96 mazda starting issue

[kirakitty]

So, New battery and terminals went in at the end of August. The truck was starting fine until Oct 22, I Got in and hit the key, I got a half a click and then nothing, including dash lights disappeared. It was like the battery was disconnected. I got a jump and it started, so I got it home thinking the starter/solonoid was shorting and pulling down power so It's been parked until today. the reason I replaced the battery was because the truck was hard starting when it was warm. so now my brain cell is saying maybe it was the starter and not the battery, So I just put a new starter in and "houston, we still have a problem". my next direction is to put a jumper cable from the negative battery terminal to the engine block. to see if its a ground issue.

Any opinions on my diagnosis?

96 B4000 4.0l auto 4x4 155k miles

 

[Rogue_Wulff]

Check battery connections for corrosion and tightness. Sounds to me like the classic bad cable connection, usually at the battery.

 

[kirakitty]

terminals are clean and tight, spent some time working on them when I reconnected the battery, thats why I am thinking its the cable itself. My jumper cables are MIA. so I will try to find them in the AM and crank it again with the groud connected to the block