Ok my starter has been clicking badly for over a week now. Yesterday I figured I would clean all the wire ends that lead to the starter just to see if it would improve until I could replace the contacts. So I cleaned the battery terminals and wire ends leading to the starter and at the battery. I noticed this wire that routed underneath the starter and it connected to another terminal on the front side of the starter. Ok...I had some left over WD-40 and commenced to spraying all the connections on the starter and loosened and tightened the positive wire a few times to help get a better spark to it. Now it starts with first crank...So should I buy the contacts and keep them to the side just in case?

 

You can always pop the cover off the solenoid and look at the contacts. It is visibly apparent if they are worn. They could have even become pitted from the week of clicking due to the bad connections. When they start to fail, the problem can be intermittent, showing up for a week then going away for a month then back and forth working/not working until it becomes an almost constant problem:

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/Starter.shtml

 

yeh i think i should buy them just in case theres that morning..ill try and pop that cover off but it looks incredibly tight there....thanks 4crawler

 

got the contacts in today and cleaned the plunger assy too....starts great!

 

That's all it usually takes to fix that problem.

 

yes sir...thanks for the info rog!

 

Just did my contacts too. Worked like a charm. Thank you Roger!