help, won't start

[twyatt]

My Ranger started to occasionally just click when I turned the key, then it would start on the second or third try. Now, it only clicks and won't turn over. The battery is hot. Could this be a relay? The click is just under the driver seat. (2004 500 HO) Thanks for any help.

[buckseibert@insightbb.com]

Just had a no start problem with my 05 Ranger 4x4. Turn on the key and only hear a noise around the gas tank. I took a bunch of connectors apart and used a test light on them. Finally slapped the starter solenoid with a screwdriver handle and it started. Not sure if the slap did it or the connectors but now it starts and I think I know where to look next time. You can jump the solenoid with a screwdriver but you will have to have someone hold the brake pedal down to start it. Just hold the screwdriver between the two large posts.

[mdantonio]

Originally Posted by twyatt

My Ranger started to occasionally just click when I turned the key, then it would start on the second or third try. Now, it only clicks and won't turn over. The battery is hot. Could this be a relay? The click is just under the driver seat. (2004 500 HO) Thanks for any help.

Hi! I would be VERY wary of jumping the solinoid terminals with a screwdriver because of the fact that you mentioned the battery being hot. This is a good indicator that the battery may be supplying power into a dead shorted load such as a shorted starter armature. If the starter was originally working, then sporadically working, then occationally working, then appears to have quit completely would lead me to suspect that it is the problem. Manually shorting acrossed a battery capable of supplying hundreds of amperes under that situation has the potential to "get ugly" very quickly! Jumping the solinoid is a common practice when the solinoid appears to be the only link in the starting chain that prohibits the engine from starting and I (like many many people) have done this numerous times, but when it is the solinoid that fails, no, (or limited), current flows through it to the starter and the battery will remain cool. I hope this helps you some... Take care... Mike