WahooSteeler

Problem solved! Starter relay......... My random no-start turned in to not random and for the past week the truck would just go dead when the key was turned to start. So over the weekend I checked the grounds and all were tight. Some were dirty with grease etc but there was no play in the wires at all. Pulled the coil and cleaned the contacts on the coil and the clips on the ICM. Checked the connections on the starter since it was just replaced a few months ago, all good. Did some more research of posts on here and while there are a lot of no-start threads with similar symptoms, one in particular read identical to mine and it was his starter relay. Decided I was willing to try this for $35 bucks and sure enough........BAM, started right up! Incredibly relieved to have that search mission behind me.

Oh they're everywhere on this truck!

LOL, I was saying that in sarcastic disbelief. Makes me question less of the "splices" 'that seem to be in my wiring though, at least in the engine bay. Wow. Thanks though!

Just pulled the duct tape off, yes they are connected by a metal crimp. You're telling me this is how it came from the factory??

Those ARE the connectors to the ICM. I pulled them to inspect the pins and noticed the 2pin connector only had the 1 yellow wire and the nub of a green wire. That's my question, is the 2pin connector supposed to have a second (green) wire in it? And adding to the confusion as I was trying to show in the picture, there are 2 green wires coming out of the loom but then they are taped (spliced maybe) together and only 1 green wire goes to the 3pin connector.

Factory Laredo pkg, factory full gauge cluster w/tach

Are you talking about the ignition relay on the steering column or something else? Not sure I follow on "ignition module".

Digging in to the mess some more today and I find these connectors underneath the ignition coil. The 2 lead connector only has one wire and what's left of a 2nd wire (green). Coming from the wiring loom you can see 2 green wires go in to electrical tape but only 1 green wire comes out and goes to the other 3 lead connector. Again, I can't imagine this is supposed to be this way. Any help on what these connectors are for but more importantly if there is supposed to be a 2nd wire still connected to the 2 lead connector?? In this picture you can see the 2 green wires (yellow wire in between them) coming together and taped but only 1 green wire coming out. In both pics you can see the green nub on the 2 lead connector and only a yellow wire going in to it. WTH

LOL if this was Facebook he'd be engulfed in flames right now. Soooo tempting.........

Don't be embarrassed, just be glad it was a simple fix!

Personally I think those door panels are worth some money because not only are they the hard to find black, but even more rare that they have factory electric windows, so no manual window crank hole.

So do the mounting screws thread into the cargo light housing from inside?

I can vouch for Jeff's grilling and BBQ skills. I bought my ZJ coils from him several years ago and made the trip to Richmond so he could help me install them and my MT springs and I gave him a hand pulling his engine (to be clear, mostly handing him tools, watching and learning). All the while he had a little Weber Smokey Joe slow cooking a pork butt for hours on end which we had for delicious pulled pork sammies that evening with his wife. A few beers were consumed along the way!

I have the same seats on my 88 and had the same tear but much worse. Like others said, you might find a passenger seat cover that is not torn and swap it over if you don't mind holes in the side. My passenger cover was stained beyond cleaning and I found a nice one that I washed and put on. On the driver seat the upholstery shop I used found a really good match IMO as to keeping it looking like original and being a bit anal I recovered the cloth on both seats and the matching door panels so there would be a uniform look to the interior. On the door panels, the shop said it was glued on from the factory, not stapled, and at the top and bottom of the cloth there is a plastic trim piece. So to take apart they were worried they would tear up the door panel and we came up with the idea of just rolling the edges over which turned out very nice I think. There were some tears in the vinyl sections of both seats and I had them repair them also, matching up color there was easy. Material cost was dirt cheap, I think for both seats and door panels it cost $25 but that's also because the shop will keep the rest of the fabric roll for future jobs so I didn't have to pay for the entire roll.

Ford brought it over from Europe IIRC. Potent little engine, large rear side windows.......and a double spoiler. Had a friend that had one with a few mods. Fast but tempermental little sucker!

Are you entering the Cannonball Run or something LOL? Why would you want/need 47 gals and the extra weight? Not busting balls, truly curious.

saveeveryjeep on here has a couple of them i think. For shipping put them in "mirror" boxes from u-haul. They shipper would probably need 4 of them but you're talking $20?

Merkur XR4Ti

Russian interrogation tool......

That's what's been happening during the "no starts", then today after raking the shifter from park through neutral and back I guess I got enough contact to bring it back to life.

Drove the truck today and it happened again, couldn't have been turned off for 10-15mins. Got the buzzer and gauges when I first turned the key but when I turned all the way to start, went straight dead. Jiggled the shifter while in park and then neutral and got gauges and buzzer again, turned to start and went dead again. Jiggle the shifter more in neutral and after getting gauges etc it seemed like it was still drawing down as the volt gauge dropped back even further. Let it just sit for about 15 mins and maybe let the batter recover and..........bingo, started. So I am 90% sure it's the NSS. I'll report back when I get the time to remove, clean and reinstall.

Bueller? Bueller? ......................Bueller?

I do have the electric manual, and thanks Eagle for posting a link to one in case I didn't. Yes, I'll probably use that to pinpoint certain things. Still curious what the relay is in pic #3 and the part it is bolted on top of?

That's what I did today, fortunately nothing was functioning or hot. Got a few more to track down.

Well today I finally started tackling the PO's wiring mess after 11yrs of ownership LOL. I'm only the 2nd owner and the guy before me was the Splice King! Sheesh! I know he had fog lights, aftermarket stereo and amp, but what in the world else would you need to splice so much for? He also hardwired the aux fan, but I'm good with that. This is what I pulled today with much of it tucked up tight in the dash and the long red power cable going through the firewall. May not look like much but it was a pain to get to and get out. Here you can see 2 inline fuse holders, one a blade type and the other a tube type. But look at the splices with electrical tape, wth? What is this relay/solenoid for and what is the round can-like part that it is bolted on top of? The blue wire is spliced to a spade connector on there as is the large orange wire which is spliced in to the red wire coming out of the loom. Finally, what is the connector for/to that I am holding with the pliers? It has not been connected to anything since I bought the truck and I've never found a corresponding connector unattached in that area. I think it was an 8 pin connector and had 5 female pins in it. Thanks for any help............