'95 E350, 460 V8 - Starter relay location?

[Marco W]

Hi all,

Noob here with a '96 E350 SMB, it has the 460 V8. It suddenly won't start (no click, won't turn over). Battery is good, all accessories work. I tried starting it in P and in N, same symptoms. I tried jiggling the shifter while turning the key, no difference. So I suspect the starter relay, the starter solenoid, and the neutral safety switch, in no particular order. (It clicked once, and it also caught/fired normally once, out of many attempts to start it.)

I reviewed my Chilton's carefully and I looked for the starter relay/solenoid on the fender wall where it "should" be according to the manual, but I don't see anything that looks like the relay/solenoid there. I also pulled the doghouse and looked along the inside walls of the dash/firewall, but I don't see anything there either.

Where is the starter relay/solenoid? Am I blind, or is it hidden behind/under something else? Any advice/suggestions/constructive criticism is welcome.

Thanks, and apologies if I am posting this in the wrong place -- as I said, noob here.

[simplesez]

It is to the right of the radiator under the lip of the top support beam. Right in front of the battery. If it is dirty it looks like two nuts next to each other. Nothing fancy.

My previous experience with non-starts was the ground terminal at the battery was not super tight. It needs to be very tight. Also the starter does go bad. It has to turn a massive flywheel on the 460

[Marco W]

Thanks for the tip(s)! I will doublecheck the negative terminal and take another look for the relay where you suggest.

[Marco W]

Hi gang,

I’m back to belatedly update this thread with a definitive answer. I checked the starter relay and it was fine but there was still no power getting to the starter. After trying a bunch of stuff i was sitting in the drivers seat feeling frustrated and i idly cycled the door locks with the alarm remote. When I did, I noticed that the alarm indicator light shut off entirely and then reset to a steady intermittent flash. I realized that it had been flashing in some other pattern for a few days. So it dawned on me that the alarm might have been triggered and that might have cut off the starter. So i cycled the alarm off again and tried the key.

Yup, started right up.

Turns out the vintage Alpine alarm has a starter cutoff function and somehow i must have triggered it. (The alarm never sounded.).

So, user error was the problem. Van starts right up. #embarassing. Thanks for the suggestions and guidance! Hope I can save someone else the hassle.