2008 Tacoma Randomly Won't Start

Hi everyone - I've been dealing with an issue for a couple years, and I haven't been able to fix it. I've got a manual 4-cyl 2008 Tacoma SR5 PreRunner that will randomly not start. I put the key in, push the clutch down, turn it - and there's absolutely no noise, no clicking, no nothing. The accessory lights, radio, and headlights all come on when it's turned to the accessory position, and then when I try to crank it, they all stay on but I hear nothing from the starter.

After that, to get it to start, I squat down, reach into the driver-side wheel well, and wiggle the wires connected to the starter. Sometimes that doesn't work, so I wiggle the wires going to the battery and out of the fuse box, and that magically fixes things and it starts. This used to happen once every 20 times I started the truck - now it's about every other time.

I've replaced the battery, starter, and wires from battery to the starter. Battery is new-ish as well.

Does anyone have any clue what might be the issue here? Why the hell would wiggling the wires make it suddenly work?

Thanks for any help.

 

I just had to google what that even was. Turns out I don't have a clutch cancel switch.

 

Hold the key in the crank position and mess with the clutch when it acts up, it could be the clutch safety switch.

 

Put a voltmeter on the starter solenoid and try to start (assuming it doesn't start)...do you have voltage at solenoid? If so then you probably have a bad starter solenoid/starter (assuming good voltage). If you don't then it's upstream from there...probably clutch switch. Also, could be a bad ground. Look over the large wiring to ensure you have good, clean connections.

 

In case you don't know which wire is the solenoid wire. Here's a diagram. BTW...electrical troubleshooting is all about cutting the problem in half until you are left with a solution rather than just swapping parts.