USMC64-70

My truck will fail to start sometimes, just get a cliking noise. Replaced both batteries about 1 month ago and they are fully charged. Have been having problems removing the ignition key after shifting the auto into the park position.

When I have problems, shifting the trans into neutral allows the truck to start.

My question is if there is some sort of "safety switch" that gets activated when the trans is put into park? Maybe it is not disengaging???

Any body experienced this before or have any thoughts?

All warning and idiot lights appear normal and I have checked both battery connections and they are fine. Do these trucks have a starter solenoid on them? If it is the starter motor are they very expensice to replace? ???

Thanks

berner

Very common problem. Your starter contacts are gone. You need to replace them with the heavy duty ones. Might as well change the plunger while you've got it apart. It's a pretty easy job. I've seen them on ebay or you can get them from Fosters in the links section here. You'll need a 12 pt. 10mm socket or a boxend wrench with a snipe to loosen the 3 starter mounting bolts. They're pretty tight.

BTW, you should probably do it ASAP because the clicking you hear is the fuel shutdown solenoid working and if you hold the key in the start position too much it'll burn out.

Hottrodjim

If you can shift the transmission into neutral and it starts right up and you are having a problem getting the key out in park then you defininitely have a transmission linkage adjustment problem. Our trucks have a device that will not allow you to remove the key unless it is in park and another device that will not let you start the truck unless it is in either park or neutral. You have both problems and they both point to the linkages. You could damage the tranny by driving it while it is partially in gear too. If I were you I would check, clean and lubricate all the linkages and check the nuts on the transmission where it connects to the shift lever.

USMC64-70

Thanks for the all the good advice.

I ended up checking the shift linkage and replacing my starter unit, that seems to have solved the problem. Probably could have gotten by with only doing the solenoid on the starter but decided on the whole thing.