About a week ago my 1994 Ram 2500 starting cranking very slow when I turned the key. A couple of days ago it wouldn't start at all. The dash lights flashed on and off, accompanied by the sound of a relay rattling. No cranking. The battery voltage was low, about 12.3 Lately I've been making short trips of three or four miles twice a day, not long enough for the batteries to charge back up from the heavy power drawn by the intake heater (I'm in northern Vermont). I figured that was the problem -- low batteries, just needed a charge.
The truck was parked several miles away from the house so I took the batteries out of the truck, took them home and charged them overnight. Next day I put them back in and same thing -- clackety clack, but no cranking. Maybe the batteries were shot?
Well, I took the batteries to Wal-Mart and was going to try to exchange them but they wouldn't take the batteries back because they tested good. I don't trust the kind of load tester they use there. The clamps they put on the batteries look like they have a contact area of about three square millimeters, so there's no way they can put a 100 amp load on a battery. Which is the only way to find out whether it can start a vehicle.
But I have to be honest; the batteries probably are good, because they are less than two years old and they are the correct batteries for the truck. So I'm thinking the starter might be burned out.
I'm not thrilled about having to get under the truck in the snow where it's parallel parked on a fairly busy street (College Street in Burlington) and replacing the starter. For one thing, I'm not absolutely %100 certain the starter is the problem. It probably is, but if I spend all that time and money and still can't start the truck, I'm going to be one unhappy camper.
I'd like to hear from the voice of experience, maybe somebody here can clue me in. Are Ram starters prone to failure after 15 years or so? Should I go ahead and replace it? Should I take it out of the truck and have it tested at a shop... need some advice. I suppose it's even possible the starter motor is okay but the solenoid is the problem.
I have a place to stay until Jan 15, then I don't know where I'm going, I might need to travel out of state. I don't have any friends here that could help me with this.

 

The starters dont have a history of going bad, but the contacts in the starter solenoid do. Pull them out and check them. You can get new ones from LarryB.

http://www.fostertruck.com/dodge/default.htm

 

If you're going to take it out to have it tested, I would order the contacts in the link in the above post. I'll bet yours are burnt and this will fix you up for under $50 and a couple of hours of your time.

 

question

Are the symptoms in this case consistent with bad contacts in the solenoid: i.e., it rattles clackety-clack, on and off but doesn't engage. While it does that, the lights on the dash flash on and off in time with the sound of a rattling relay.

I once repaired the contacts in the solenoid of an old IH truck I once owned, so I know can deal with this. How hard is it to remove the starter on a Ram, and are there any tricks about the starter on this particular truck that I need to know before I start wrenching on it. I see from the link I need a 12 point 10mm wrench. Anything else?

 

It's not hard to remove. Some have found the need to use a bottle jack on the end of the wrench for some stubborn bolts, seems to be the best solution.

 

I had a starter go bad because the lift pump dripped fuel into it and chewed up the brushes.

 

I just talked to Larry B.
I described the symptom, instead of just one click and then nothing, when I hold the key down it rattles on and off very fast.
He speculated it might be a cheap chinese starter, basically a counterfeit denso (I don't know the history of this truck). He said the solenoid winding is inferior in those chinese starters and might be consistent with the behavior I described.
Anyway, first diagnostic step is to get under it and jump the starter to see if that gets it cranking. If not, look into the contacts.

 

How about trying to find a used stock starter, replacing the contacts while it's out? That way you know you'll have a good component to start with.

 

The solenoid is fried.
Is there any way just to buy the solenoid coil?

 

How about asking Larry B about it?

 

The original starter on mine died the weekend before Christmas. I had installed a set of Larry B contacts at about 200k. When I hit the key all I heard was one click, it was the fuel shut off solenoid, not the starter making the click. I tried shorting out the two contacts and nothing happened. Prior to the failure it had been turning over slowly, even with new batteries. I bought a new Denso starter here. http://www.fleetsource.com/SearchRes...10&Search.y=11