Ignition single click - not starter

[Myrunr2010]

I’m not sure where to even start with trouble shooting. I drove my truck out this morning, it sat for ~2 hours, when I went to leave, got a single click from the ignition.

My initial thought was it must be the starter. So I pulled the starter, it tested sat at autozone, but I went ahead and got a new (reman.) starter while I was there. Put the starter in and still got just a single click.

With the New starter in, I decided maybe the battery was doing something wonky (even though it’s new I.e. less than 3 months old). So I hooked it up to cables for a good while (15 minutes or so), and still got just a single click.

I was able to push start it to get it home, but pushing starting it every time I need to drive it isn’t an option.

I think any sort of neutral safety switch can be ruled out. If I turn the key without the clutch in, it does nothing. With the clutch in I get a single click of the starter pushing out. Also if I press the “clutch start cancel” button and turn the key I get a single click.

My starter is new as of today, battery is less than 3 months old, and alternator is ~1 year old. Also, when driving it home, I got no sort of indications anything was wrong with the alternator (a friend suggested it might be).

Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?

 

[sawguy]

Start with battery terminals,,,clean cable ends and posts...tighten
Then check ground cable

 

[Myrunr2010]

Yeah, I’m a clown, I just thought of that myself. I haven’t done anything with the positive terminal lately (other than when the battery was replaced) but I had to put a new negative terminal on recently. Went and wiggled those around and it stared right up. Glad it was easy but man, I waisted a ton of time for something so silly.

 

[sawguy]

Glad that was it.

 

[thegipper]

I would put your OEM starter back in and return the reman. Aftermarket starters/alternators for these trucks are almost all universally junk.

 

[weekendclimber]

I went through the exact same thing recently and it ended up the exact same way. Spent a week with the rig down and ended up with a new remanned Denso starter as well. Figured I rebuild the old one and then swap it back in and keep the remanned one as a spare (can do it in 30 minutes now). I've been contemplating doing a mega-thread of the steps for trouble-shooting this to hopefully save some others the headache.