enginerd

Mine did this, it was just the battery tie down was broken. The battery was moving just enough to break that circuit. Quick check would tell you for sure.

No, but Calmini sells center link tie rod ends that go with their center link. So I'll order those direct from them.

As a follow-up, it took about 2 seconds of searching to realize that skimping on centerlink TREs is a bad idea. I'll just order from Calmini. Ignore that part above...

Should I buy three Parts Master outer tie rod ends, for $40, and have a spare for if/when one fails (I hit a trail once a year), or spend $80 on two Moog ones? Yes, I searched. I only found one thread in the R50 forum, from someone who ordered the Moog part, received a Parts Master box, and promptly returned it to the seller. But no feedback on actual Parts Master experience. With some general online searches, it sounds like Parts Master is a store brand, which buys parts from the major manufacturers, but those parts will not be the same as the original from the real manufacturer. But they should be at least OEM quality (??). To say it another way, the Moog ES3375 outer tie rod end is a better unit than the Parts Master ES3375, which is made to be "like" the Moog unit but may or may not be made by Moog. I know that I should buy the Moog units, and want to buy the Moog units, but I'm on a tight budget. At the same time, I haven't been able to drive my truck for months, as I bent enough steering components on the last trail run to throw my alignment way out of whack. Lots of parts to buy, so I'm trying to make careful decisions. I found a used Calmini HD steering setup, but am replacing all the tie rod ends before installing it. I found inner tie rod ends for under $10 each on rockauto.com. But still have to buy outers, and centerlink TREs. I might add a second thread looking for options on the CL TREs... but I need to search first. About the truck: JGC springs, and torsion bars are cranked. I'm a trail beginner, but the Northwest guys have taken me along a few times and I'm getting a little confident each time. I'd like to get aftermarket UCAs, and torsion bars, in that order, but again, price drives the upgrade schedule. Also, I'm thinking of selling the daily driver, since I like driving the Pathy so much, which would turn it into the DD.

My wire colors match the sketch above. They don't match my wiring diagram (Haynes) either, for either of the relays at this location. I've tried it every which way, with no luck. New relays is next on the list.

Good point, I should stop and make sure I'm working with the right part... and also brushed up on relay operation and realized that I had it backwards anyway. Here's a picture of the two relays (with three connectors) found right behind the battery, held in position similar to how they're mounted. Here's a sketch with wire colors. Last night and this morning, messing with the forward relay connector did the trick, but not from lunch on today. The heavier gauge wires are the #1 and #3 on the rear relay. It doesn't make sense to me that these could be heavier gauge while the circuits that they are part of through the relay are connected to smaller gauge wires on the other side... so I'm a little confused why this would be the #1/#3 combination instead of the #3/#5 combination to close the circuit. Thoughts? Is it just providing voltage/current from one circuit directly to another and that's OK? Sorry, circuits have never been my strong suit, though I'll keep trying! I'll try it both ways and see what happens! I may also just buy a new battery, I learned recently on my Subaru that the battery was responsible for all kinds of illogical bugs.

Here's a quick picture. The front of the car is down in the photo. The two wires are one of the two black ones and the brown one. You can just barely see where I stripped the wires to bridge them. That's when it no longer worked...

Scratch that, now I made it worse. I stripped the wires below the relay plug, and bridged those with a test wire. It started, but it was a struggle for the starter. I drove around for 15 minutes, then parked. Tried to start again, and just get one click. Voltmeter shows normal voltage at the battery and on the switch side of the relay socket. But no starter action. Did I just fry the starter?

Jumping the relays contacts worked. Now I just have to decide what the permanent fix is, but think I'll just pull back the wire insulation and solder the jumper wire on the wires at the back of the relay. I'm wondering if this is related to the fact that the fender liner on that side was recently removed and there's a daylight hole in the sheetmetal right next to these relays and the battery. Would lots of water in there (I'm in Seattle) be a likely cause of this and other problems? Thanks for the help all, much appreciated.

So the truck randomly wouldn't start on about the third errand today. The battery is holding steady at 12.5V. All accessories, headlights, etc. work fine. When the clutch is pushed in and the ignition turned to start, nothing happens. There's one click, not repeated clicking. There is no effort by the starter to turn. The AAA guy came to the same conclusion. We pushed it in the parking lot until we popped the clutch to start it, and that got me home. I parked at the top of the hill, and tried again, no action by the starter. I did a quick search, but didn't find much, and I don't know if this is the same fix as the "switching from AT to MT" thread. Has anyone come across this before?

I had the same thing happen a few months ago in Seattle. When they found the truck, the seats were torn up, and I'm guessing that they were running drugs... and you happen to be right across the border. And the cops here found simliar items - lipstick, perfume and a bunch of coke bottles. Wonder if that's related somehow, and this is their vehicle of choice? Seems like a long shot though. If they even looked for the thief, I'm not aware of it. On the carpet, just rip em out. I just replaced all of the carpet with turf and am loving it. Feels like mine again. Good luck with your rehab!

I have the same problem. Did you have any luck?