I have to pop my hood to start my truck...

[adsm08]

Btw... What is that tiny wire coming of the relay?

It's the key switched power to activate the starter relay when you turn the key.

 

[91stranger]

Just out of curiosity, when did this start? Did you replace the battery? Change anything? Did you check the basics like the battery terminals? I've seen a lot of people think they have a problem with their car and it was just a loose battery terminal. Clean and tighten and try again. Back story would be helpful too.

 

[TEACHER]

Are you getting voltage to the solenoid wire that engages the high current 12 volts. I will try to say this another way. The little wire controls the big wires. When the little wire goes 12 positive that throws the solenoid in to connect the big wires to the starter to engage it. The voltage comes to the little wire when you turn the key to the start position. You can take a volt meter or a 12 volt test light and turn the key to the on position while monitoring this voltage with above mentioned device. The test light will light if there is 12 V or the volt meter will read 12-13 volts DC.
The before mentioned clutch safety switch could also be the issue. The clutch pedal has a switch that allows the voltage to go to the little wire of the solenoid. If that switch is bad or not connecting when you press the clutch then it will never allow that voltage to the small wire. You can test it with a volt meter set on the ohms scale looks like a horseshoe or the omega symbol of the Greek alphabet. If you find the wires going to the clutch pedal and remove them you can use a peice of wire to go into each wire of the connector to bypass the safety switch. That would be fooling the truck making it seem the clutch is always pressed for the starting mechanism to work properly. If you want to ohm the switch with the wire removed put the red lead into one side of the switch and the black in the other with the battery disconnected. When you press the clutch it should go to low ohms. I would guess it would be lower than 100 ohms. But at any case you would see a large change from maximum ohms or meg ohms to a small amount of ohms. Hope this helps keep us posted. The switch is the part that stays at the clutch pedal that you remove the wires from. The clutch bypass has the wires on it.

 

[Fryskate]

Hey all, i have an update!

I went over to a friends house on friday 9/6, and we installed a push button starter. Momentary switch obviously. But, we just ran wires from either bolt on the solenoid and into the cab to said switch. Works like a dream!

Except....

Now my ignition works! So i had to go out of my way to buy parts, drill a hole in my dash, install the parts. only for the whole problem to solve itself after i did the work on bypassing the problem in the first place. Im happy everything works, but its frustrating as all hell.

Thank you for all your advice on this. I love this place!