Hello! I am desperately hoping someone on this forum can help me. My 98 contour started having starter problems about a week ago. I would turn the key and get nothing, no cclick. Nothing. After enough attempts it would fire up though. Sometimes firing up right away. Well a few days ago I had it running came to a stop. Parked it. Started driving again and thought I had left my headlights off as the dash lights were out. The headlight switch was on but my panel had gone.black. I.drove a few more blocks and the tac and speedometer dropped to zero, but the car was still running . At this point me headlights were very dim and all electronics seemed to struggle to work. Finally as I pulled over the motor started to jerk violently where I turned the car off. Came back to the car ten minutes later and she fired right up, made it about a mile or two before she did the same thing again. Repeated this process until I got her home. A local mechanic said the symptoms scream ignition switch so I replaced that. Did not solve the problem. What else could it be!? The alternator and battery are both brand new. Starter or ignition coil? I'm lost on this one...

 

It does sound like there is a power problem in the electrical system. And,,,,,,,,that could be either on the positive side or the ground side.
A good place to start checking would be the battery cable connections.
There should be a fuse panel under the hood in the engine compartment where the positive cable feeds the power for the entire vehicle. Something may not be right there. The power for the lights, starter solenoid and most other things including the ignition system are fed from there.
Also , if there is a poor ground connection for the sheet metal , a lot of things won't work or won't work properly. Just trace every ground wire you can find and loosen it and retighten it to make sure it is making good contact. You might even need to clean some of them.
Last but not least, the alternator may need to be checked. After market "rebuilt" alternators seem to come with their own problems.