3.1 Turbo diesel Bighorn occasionally wont start

[NZbigHorn]

Very very occasionally like......every 1-2 months my truck has a time where it just wont start.

There is nothing there when the key turns.

The lights etc all appear to go fine, battery connection seems good and uncorroded.

No clicking noise from starter motor to indicate thats buggered.

I rock the car, or slam the bonnet down hard and its good as gold again.

Bit annoying and kind of concerning. Seems like it could be the starter motor solenoid sticking but im not too sure.

Has anyone had any similar experiences or advice?

Cheers

[Captcol]

Is it auto or manual?

[NZbigHorn]

auto.
Thought it could be a faulty drive sensor of some sort also as occasionally the key doesnt come out, but if i flick it down into neutral then back into park it does come out fine.

[geeves]

sounds like the neutral sensor in the auto selector. Theres a separate thread about this.
Hook a test light across various points so when it fails you know where the power was and wasnt

[wbski007]

if it is your ignition switch at fault and you don't want to change it you can run a hot wire thru a push button switch mounted on your dash somewhere and then to the starter solinoid, turn on ignition and press button, bingo

[98Rodeo]

this happened on my road car a while back, had me stumped for ages, turned out the bolt holding the wire to the starter had fallen off so it didnt always make good contact... only happened occasionally