As with most of our trucks, ours is showing it's age after 18 years. About two years ago, I started experiencing no-starts.
Since we have dual batteries, it was easy to try combining them to provide a little extra punch and this usually worked. Then it didn't one day and even jumping the two batteries together with cables didn't help. This was still intermittent, but one day last winter it was clear the primary starting battery was in decline. Testing showed it still could put out close to rated voltage without a load, but it quickly dropped with a load applied. Battery had reached the end of warranty period, so R&R that.
Still had no starts, so did further analysis. After some MUDsearch, the starter contacts were an obvious possibility. But the symptoms just didn't line up well with that. Turning the key often resulted in nothing. No relay slap. No sound of solenoid attempting to throw the starter drive gear. Further analysis suggested that the ignition switch was a less commonly encountered issue, but seemed to fit my problem. Jiggling the key in and out and around usually resulted in a start after less than a half dozen tries. Every one in awhile, It would be funny about wanting to crank once I got it to provide juice to the starter, but mostly it would just start. I finally got around to ordering up the ignition switch from a MUD vendor and installed it. Forensic exam of the removed switch showed obvious issues that accounted for the symptoms I mostly encountered. Some interesting pics of the worn and arcing contact plates in the switch down the page a little here: https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/ignition-switch-replacement-procedure.841286/page-2
Here's a relevant one that shows the larger and worst of the two worn plates:
The first few starts with the new switch went fine, nice strong sounds from the starter as it cranked willingly. Problem solved?
No, in fact after the first few nice clean starts, it was worse
But I was getting good juice downstairs, sound of relays slapping, but also the strain of the solenoid trying to do its thing and failing. Jiggling the keys as before did nothing to help. Kept trying to start and after a dozen or so attempts it would finally break loose and crank for me.
Now, the starter didn't suddenly go from mostly OK to way worse. Replacing it with a reman starter totally solved the problem, so it's clear that it had seen better days.
So why was it starting mostly OK with the failing ignition switch before I got consistent contact there? Certainly nothing like the dead in the water sound of the solenoid trying to get from here to there when jiggling the keys before I replaced the ignition switch.
I suspect the partial power that the poor contacts in the worn ignition switch made when they were acting up, repeated several times, jogged the solenoid enough so that it was free to move the starter drive gear once I was able to get the ignition switch to make good contact. That's why it started reliably once I got the ignition switch going.
Once the new ignition switch was able to throw full power on the first shot, every time, this saw the solenoid binding up, because the additional force smacked it right into that position. Yes, many retries would get it going, but nowhere near as easily as with the old worn ignition switch.
I think people may want to consider the fact that the two things, ignition switch and starter solenoid, interact together so that it's often not an either/or situation that is at work. Now that most of these trucks have a lot of miles on them, with normal wear and tear (which is all this seems to be), it's the interaction of two failing parts that often determines what the failure state ends up being. In other words, solving your issue completely by believing it's one failed part often fails to resolve the problem.
You may not want to buy an ignition switch. As I noted in the linked thread, it's easy enough to take apart and reassemble (but don't lose the little balls!
) the ignition switch to clean up the contact plates and the corresponding contact nubs. It's a bit of a chore to extract it from the dash, so if you have issue pointing directly at it like I did, but you may want the replacement new switch on hand (cost ~$100, but it is special order) before you start in order to fully resolve a no-start situation.
In cases where it's clear the solenoid is thde likely culprit, then either replacing the contacts or R&R for a reman starter is probably indicated first and may solve everything. If symptoms point toward the ignition switch, it's possible replacing just it will resolve the no starts. However, many find it does not fully deal with things, even when replacing the switch results in improved starting performance. Don't see not solving the whole she-bang as a failure if you do one and not the other and still have no starts. The interaction between the two main failure points in the aging starting system seems to occur along similar time lines, but the overlap between the two and the results I had strongly suggest thinking of this as a systemic fix, rather than a one-part solution.
Since we have dual batteries, it was easy to try combining them to provide a little extra punch and this usually worked. Then it didn't one day and even jumping the two batteries together with cables didn't help. This was still intermittent, but one day last winter it was clear the primary starting battery was in decline. Testing showed it still could put out close to rated voltage without a load, but it quickly dropped with a load applied. Battery had reached the end of warranty period, so R&R that.
Still had no starts, so did further analysis. After some MUDsearch, the starter contacts were an obvious possibility. But the symptoms just didn't line up well with that. Turning the key often resulted in nothing. No relay slap. No sound of solenoid attempting to throw the starter drive gear. Further analysis suggested that the ignition switch was a less commonly encountered issue, but seemed to fit my problem. Jiggling the key in and out and around usually resulted in a start after less than a half dozen tries. Every one in awhile, It would be funny about wanting to crank once I got it to provide juice to the starter, but mostly it would just start. I finally got around to ordering up the ignition switch from a MUD vendor and installed it. Forensic exam of the removed switch showed obvious issues that accounted for the symptoms I mostly encountered. Some interesting pics of the worn and arcing contact plates in the switch down the page a little here: https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/ignition-switch-replacement-procedure.841286/page-2
Here's a relevant one that shows the larger and worst of the two worn plates:
The first few starts with the new switch went fine, nice strong sounds from the starter as it cranked willingly. Problem solved?
No, in fact after the first few nice clean starts, it was worse
But I was getting good juice downstairs, sound of relays slapping, but also the strain of the solenoid trying to do its thing and failing. Jiggling the keys as before did nothing to help. Kept trying to start and after a dozen or so attempts it would finally break loose and crank for me.
Now, the starter didn't suddenly go from mostly OK to way worse. Replacing it with a reman starter totally solved the problem, so it's clear that it had seen better days.
So why was it starting mostly OK with the failing ignition switch before I got consistent contact there? Certainly nothing like the dead in the water sound of the solenoid trying to get from here to there when jiggling the keys before I replaced the ignition switch.
I suspect the partial power that the poor contacts in the worn ignition switch made when they were acting up, repeated several times, jogged the solenoid enough so that it was free to move the starter drive gear once I was able to get the ignition switch to make good contact. That's why it started reliably once I got the ignition switch going.
Once the new ignition switch was able to throw full power on the first shot, every time, this saw the solenoid binding up, because the additional force smacked it right into that position. Yes, many retries would get it going, but nowhere near as easily as with the old worn ignition switch.
I think people may want to consider the fact that the two things, ignition switch and starter solenoid, interact together so that it's often not an either/or situation that is at work. Now that most of these trucks have a lot of miles on them, with normal wear and tear (which is all this seems to be), it's the interaction of two failing parts that often determines what the failure state ends up being. In other words, solving your issue completely by believing it's one failed part often fails to resolve the problem.
You may not want to buy an ignition switch. As I noted in the linked thread, it's easy enough to take apart and reassemble (but don't lose the little balls!
) the ignition switch to clean up the contact plates and the corresponding contact nubs. It's a bit of a chore to extract it from the dash, so if you have issue pointing directly at it like I did, but you may want the replacement new switch on hand (cost ~$100, but it is special order) before you start in order to fully resolve a no-start situation.In cases where it's clear the solenoid is thde likely culprit, then either replacing the contacts or R&R for a reman starter is probably indicated first and may solve everything. If symptoms point toward the ignition switch, it's possible replacing just it will resolve the no starts. However, many find it does not fully deal with things, even when replacing the switch results in improved starting performance. Don't see not solving the whole she-bang as a failure if you do one and not the other and still have no starts. The interaction between the two main failure points in the aging starting system seems to occur along similar time lines, but the overlap between the two and the results I had strongly suggest thinking of this as a systemic fix, rather than a one-part solution.
Last edited: