Okay I know this shouldnt be a hard problem to diagnose but its got me a little stumped. Originally the car would give me some rare issues starting. Usually I could clean the cables at the battery and it would fire up. Last time I had to get a jump to get it started.
Tested the battery and it was low on CCA and took the starter off and tested it. It passed but it was pretty loud so I decided to go ahead and change it out since the car has a ton of miles on it. After putting new starter with weak battery it would click then start, then one time it just clicked when I turned the switch. Tried it again and it fired right up. So I swapped in the new battery out of my cavalier in it and its done great for a week execpt for last night. I went to start it and it just clicked. Turned the key off and back on and it fired right up.

Drove it today with no more issues. Swapped the old battery back in (so I could drive the cavy) and put jumper cables on it to help start it. First time I turned the switch it just clicked then tried again and it fired up. After parking the car in the drive way I tried it like 3 times and it clicked then started all the times on the second attempts.

After yesterday I was thinking that it was possibly the ignition switch but I'm not so sure now after putting the old battery in and it doing this 4 times in a row.

My question is has anyone else had and issue like this before, I dont think its the new starter going bad or the new battery. Ive tried cleaning up all the cable ends but I'm sure there are some main grounds that I've missed. Any help is appreciated.

 

Take your jumper cables & hook the neg side of the battery directly to the starter body. See if that improves anything.
Can you be more clear on whats going on. Slow cranking or what?

 

i agree check the ground on the starter. how is the alternator?

 

No it doesnt crank slow. the altenator has been charging fine as far as I can tell. Everything on the starter should be good and tight since I just installed it a few days ago.

With a new battery and the new starter both in, it starts up just fine 99% of the time so far. Just that 1 time when I turned the switch it just clicked.