HELP! replaced bad starter, now no power

hopped into my '88 MJ renix 4.0 auto 2wd last night, turned the key *click.* crap, my starter is toast. it was. I swapped it, turned the key *click* and lost domes, gauges, radio, everything. disconnect battery for five minutes, reconnect and now everything is back. happens every time. battery termnals are good. new starter is in properly. broke out my ohm meter and found a zero between ground and the F terminal on my starter relay. disconnected the terminal and found infinite on the terminal itself, zero on the wire. traced the wire to its next stop, a relay. the relay checked out but the socket zeroed at 86, 87a and 30. now im stuck. not sure where these leads go from here. does my reasoning make sense? this is out of my comfort zone.

I'd try jumping the small wire on the starter directly. Be careful to be in park because you are bypassing all safety switches. You can usually use a screwdriver to jump across from the big wire from the battery to the starter directly to the small terminal on the starter. This should arc some and make the starter engage if your starter and battery are good. Can also be done with a jumper cable. This is just a good quick check to do before in depth trouble shooting.

ugh, we live and learn, right? spent a day chasing a phantom yesterday. got up this morning, pulled the solenoid remote wire from the starter relay, turned the key and voila! obviously I had no starter but, I kept all of my power. short in the new starter

have your battery load tested before you condemn the new starter-- without the high current draw from the starter (disconnected) you should still keep low current accessories. Your symptoms all point to a dead/worn out battery.