New Battery, Good starter, New seliniod, Won't start.

[Truckee250club]

I replaced the battery in my 71 F-250, as well as the selinoid, and the truck won't turn over, just clicks. Short of swapping the wiring, what are my options?

[70 ranger]

I would get yourself a good multimeter and check the charge on the battery. Then start following the wires to the solenoid all the way to the starter checking them to see if they are getting the same amount of charge from the battery. If any connection is poor it will not get the power to the starter. and if any ground is poor, the power can't do anything. it can't ground out. I hope this makes sense. I am sure someone else will come along and help you out, and explain it much better! But if everything is new it almost has to be a connection.

[72BahamaBlue]

Good to clean all battery cable connections, not a bad idea to remove and inspect/test that engine ground to batt cable. If auto trans, be sure shift lever is all the way in park, or try starting in neutral. A worn, failing or misadjusted neutral safety/backup light switch may cause the solenoid to just click.

[basketcase0302]

If it's "clicking" that is a good sign to be able to start with, (verifies you have power to the solenoid to pull it in). As 70Ranger said above I'd look real close at the battery's charge and all your ground connections. The solenoid has to be grounded also for it to work properly. Also not uncommon at all to get a bad solenoid right out of the box, especially if it has made in china or made in mexico on it.

[70 ranger]

Just thought of a problem I had with my mustang years ago I put in a solenoid for it. but it had an extra post on it. All it would do was click. I had to ground out the extra post to make it work. Don't know if this is the problem but you might want to verify that the new solenoid is exactly the same as the old one.