OK...heres my story. I "aquired" '87 ranger 4x4 with a 2.9 and an auto. The only reason I wanted it was for the snow plow it had on it. Anyway....As I was driving it home, about 950 miles, the front seal on the tranny went out so I trailered it the rest of the way. I fixed the front seal and went to fire it up and nothing. So I tried again and it fired right off. It started up great for a couple days and now its dead. I can get it to start right off by jumping the solenoid. At first im thinking Neutral safety switch or solenoid. So yesterday I use a pair of channel locks to hold the ignition switch in the start position and get underneath it to "jumper" the neutral safety switch. Still nothing so I test the solenoid. 12v on the battery side nothing on the starter side and nothing on the ign side. So, now im thinking the ignition switch is bad. I can take a jumper wire from the battery to the ignition post on the solenoid and she will fire right off but it wont fire by just trying to start it with the key. Any electrical whizzes care to quantify my findings? Am I on the right track?

 

Anyone?

 

I don't have a wiring diagram for your truck, so I'm doing a lot of guessing. You have battery voltage at the battery terminal on the starter, so that circuit's fine. A jumper wire to the "S" terminal pulls in the solenoid and the motor turns.

Your starter and the solenoid are fine.

Have you tried starting with the transmission in Neutral, instead of Park? I really think these "intermittent" start problems are caused mostly by the Neutral Safety Switch, also called Digital Transmission Range (DTR) Sensor most of the time. You MAY not have bypassed it properly (and I'm not casting aspersions on your troubleshooting methods - you seem to know what you're doing).

If that's not the problem, then it really can only be the starter relay or the ignition switch. Can you hear the relay "click"? (Probably not, or the truck would start). So, is it getting power? I don't know where the relay is on your truck or what terminal to test, but if the truck doesn't start in either Park or Neutral, I'd test for "control voltage" at the relay. If no voltage, probably a bad ignition switch. If voltage is present, you have a bad relay.

And, since it started some of the times you tried, it really can't be a bad fuse to the relay.

- Jack

 

Thanks Jack. I can start it every time by putting a jumper between the battery and the ign terminal on the solenoid. That tells me when you turn the key, the solenoid is not getting told to close. I bought an ignition switch today and it didnt do any good. Now im back to either a fuseable link or the neutral safety switch. Yes, I tried neutral and park both. I tried removing the Neutral safety switch and its on there good.....I dont want to bust it off so I might leave it. I'll play around with it tomorrow for a bit but im getting frustrated. About my next step will be the good ol push button switch trick between the ignition terminal on the solenoid and the battery and be done with it. Thanks again Jack

 

Don't you also have a starter relay, probably up on the firewall somewhere in your truck? If it's bad, it won't send current to the starter solenoid.

- Jack

 

The Starter relay is the solenoid on this one. Its mounted directly on the firewall.

 

Ugh! No solenoid on the starter itself? Then this thing uses a true centrifugal clutch that extends the drive gear when the starter spins?

I'm at a loss here then. Without a wiring diagram, I have no idea what's possibly wrong.

- Jack

 

Well, I can certianly help you out with that Im positive now that it is the Neutral switch after looking at the schematic. From what I can tell, if I jump the white/pink wire with the red/light blue wire, the NSS will be defeated and it should run like a top. However, I toyed around underneath it the other day with a jumper and didnt get anywhere. Im going to give it one more try tomorrow, and then its getting a push button.

 

Yuck! Even when I go to the source of that link and increase the magnification, I cannot read it. Blame my 68 yr old failing eyes! :o

Backtrack from the stater. What's the first thing you find that could stop it from working? Can you bypass it? (And, you're probably saying it's the NSS, stupid!)

But, if that's the case, you're not bypassing it correctly? Sorry, I don't have many other ideas.

- Jack

 

I opened it up Jack and no, its not your eyes.....I cant blow it up either. Shoot me an email and i'll send it as a PDF file.
blittle@ccfire-rescue.com

 

Well, after spending the day tracing one wire all the way through the harness, I found my problem. I had a corroded wire inside the NSS plug. I carefully cut it apart, and was able to save the end to reuse in the plug. I really didnt want to hack it up and use the push button but I was running out of options. That also explains why I couldnt bypass the NSS with my jumper wire. I was just using a piece of 14awg stripped on the ends and folded over shoved in the appropriate post of the connector. Thanks for all your help Jack.

 

Don't know how much help I was, but I'm delighted you found the cause of the problem. Corroded wires or connections seem to be a reoccurring theme in our trucks, don't they?

- Jack

 

Yea I had one in my 99 superduty that really had me baffled for a while as well. Ended up using my dads truck as a test dummy and finally traced the problem to a corroded wire in the main harness....What a pain. Thanks again Jack