1997 wont crank. need help asap please.

[strokin95style]

I recently picked up a 1997 f250 7.3. When I picked it up, the previous owner said it needed new glow plugs cause it didnt want to start when it was cold. I thought to myself thats an easy enough fix. I got it home, the next day I cleaned and tightened the battery cables and that solved the slow crank. As for the glow plugs... the wire that goes from the gpr to the solenoid was unhooked from the solenoid. I hooked it up, threw a test light on the relay and it stayed on about 40 seconds, hit the key and it fired right up. Other than that and a windshield the truck needed nothing. I've driven it for a week now and put about 1,000 miles on it. Monday on my 30 mile drive home the battery light would come on and go off intermittently and would fade in and out. It would come on and go off for a while then do it all over again. I figured it was a bad connection on one of the battery cables and I would fix it this weekend. I parked it in the driveway tuesday after work and when I went outside this morning at 4:30 to start it, the truck just clicked. I carpooled to work and blew it off thinking it was just the alternator. Got home, took the alt off and took to the local parts store and it tested bad. I took the alt off my 95, bolted it on, hooked up jumper cables from my dads truck to mine and let it sit awhile and.... nothing, just a click. checked the cables, all were tight. swapped the brand new batteries out of my 95 into my 97 and still nothing. shorted the solenoid across, nothing. tapped on the starter with a small hammer while a friend hit the key and still nothing. just a click. I swapped the solenoid out from my 95 and it didnt even click then so i swapped em back out. checked the hot wire from the drivers side batt all the way to the starter and found no shorts or bad spots. every connection is tight. I checked the fuses in the power distribution box and they all looked good. Im running out of ideas guys. Is there a fuse that could have blown and is preventing it from cranking? whats the possibility of the starter being locked up? the truck has 265k miles and I have no idea if the starter has been replaced or rebuilt recently. I was told the gpr could cause a direct ground so I immediately unhooked it and still nothing. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated guys. I need to get the truck back on the road asap as I have a 100 mile 1 way trip coming up saturday morning. Thanks everyone

[strokin95style]

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[NoRalPh]

Can you tell where that "click" is coming from?

[strokin95style]

Solenoid is clicking I think, and the starter was last night. I'm gonna swap starters tonight and see if mine isn't locked up. I'm on a time budget cause I don't get home til about 8pm and leave at 4:30am for work. I don't really have the money to pay someone else to work on it when I'm gone so I'm trying to narrow everything down as best I can.

[NoRalPh]

Which Solenoid?

The one on the starter or the one on the fenderwell? I'd find out...

[strokin95style]

Fender. The I shorted both across, the one on the fender first. Niether one did anything when shirted across but the one on the fender clicked with the key.

[strokin95style]

Turned out to bed a bad spot in the hot cable, someone put a light duty cable on it and wasn't getting enough power. New hot cable from Ford was $75 and fixed it.

[strokin95style]

Ok, so this issue came back today. Fired the truck up at 8am and started fine. ran about 10-15 minutes this morning to warm up. Took the gf to work and I stopped at burge king to grab some breakfast. Shut the truck off to order, went to start it and it cranked for about 5 seconds and it didnt start. I turned the key off, turned it back on, and it just clicked. All 4 battery cables are tight and clean. The solenoid on the passenger inner fender is clicking when i try to crank it. Any suggestions anyone? The starter tested fine at Auto

[strokin95style]

The starter tested fine at Autozone a week and a half ago but he told me that it doesnt test the starter under a load so its possible it could be bad... is there any other way to test it?

[NoRalPh]

It sounds like you have an intermittent problem that, might Not have been there, when tested. I would think it'd be more likely either a Bad Spot in the commutator (where the brushes ride) or the Bendix (either bad contacts or bound linkage) than the "Load".

You can sometimes narrow it down to the starter with a hammer Slide under and give the starter body 3-4 good wacks (not too hard..)

That will often "jiggle" the Brushes/Bendix enough to reestablish contact. IF that works, then I'd call the Starter bad.