Yestersday all i could get was click sound when trying to start. Wiggled all the cables and realized how bad the cable ends were onto the battery. I changed those, the battery was fully charged and still it just clicks. I try shorting the starter out with a wrench and the starter whirls over fine but doesn't engage (key is in the on position). I go underneath and pull the little wire off the starter, clean the terminal and put it back on, still just clicks. So then I run a wire directly from the battery to the starter where the small wire clips on and just hold it there by hand and it turns over and starts. So I think great, that circut must be bad somewhere. Then I shut the engine off and then all of a sudden I can start it with the key again without the use of the other wire.
I have two questions

1. why does the starter whirl over but not engage when shorting it out directly across the two large terminals?

2. Why would the key work again for starting after running the live wire directly to the starter, I've never seen this before.

Any ideas?
Thanks
Jim
P.s. I'm not so good with wiring!

Had that with mine before too. 

The start is probably full of crap from when we did those deep water runs on sunday.
I sprayed the crap out of mine with electrical cleaner, there is (on mine anyway) a small hole to let crap drain out so i forced the spray tube in there and hosed it clean.
 

samurai?  search for "clicky starter" that will give you the answer to your problem.