86 d21 clicks when trying to start and battery draining

[jdmzachw]

ok guys, iv fixed my clutch/transmission issues and got my truck back on the road, but lately iv been having another issue with my truck. It has a recently new starter and alternator and battery, so i dont see how those could be my problem.

Whats happening is, sometimes ill get in the truck and hit the key and it fires up instantly, sometimes ill hit the key and get a click coming from the fusebox under the dash, from a blue relay on the left side of the fusebox. Usually if it doesnt start the first time i hit the key, i can rock the key on and off a few times and eventually it cranks and starts instead of clicking, and this is driving me insane.

Another thing, it seems like something is running my battery down, i have to charge it every few days or it will get so weak that when i hit the key all it will do is click no matter how many times i turn the key on and off, i have never once hit the key and got the normal slow crank that you get when your battery is weak or low, its never happened, itll either click or itll start. Im lost on what to do to fix this!

Iv checked my relays under the hood, one thing i noticed is that close to the battery, there are several plugs that look like relays used to go in them, that have a jumper wire in the plug, iv found 3 or 4 of those, plus the box beside my main relay fusebox looks like it used to have relays in it as well and every one of those plugs have a jumper wire in them as well.

What confuses me is iv been driving this truck for 2 months now and never once had a starting problem or battery drain until recently, when i got the truck back after having a new clutch kit put in it. Im hoping you folks can help me diagnose this issue so i can have my truck back to being the reliable d21 it was when i got it! Any and all help is greatly appreciated, and pictures are worth 1000 words in my situation, since i dont know the technical terms for anything on this truck.

[jdmzachw]

also, im wondering if its something to do with those fuseable links connected to the battery and am thinking about cutting the wires off the links and just hooking those wires strait up to the battery terminal to eliminate the fuseable links alltogether, is this possible to do without screwing something else up?

[Rev_D21]

The starter is not getting the juice it needs to crank. Check your battery cables, I bet they are hosed.

[jdmzachw]

how do i check the battery cables? i have one of those small cheap voltmeters i think is what its called, has the positive and negative lead, its a little yellow box with a knob in the middle? what setting would i put this thing on to check my cables and how would i go about doing that?

Today i got to messing with the starter, i found the black wire with a white stripe, im guessing is the signal wire, and spliced a toggle switch to that wire, when i hit the toggle switch the solenoid on the starter clicks, i can switch the toggle on and off a few times and it will evenually turn the starter and start the truck....does this still point to the cables or the solenoid on the starter itself?

[Rev_D21]

SOunds like the voltage drop across the battery cables is too high. Check resistance on the (+) cable. I bet the cable is green inside the insulation.