Woke up Monday morning to a dead truck, absolutely no electrical activity at all. Came to the conclusion that the battery died overnight (first freeze of the fall did it in), and put in a new battery Monday afternoon. Power returned, but now the truck will not crank. The details:

2003 Silverado 2500HD with the 8.1 gas
Been my daily driver for the past couple months, most recently driven on Sunday with no issues
Battery is brand new from Costco, 9/20 date code. Fully charged after installation
Cluster has power, everything works, but when the key is turned to "Start" the starter motor does not engage

Initial troubleshooting steps taken:
-Swapped relays in the fuse box to test for bad relay (no change)
-Double-checked electrical connections
-Confirmed that the starter solenoid is getting power, "clicks" when key turned to start

That means it should be the starter, right? So I order a new starter, and put it in this afternoon/evening. No difference.

I confirmed that I can jump the starter, so clearly it is getting power. I did try bench-testing the old starter and I couldn't get it going, so it may well have been bad and I still have another issue. Going to swing it by a FLAPS to confirm.

Honestly, I'm stumped. I don't know what killed it originally, and I haven't been able to isolate where the issue is. Unfortunately I'm an accountant, not an electrician. Any ideas?

PLOT TWIST!!! I'm a dumbass and put one of the ignition fuses in the wrong spot when I first checked them on Monday. Still going to test the old starter, in case it was good the whole time and maybe I can get some money back.

 

Save yourself some time. Recheck the original starter on the bench. If it will not engage when power applied leave the new starter in.
It sounds like you had a bad starter from the get go (clicking solenoid, no worky on bench).
The fuse screw up just compounded the diagnosis. Don't sweat it, happens to all of us.

That vehicle could be one of the best Chevy trucks ever produced. I far prefer the early 2000s trucks over the 05/06 and up.
They have the newer engine technologies without the accountant driven cheapening and the later fuel economy crap.
Super strong AC stuff (seldom breaks), early ECAT transmissions (strong and dependable). Most of the GOOD without the BAD.
I've seen some with 500K that are still good trucks.

I am a 40+ year technician that owns his own shop.
It's what I do for a living.

Sorry, I DETEST automotive accountants. They have ruined many a good car by nit-picking it to death...

 

I just recently had the same exact problem with my 2500HD with 6.0. It ended up being the starter. I agree with the post above that it sounds like yours was bad but you just had to fix your small fuse screw up before the new one you put in worked correctly.

 

O'reilly's won't take the new starter back since it's installed, which is totally understandable. They asked if I wanted my old starter tested and I decided to remain blissfully ignorant of it's functionality. It's better this way.

 

I have an 01 2500 6.0, had the same issue back in April, replaced the starter - fixed.
FWIW - don’t know about Oregon, but here in New England they put mountains of salt on the road in winter, which naturally leads to corrosion issues. I had a couple issues with grounds this year - first one made the transfer case control go spastic, then a couple weeks ago my brake lights and turn signals went crazy.
I ended up crawling around, found all the grounds behind the engine compartment cleaned and replaced then sprayed undercoating on them. Had to actually put a new connector on the rear harness and drill a new hole in the frame to mount it.

Only took a little while, but was a pain. Worth checking, definitely beats being stuck in 4L 100 miles from home.

 

I'm a technician for a Buick/GMC dealer and I hardly see issues from gas 2500 pickups. The new trucks I think are horrible. The quality has gone down in my perspective. They make look nice and have some cool features but there are tons of issues with them.

Glad you got your issue figured out.