I just bought a 1995 Ford F150 XL 5 speed 4.9L Inline 6. It started just fine when I brought it to my house. After parking it I attempted to start the truck and when I press in the clutch and try to turn the engine, in Neutral and 1st, over all it does is make a single clicking sound and the engine doesnt attempt to turn over. The battery is fine, Ive jumped it thinking that was it and even put in a new battery, I get head lights, stereo, windshield wipers ect. Any ideas on what the problem could be?

 

That sounds like a bad starter to me. However before you go pulling on anything, always check your cable connections to see if anything is loose.

Once you check the cables make sure you push in the clutch and the brake when you attempt to start. I am not sure if they put a brake safety switch in the trucks.

You know you can pull the starter, and take it to the gents at autozone for a free functions check? If it checks out then the next option is your starter relay.

Let me know if this helps.

-Vycan

 

Try the relay jump with a screw driver?? And +1 on the connection check. Trace the ground to the block and put a wrench on it to be sure......

 

Remove, clean, & tighten all 7 ends of both heavy battery cables.

 

That happened on my 5.8L, it turned out to be a bad ground. It looked fine, but a close eye of my neighbor caught it smoking when attempting to crank. Removed the ground and it was corroded all to hell on the other side. Quick once over with a wire brush fixed it on-the-spot. While you're at it, check all the connections like Steve said.

There's no brake switch for starting on either manual or automatics.

Manuals have one on the clutch pedal, and on older trucks this tends to get crappy and work intermittently. But if you're getting a click, then that's not your issue.

If still no luck, pull the starter(it's fairly easy on the 300) and bring it to auto-zone, they'll test it for free/

 

Same thing happened to me. It was intermittant -- sometimes it would start, sometimes not. A new solenoid fixed it. Less than $20.

The starter itself is very simple. Most likely it is something else. Check the wires first.

 

Thanks for all the info. I'm clueless when it comes to trucks, hell any vehicle for the matter, since this is my first ride. I tried the whole screwdriver to the relay trick and it made the same exact clicking sound as when I try to start it. And I did not know you could take the starter to Auto Zone for a free check on it. I will check all the cables to make sure the connections are good in a couple days when im not working day and night. I will keep you guys updated once I check the connections and such.

Thanks, Steven.

 

Good chance it's the ground cable, they can corrode at the mid-point ground. If it passes visual, still check its resistance with a meter

 

Mine did the exact same thing. I fried the solenoid when I installed a new stereo the way the manual called for instead of wiring the always on clock lead directly to the battery. Or something like that. A buddy helped me re-install it and I'm not 100% sure what he did even though I watched him do it.

Funny thing was, the starter failed the test when removed, but worked with a replacement solenoid.