Hi, My girlfriend is having starting problems with her Ford Ranger. Its a 1996 Ranger 4.0 V6 straight shift with 244,000 + miles. In the morning it will start fine but then you have to put a screwdriver across the relay on the drivers side fender to start it. If it sits for several hours say 6+ it will usually start. She took it to a local shop and they replaced the battery ends for her. It started fine for a time or two. It did it again so they said to replace the fender relay - which we did. It started fine for a time or two then it did it again. They showed her how to take a screwdriver and place it across the relay on the fender to get it started. They told her somebody would have to push the clutch in while another person did the relay trick. After we left there we found out that it will start without pushing in the clutch. Somebody at work mentioned a neutral safety switch that would be under the clutch pedal. We had a friend look for it and she did to but couldn't see anything. I can't because of my recent back surgery or I would do it. Also last year the truck had a new clutch and slave cylinder and throw out bearing replaced. Any chance that could be related to this problem. Any help that you can give is appreciated because or funds are limited and we can't afford to keep spending $20-30 here and there because it starts to add up. One other bit of information you can start the truck then remove the key and it will keep on running and the switch will spin around also. She says it has done that for years. Thanks for your help and advice.

Here's a update on the ranger. The truck will now only start if you use the screwdriver across the relay trick. Before it would start with the key if it had sit for six hours +. Anybody out there got any ideas on what could be causing this. Thanks for your help.

Not sure if if you have a ignition switch (icm) seperate from the pcm on a 96 but check or have your relays and fuses checked. might want to replace the solenoid on your starter you can by it seperate from the starter motor and mount it.

----------

Can you hear the starter engaging