hi all! have had a spate of issues with starting my Ranger--usually it'll crank a bit, refuse to start, then quickly wind down and only produce a rough grating noise. thought it was the battery dying in between drives, checked for parasitic drain, couldn't seem to find anything, though disclaimer I am still learning and it's definitely possible I missed something, and this car has had many electrical demons in part because as far as I discovered when rewiring the horns/turn signals/headlights some if not all of the wiring harness is from a 1986 automatic. left it disconnected between starts, issue persists. several parts have been replaced as part of ongoing repair: alternator, voltage regulator, starter solenoid, battery (all replaced within the last year). fresh sparkplugs, fresh fluids. but still get this grating sound when trying to start.

when it does start it runs great, steady idle especially when warmed up, and if I've managed to get it to start the first time and it dies at any point (just from me failing to give it enough gas, whoops) it starts right up again no problem. when jumped it also starts almost immediately. this is why I've long assumed it was some sort of ridiculous parasitic drain that I'm missing, but I tried to start it today after having it jumped two days ago and driving it around quite a while to recharge the battery, and it cranked fine and then did the usual thing--wound down, grating.

guy I bought it from may or may not have replaced the starter motor--checked and it looks a little newer than the rest of the engine but not all that new. read one or two places that the issue could be the flywheel isn't aligning right because the bolts on the starter motor aren't tightened quite enough. any thoughts on whether or not the starter motor bolts might be the culprit here? or if it's a parasitic drain I am just not finding? perhaps somehow a crappy battery? what the issue might actually be? thanks much!