Starter, Ignition, or Battery whats to blame?

So iv been having a starting issue with my small block ford swapped RX7 FC. It seems to start grate 1/2 of the time and not the other 1/2... It will start strong and hard drive fine then stop for gas then it will click but no crank...

Some times it clicks a few times then it finally rolls over and when it does decided to start it does just fine and spins the starter hard and fast like the battery is good and charged. Last night it did it and just clicked and clicked and finally stopped even clicking. Got someone at the gas station to jump me off and it worked just fine and drove around about 45min before I parked it.

Took the battery to napa (its a naps blue legend a bit over a year old but its sat for a few months while the car was being built) I took the battery back up to napa and had them them check it and it was fine and had 800 crank amps left. So where do I go from here? the starter works grate 1/2 of the time and doesn't the other 1/2...

I don't think its the switch because every time I hit it I see the voltage drop and I get the click.

Any thoughts? Id rather not swap both the starter and battery sinec they are both $100 a pop.

All the connections clean and tight?

All that iv checked but headers are very hot!!! I gave them all a tug and they are all good.

Get a high quality starter solenoid. Most Box store parts store solenoids plan suck today. Also what year starter are you using? the "Flying field shoe" type can suffer from heat lock but the newer style with fixed fields (like the nipondenso motors) should not suffer as much from heat. moveable pole starter

gear reduction nipodennso style

My 93 4 cylinder Ranger had very similar symptoms. I changed the solenoid first but it ended up being the starter.

The starter is from a 95 mustang (i was told) iv been looking around online and a lot of people are saying that the ebay starters not bad and they are about $40 vs $80-100 that the parts store wants so im just going to bite the bullet and get a starter since it has a solenoid that comes with it to.

I will say thanks for the reply 44Dwarf I always loe learning somethings while im fixing them!

I did make it out to the local cars and coffee yesterday and it started up both times just fine but it was about 1.5 hours of cool down time at the event. Really looking forward to it being a bit more reliable and cooler out so I can realy enjoy the car!

Check the ground between the engine and the chassis of the car. If you don't have one, make one. Or first read up repair manuals and do a voltage drop test. That should take you in the right direction to find why your starter is not working properly.

I will have to read up on the test and try it out. I did put a nice big ground strap on the motor so I would never have to worry about ground but maybe I need to pull that off to.

If the battery was OK then it does not make any sense to replace it. IMHO the starter motor could be the most likely cause - and if not, you can keep it or sell it.

As stated in the other thread, rx7s are notorious for this.

The ignition switch is kinda weak. If a relay is added between the ignition switch and the starter, it almost always solves this issue.

I only say the battery was bad because the car has been sitting so much and drained and charged a lot. Then when i took it to napa with my receipt the guy was not helpful at all. Still kinda think he pulled a fast one since he didn't want to mess with a warranty but im going to be wiring the new starter this afternoon so we will see then!