Quote Originally Posted by tony2much View Post
I traced the wire (black with yellow stripe) from the small lead on the starter up to a plug next to the battery. From this plug it appears to go through the firewall and onto the ignition switch. If I jump the starter side of the wire directly to the battery the truck cranks, so I thought the issue may be with the wires/plugs running between the ignition switch and this plug at the battery. However - when I ran a lead directly from the ignition to the starter - bypassing all factory wiring - I still got the same issue.
That sounds to me like a faulty ignition switch. Fortunately, you can replace just the electrical portion of the switch pretty cheaply without replacing the entire steering lock and key cylinder; IIRC, the switch module just pulls out of the left side of the steering column.

That said, if the starter that's in it was one of those parts-chain "lifetime warranty" starters, those tend to fail pretty quickly/frequently, so you're really just buying into a lifetime supply of rebuilt replacement starters about as crappy as the last one.

Give me a rebuilt OEM starter every time, which any local alternator exchange or auto-electrician shop should be able to do pretty cheaply. Usually all they need is to be cleaned and greased up, have the brushes replaced, carbon deposits buffed off the contact bar inside the solenoid, maybe a new pinion gear if badly worn, good as new. There really isn't much else in them to "go bad" if they were made well in the first place, which the parts-chain starters usually aren't.

If you don't have the OEM starter anymore, get a good major name-brand starter, even rebuilt if need be. When I gave up on getting yet another crappy reman from O'Reillys, I got a rebuilt Bosch starter instead that's been going strong ever since [knock wood]. Better yet, O'Reillys customer service confirmed I could get a refund instead of a replacement under their "lifetime warranty" terms if I wound up buying a replacement starter elsewhere, tho' this was a few years ago.