Reply to "Starting Problem"

When the starter just clicks & the motor refuses to turn over there are two possible methods for doing some home trouble shooting at that point:

(1) As John suggests, hook up a volt meter & observe what the voltage does when you try to start the motor: If the voltage drops very low suspect the battery because the starter motor is getting all the amps the battery can supply but its not enough. If the voltage changes very little suspect the starter or solenoid because the battery's current isn't flowing to the starter motor.

(2) Disconnect the ground cable from the Pantera's battery, hook up jumper cables from another running car, one to the battery + terminal, another to a chassis ground on the Pantera. If the Pantera starts this indicates the battery is bad; if the motor still refuses to turn-over its the starter or solenoid.

Remember a bad battery may indicate a bad charging system.

As far as I know all mini-starters are designed like a GM starter wherein the solenoid performs the duty of the starting relay. Therefore as Dave mentions when a mini-starter is installed in a Ford the chassis mounted starting relay is normally bypassed. This is easily accomplished by landing the cable to the starter on the same starter relay stud as the cable from the battery. This turns the pair of cables into one continuous cable from the battery to the starter motor.

Rock-n-roll.

-G