I'm helping my brother change out his starter on his Ford Ranger. We swapped out the old starter for the new, tried to start it, and it didn't work.



I could hear a "clunk" coming from the new starter when he tries to crank it, then saw some smoke near the relay.



I noticed that the small wire that comes from the starter relay, and attaches to the starter solenoid is melted. I figured maybe the spade connector holding it on the solenoid wasn't all the way on, so I made sure it was tight, tried to start again, and same thing.



What would cause this? Could the new starter/solenoid be bad?

either you have a short, have it wired wrong, or the new starter is bad.



kevin.

There is absolutely no way it's wired wrong, checked and re-checked. I can't see where there would be a short, I can visibly see the wire from the relay to the solenoid, and from the battery to the starter.



On the local forum a guy said he's gotten several bad starters and solenoids from the chain stores around here, so tomorrow we'll get it checked out.

That would be the best 1st step, make sure the starter is good.



Also, a lot of starters need to be shimmed and lined up correctly, otherwise they will not engage correctly and lock up.



I would pull the starter, wire it up, and try it and see if it even functions. If it does you might want to make sure its lined up correctly.

We had it wired correctly, but after that first start attempt, it completely fried the ignition wire to the starter solenoid. Once I pulled it out of the wiring loom, I could see how the entire insulation was melted.



Replaced with new wire, started right up!