[BigFuel]

If it was a bad ground then you would not likely be getting a "click" altogether at the relay. Starters and engines have a nasty habit of stopping their rotations in the same spot. Meaning when you kill the motor the motor will usually rotate and stop with the same cylinder ready to fire as the last start. Same with the starter motor. it spins to crank the motor and when you release the key from the start position it'll usually stop it's rotation in the same position that it started in. If you removed the flex plate/fly-wheel from the motor and the stater from the starter housing you will see a lot more wear in one section of the units then anywhere else.

First things first, get a thick screw driver. Put the key in run. Using the screw driver jump the two big posts on the relay. If the truck starts every time then the issue is still on top of the motor. if it does not then the issue is at the starter under the motor.

I can think of two things happening with your starting system. Either the starter is on its way out due to burns on the stater or the starter itself needs to be removed from the truck clean the exterior and reinstall. You may just have a bad ground at the starter motor (self grounding).