i'm not a mechanic.
i'm looking at the starter behind the passenger tire on the frame right?
there's one wire going to the top of the larger cylinder from the battery. it's one of the gray and black starters. but where i've seen them with 2 poles on the smaller attached cylinder there's nothing but a round cover? where are the poles?
can i just jump the pos. battery to the wire on top of the large cylinder to test it?

 

is it not cranking? jump the relay/solenoid on the passenger side fender.

 

it's not even clicking. been sitting a year. battery's new. can you explain how to do this?

 

i usually just use a screwdriver to jump across the terminals on the fender solenoid.
and heres a pic of my 93's starter

wires and post are up top on the starter mounted solenoid

 

ok..my solenoid doesn't seem to have poles on top. it's just a round black cylinder with no wires or poles.
the only wire is attached to the starter beside the round cap on top.

 

ok then you have the older style starter. if i remember correctly that one didnt have a solenoid on the starter. the solenoid on the fender was the only one. jump across the terminals on the solenoid and see if it cranks. if not then take the starter off and have it tested. or use jumper cables/jump box and test it your self.

 

ok. while i was out i put the voltmeter on the terminal on top of the starter and ground it. my girlfriend turned the ignition and it cranked. what's this mean? solenoid?

 

any ideas?

 

bump

 

it means you have a connection issue before the relay or the relay is bad. I would just replace the firewall relay they are only about 10 bucks. see if that fixes it.

 

That's the older swinging-poleshoe style of starter, which has no solenoid. It uses the relay near the battery to send power directly to its only terminal on that heavy wire. What did your meter show while it was cranking?

I suspect either:
1) the ignition switch is intermittent.
2) the NSS/MLPS is intermittent (VERY likely if you have the E4OD).
3) the starter relay is intermittent.
4) the starter is bad.

 

i didn't get a reading when it cranked b/c i was so surprised by it.
i just now went out to crank it and it wouldn't. i put it in neutral and it did...left it running a couple minutes. i turned it off and cranked it again in neutral then i put it in park and it cranked up. i turned on the a/c to see if it was still working. i turned it off and cranked it a few times to listen to it. finally the battery trickled off and it won't start now.

 

what should i do to troubleshoot? should i go get a relay?
i need to run to the parts store tomorrow, but want to make sure i get everything i need since it's a good ways from here.

 

No, don't blindly buy parts. First, charge the battery. Then inspect the MLPS according to the TSB in this caption:



Then with a good battery, rig a test light to the LB/R wire on the starter relay & see if it lights when the starter DOESN'T work. If not, the fault is between there & the ig.sw. If it does, move the light to the single heavy wire on the relay going to the starter. If it doesn't light when the starter DOESN'T work, replace the relay.

 

sorry...what's mlps and tsb?