I'm have a problem with getting the truck to start. I went outside yesterday to start it, all the lights came on and it cycles through the grid heater and fuel pump as it should. The wait to start light goes off so I turn the key, and nothing, no cranking over, nothing. My first instinct was to move the shifter because over the last year or two I've been having a problem with the truck doing this. If I move the shifter down to neutral and back to park, or just down to neutral, it usually cures it, but it didn't. After that I got to looking at the "neutral safety switch", but you can't really do much with it. I adjusted my shift linkage so that I knew the shifter was going into park all the way, but I knew that probably wouldn't do anything either.

Then I checked the battery, just to be sure, but I knew it wasn't the problem either, and it read 12+ volts BTW. After that I eliminated the possibility of it being caused by the starter because the truck fired right up when I touched a wire from the brown wire on the female side of the weatherproof connector by the battery, to the positive terminal of the battery, with the key in the run position. In the result of that test, I went with the starter relay as being the problem. I got a new 5 pin relay from NAPA this morning, installed it, and still nothing.

When you go directly from the battery to the starter as I did, does it completely bypass the "neutral safety switch" using that method? I believe it does, but I'm just wondering so I can rule that out or not.

Honestly I think I'm back to looking at the "NSS" as the culprit, but it looks like it would be a nuisance to replace. I could see that it comes out of the drivers side of the transmission, and then runs up the rear drivers side of the block, up to a plug that looks like it ends some where in the area where the fuel filter is.

One other option I have to look at is a small brown wire under the hood, on the drivers side by the relays, that is snapped in two. I don't know if it's anything important, I don't really think it is, but I have had issues with two other wires in that area and they needed to be re-soldered twice before for the gauges to work and for the truck to start. Here's a few pictures of that wire for reference:

Thanks

 

that looks like the wire for the solenoid. I would bet if you connect that brown wire back together it should start with the key.

 

Yeah, that brown wire is your problem.

 

Well, at least it won't cost me anymore money, and I'll be able to stick the old relay on there and see if that works. Thanks a lot for the help guys.

 

I'm having the same problem, however, I recently fixed some electrical problems and I believe that brown wire is for the A/C as mine wasn't connected at all and started fine until today (the A/C worked once I reconnected the brown wire). I also just got my tranny rebuilt so not sure if the neutral switch was replaced in that or not. I do have kinda a sloppy shifter so maybe that is the problem...

 

I went back in and wired up that brown wire and it instantly started. The biggest pain was just getting to that wire to solder it. When I was done I taped everything back up nice an tight so it all wouldn't rattle around, hopefully that solves any future issues.

As far as the A/C wire, it maybe be another brown wire that power's it, but that particular one in the picture was definitely my starting problem.

 

Glad to hear you got it fixed!

 

Now that it’s fixed, why did it break?
Did you open up the harness, because the Green Fuse Link looks like rats have been chewing on it,
A wire bundled up in a harness will not usually break.
Jim

 

No, I didn't open the harness, but I agree, it looks like mice or some other kind of rodent got into the wires. I didn't even bend the brown wire up like that in the picture either, that's how I found it, so something was definitely into it.

Unfortunately with money these days the truck has sat for longer periods of time than I would like as I really can only afford fuel in 1 truck at the moment. Plus I'm having a few small issues with it, like a sharp snapping to the right while driving (believe that's a u-joint binding, and a tie rod helping too), it need's a new brake booster (as the pedal just goes down far and hisses while doing it, the booster has a slight leak, and the rear brakes need to be adjusted too), it need's the weather stripping replaced on the cab as that leaks, the thermostat need's to be replaced because it doesn't get to operating temp (so coincidentally it doesn't get very much heat in the cab, and I've checked the heater core which surprisingly is very clean, but I still need to clean a little out of the HVAC box), the control valve leaks on the FP, and the transmission sticks in first gear when you do lots of stop and go driving, with a host of other little things I can't think of. But other than that stuff, she runs like a top and I wouldn't rather have anything else.

 

Thanks