So I struggled for a while with intermittent starting issues on my 22re. Sometimes it would start right up, sometimes there would be a delay of several seconds between the solenoid click and the engine actually cranking, and sometimes I'd get nothing. A jumpstart would always work if it failed to start, and a piece of speaker wire between the solenoid and the battery would always work too.
I tried several things over the course of about a year to get it resolved - I checked and replaced the big three grounds, I redid the connections on the battery and the starter, I cracked the starter open and rebuilt the contacts, I even replaced the starter with an Autozone reman (which I returned when it didn't fix the problem). Each time I'd do something, the trouble would clear for a month or two and then return.
The last thing I did was install a new voltage wire from the battery to the starter and put an aftermarket relay on the new wire, operated by the crank wire that used to go straight to the starter. It's been a year since I did this and I haven't had a lick of trouble since, so I think I'm safe to declare victory and post this little walkthrough. Massive credit to 4crawler and his site for the trouble isolation procedures and the inspiration to use a "hotshot", and more credit to the guys on my local board who helped me figure out the wiring to build it myself instead of dropping bucks on a setup from Painless Wiring.
What you'll need to wire your setup like I did mine: a 30 amp relay (I used an automotive relay, have the counter guys at NAPA give you a starter relay from a '78 Bronco), some 8ga wire with fuel/oil resistant insulation and 3 8ga ring terminals, some 14ga wire with fuel/oil resistant insulation and spade terminals, dielectric grease, heat shrink, and the starter connector on a crank wire that I cut from a harness at the pick and pull.
It should go without saying, but disconnect your battery before playing with your wiring.
a) Mount the terminal on your fender, near the battery. Clean the fender well when you mount it, because it grounds through the fender (run an extra ground wire if you can't get a clean connection through the mounting bracket).
b) Make a 14ga wire with a male spade connector on one side and a ring terminal on the other. Terminate the ring terminal on the relay, and plug the spade terminal into your factory crank wire connector (the black wire that leaves your harness under the intake plenum and
used to terminate on the starter). This wire can be as short as you like, as long as the crank wire can reach it.
c) Run an 8ga wire from the battery to the new relay. I didn't fuse mine, but you technically should.
d) Run another 8ga wire from the relay to the starter, and here is where you use the crank wire connector you scrounged at the junkyard - splice it to the end of the 8ga wire (I intentionally made this wire very very long, and wrapped the extra around the relay. If I ever need to bypass my ignition and/or this new starter relay, I can disconnect this extra long wire from the relay and terminate it directly on the positive battery terminal).
Poof, you're done. What'd you do? You bypassed the worn out wiring in your ignition (and in your factory starter relay, if you have one, early 22re's like mine don't) - now when you turn the key, you only need a very weak signal through the ignition to trigger the new starter relay, and the relay gives a nice fresh strong 12 volts to your starter. Even if you've got worn down contacts in an old starter, that clean 12v should be enough to fire you up every time without fail.
Some notes: first off, Painless Wiring makes a thing they call the
Hot Shot, which is basically a prewired version of what I built from scratch. They run $40 and another $10 shipping, which seemed excessive to me. They make another more expensive one with a "bump start" switch so you can crank your engine from under the hood, which seems cool until you remember you can do the same thing by jumping your starter straight to the battery with a 20 cent piece of wire. But if you've got more money than time or want a nice clean packaged solution, those are both options for you.
Second, you don't need to source that extra starter connector if you don't want to. You can always cut the one you've got off the harness and wire your crank wire straight to the relay. The advantage of doing it my way is my factory harness is intact, and I can always bypass my extra relay wiring and go straight back to the factory setup without even getting any tools out. The advantage of not doing it my way is you save yourself a trip to the junkyard and several hours digging for a 22re harness that hasn't already been torn to shreds by previous customers.
Third, I rarely have any idea what I'm doing and I'm quite sure there are better ways to do this, so don't rely on this writup as any sort of authority. This is just the way I did it, and so as always if you know a better way or this gives you an idea for a cleaner solution, feel free to post up!
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