86 Bronco II when cold will not start without shorting the solenoid with a screwdriver. Changed solenoids, starter and starter switch on the steering column and no luck.

Car is quite early to consider an immobiliser but should not be excluded...

Fault could be worn or faulty ignition/starter switch, broken or disconnected wiring or if there is a relay in circuit it could be faulty.

bad battery or corroded battery terminals. and check the heavy cable that goes to starting motor for corrosion

Not sure what you are saying the problem is.
You have a red wire on the solenoid that goes to the battery and a 50amp fuse. The red and lite blue wire comes from the key switch.
Then you have a black wire that goes from the solenoid down to the starter to energize it. You have a large red wire on the starter coming from the battery to power it.

I think it has some thing to with a relay maybe.

Hi, I'm assuming your solenoid is not clicking. If that is the case, the problem is either the ignition switch or the interlock. The interlock is under the clutch pedal if you have a manual transmission or screwed into the transmission if you have an automatic.




neutral safety switch:

Just answered identical problem in another make of vehicle. There are 2 possibilities for your problem. A bad Keyswitch and/or a bad Starter Solenoid. I assume your Bronco did not start, which is a good thing. You could have damaged the teeth on the flywheel if the engine started.

You may need to replace the Keyswitch. It is suppose to send a signal to the "tickler" wires on the Solenoid, connecting the Battery to the Starter. Either the Keyswitch shorted and continued to power the Solenoid, or the Solenoid shorted and Welded a connection after the Keyswitch was turned OFF.

Remove the small wires to the Solenoid. If the Solenoid is welded internally, the Battery will spark when you try to connect the Battery cables and the Starter will spin. This would mean the Keyswitch may still be good, do not reattach the small wires yet.

You would need a testlight or Voltmeter to test each small "tickler" wire by attaching the testlight to a Ground and the other end to the tickler wire. When you turn the Key to Start, the light should Glow. It should not Glow all the time.

My advice is to replace both the Keyswitch and the Solenoid because of the wear they encountered with the malfunction. Then when you get the Bronco to start, go to Autozone or Oreillys for a Starter draw test to see if the Starter was damaged by your other problems. Both of those Parts stores test and scan for free.

Possibly you have your main power lead hooked to the starter side of solenoid.

The solenoid on your starter is probably no good. Just get a new starter. Theres no starter that will "grab the teeth better", theres just new ones that work and old ones that **** out

Ford used alot of fuseable links, mostly around starter selenoid, look around for them and everyone you find try pulling them apart if there bad or burnt they will pull apart and there is your problem. If you don't find one burnt, than its got to be in the wire comming from the switch, heck there might be one of them fuseable links in that wire too.I never had to go that far to find a burnt one it was always around the selenoid or starter.

try changing the solenoid and looking for a broken wire from yhe solenoid to the starter. if this does not work the most common problem is that the ignition switch is bad.