Once in a while the ground for the relay on the fender well is not all it should be and the relay will not make strong enough contact to allow the heavy current the starter needs to go through. Do you have a test light or voltmeter available to use ?

take each battery cable off the battery 1 at a time and clean them up ! it could be corroded battery terminals or the solenoid is sticking !

Put a new ground wire from the battery to the motor..make sure nthe connection is clean at the motor

are the battery terminals clean and tight ? maybe it,s the solenoid ! the solenoid is what kicks the starter in and it has to be good, the battery has to be fully charged and the battery terminals has to be clean and tight !

I do have a multimeter now. Mine disappeared so just picked a new one up. I am going to test the voltage at the battery and at the battery connection on the solenoid. Assuming those check, I will test the voltage at the starter when the ignition is turned. Other points to test?

Sadly, I am going to take this new starter in to be tested as well. It only takes 5 minutes to pull off. Who know with remanufactured parts...

Thank you for all your input. This one is REALLY puzzling to me.

To troubleshoot the ground, I took jumper cable and attached it to the negative on the battery and grounded it to a couple different spots on the engine block but got the same click each time!

That ground wire attached to the block is damn near impossible to get to! If I have to replace it, it's getting bolted elsewhere.

Whelp...

SHE RUNS!!

Thanks to everyone who provided input. To have such complete strangers offer all this help and advise is truly amazing.

After much racking the brain and troubleshooting it came down to something simple and stupid. The positive battery connection had corrosion hidden under the sheath behind the terminal. It still registered 12V at the solenoid but for whatever reason was creating a short when starting. My IT director at work actually figured it out. He used to be a switch tech for Nokia and couple of thing caught his ear. Anyway, cut the wire back to good wire and for good measure replaced the terminals. When I can make it back to O'Reilly's I will be purchasing new cables as well.

What I don't get is why my old starter failed at the bench test? Oh well. I kept the $39 remanufactured one and called it all good.

Anyway, thank you all once again. I can get back to work now! I'm sure I'll be seeing you around here.

Sincerely,

Troy