2004 Ranger xlt 2.3lt 2WD

Greetings-

Symptoms- Turn the ignition key to "ON", panel indicators light as they're supposed to. Turn the key to start, engine starts. Drive a while- park. Ignition off. Try and restart..."click". Lock indicator comes on and dimly flickers, nearly goes out then (indicator light) dies on second attempt to "START". Battery fully charged? Yes. Disconnect the battery for 30 seconds, reconnect. Same result. Repeat dis/reconnect sequence. This time, switch to "ON", wait a second or two, full indicator panel lights, then turn to "START" and engine starts.

My first suspect might be the starter, but considering what happened with the "Lock" light I'm wondering if the Ignition relay is failing (or do relays just work and then not work?). I disconnected the battery to see if the PCM had something to do with the problem and needed to be reset. What made me think of the PCM was that a little while back I had to replace a faulty alternator that was over charging and conceivably killed my fuel pump. I noticed that after I replaced the alternator, the engine would run somewhat rough and lack power at times. I wonder if the overcharging alternator may have damaged the PCM, perhaps? Does the PCM have anything to do with checking starting voltages? Or is it more likely that it could be just a worn ignition switch? It's just interesting that disconnecting the battery and then reconnecting would allow the engine to start.

Any thoughts would help.

Many thanks,

Richard

 

Are the battery connections clean and tight, tight as in having to use a wrench to remove ?

How about the other ends of the Positive and Negative cables ?

 

Yep, nice and tight with generous amounts of terminal protector. Have yet to check the starter connects. Interestingly enough, the symptoms have not re-appeared. I did replace the starter approx a year ago and the battery 5 mos. Considering that it has nearly 475k on the odo, maybe it's time for a new Ranger.