This is a 6 cyl 4x4 pickup that my son drives. Yesterday, the truck wouldn't start. There were no warning signs prior to this to indicate that the starter was going out. One day it was working fine and the next day it was totally dead. The truck had a new battery and alternator put in last winter. When we attempt to turn it over, the starter doesn't engage at all. Everything else electrical works fine. The only noise is the faint clicking sound of the starter relay in the fuse box under the hood. We pulled the cap on the fuse box and the sound is definitely coming from the relay, but there is no sound whatsoever coming from the starter itself. We even swapped the EFI relay with the starter relay to see if that was the issue, but same result. The truck will compression start and run just fine.

He takes this truck offroad quite a bit and the starter is pretty dirty. We'll check the electrical connections to see if they are clean, and then probably pull the starter and take it down and have it bench tested. Any other ideas on what to look for? Starter solenoid switch maybe?

 

It sounds like a dead battery. Try jumping it and see if it starts. If it dosen't then I would start to look at the starter. If the starter is origional, I would redo the contacts because you won't find a new one that is as good as the orgional.

Let us know the outcome

 

Good call, snobdds! It was indeed the battery. Didn't think this was problem because it was so new and came on so suddenly. The battery tested good at Autozone, but they replaced it anyway. Problem solved.

 

Hope you got the battery fully charged and have checked the charging system for any a/c ripple voltage from a bad diode or two after installing the new battery. A new battery doesn't die within a few months, or even a year or two, unless there's some other underlying issue with the charging system on the vehicle or some unaccounted for draw in the system.
Just my .05 cents.