Hi all:

My 02 Dodge diesel sometimes just clicks when I go to start it after it has been sitting overnight or a few days.. It does not sound like the starter solenoid to me.. Is there a relay of some kind that is getting bad? Sometimes I have to click it several times before it finally engages the starter.. The batteries are good and the connections are clean and tight, alternator charging good etc.. Thanks for any help!Mike

 

Mike,
I am sure that more knowledgeable folks will chime in but what you are experiencing sounds exactly like the very common solenoid contact problem. The recommended cure is:
1 - do NOT go buy an aftermarket starter at your local auto parts store, they don't last long.
2 - go to somewhere like Geno's Garage and order a set of heavy duty solenoid contacts. Some even posted a video on here a while back (it might be in the wiki) showing exactly how to rebuild your starter. I seem to remember it is about $50 in parts and takes a couple of hours, start to finish.
Warning - do not drop the starter on yourself when you are under the truck, they are surprisingly heavy.

One more thing, you might want to remove your email address from your public post. There are programs that crawl the web just looking for email addresses and phone numbers. Your spam count is probably about to start going way up

 

Here is a link to the article in the wiki section.

http://wiki.dieseltruckresource.com/...tarter_Rebuild

By the way, you will probably get more views and help if you use a more informative title on your posts, something like Clicking Starter or something like that. I am not try to be critical, just helpful.

 

The wiki tutorial is excellent and informative. I second the caution about dropping the starter on yourself. Been there and did it - that is one heavy ****** when it lands on you!

Cheers!

Mike

 

I got heavy duty contacts and a plunger at the local auto electrical supply for less than $35.

The HD contacts look a lot like Larry B's but were only 6 bucks at the auto electric place....

 

Thanks everyone... I was afraid I was going to have to drop the starter but wanted to be sure it wasn't a relay somewhere else... I know about heavy starters as I use to work on heavy equipment before I retired.. LOL that little starter won't bother me too much I guess.. Mike