The new battery cable has 2 wires. One heavy

Battery cable or starter solenoid wire come loose? Loose wire on back of the starter switch? Starter switch failure? Possible complete battery failure. Did you try jumper cables? If the battery had a defective casting in the internal cell connectors, one of them could have broken during the jostling of being moved. If this is the case, it should start easily with a set of jumper cables from a car or truck. If you can easily see the starter motor, it will probably have a small cylinder bolted to the main body of the starter motor itself with 2 or 3 wires connected to it. One wire will be fairly heavy and be running from a heavy bolt on the solenoid to the battery. WITH EVERYONE AWAY FROM MOVING PARTS, CAREFULLY try touching a screw driver from this heavy bolt to one or the other connections. DO NOT TOUCH THE SCREWDRIVER TO THE BODY OF THE STARTER OR SOLENOID. THIS COULD CAUSE A FIRE!!! If it cranks without jumpers, your battery and starter are good but you may have a loose or bad wire from the starter switch or the switch itself could be bad. Good luck.

Hi Tami:
You should be able to find it quite quickly by following either:
- the heavy wire from the starter back to the relay, or
- the heavy wire from the battery to the relay
-If the wire goes straight from the battery to the starter and there is also a lighter guage (thinner) wire that is attached to the starter, then there is no external relay.

all the neon I have seen have way to small battery cables and ground wires. We had this issue with our neon. Replace both ground to engine block and battery to starter cables , and terminal ends with heavy duty ones . and add a heavy duty ground cable from battery to body. this will permit the charging / starting systems to work with greater efficiency.

Hello, I would be looking at the starter solenoid. Follow the heavy duty copper cable from the starter back to the battery. Now, if there is metal can that is bolted to fender panel or there abouts.
This can has two heavy duty wire going ot it and each is attached to each side of the can. Also there isi one or maybe two wire attached to the can but are much smaller, then you found the starter solenoid.

But if the cable from the starter goes directly to the + of the battery then the starter solenoid is located on top of the starter. To remove the solenoid you'll need to remove the starter. FIRST discontect the (-) negative side of battery, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!!! The solenoid has a couple bolts that hold to the starter. I wish you lots of luck . GB...stewbison

I presume that the big battery cable is a no brainer, and kindly reference that terminal as 12:00 position.
With respect to the small cables, if you have become confused, ONE of them will become live when key is turned to the start position. That small cable goes to the 2:00 position. The other small wire(s) go to the small terminal at approx 10:00 position.
The function of the other small wires is to provide more power to the ignition, during starting, by bypassing the resistor.
Doc

Sounds like the starter is bad. The one click would be the solenoid on the starter engaging but the starter does not turn. If it does not click the next time you try to start, then that would indicate the solenoid is sticking. Also ensure that the cable to starter is good and the connections are tight. The starter will have 2 wires. 1 heavy wire that runs the starter itself and a lighter wire that runs the solenoid. The second wire seems good. Also ensure there is not an inline fuse in the starter cable. Some cable incorporate the inline fuse in case the wire shorts out to the chassis.

Replacing a starter is one of the simpler jobs unless access is lousy which is a possibility. The starter can be found at the junction of the engine block and transmission bell-housing and won't have more than three mounting bolts plus a heavy cable from the battery or from a separate solenoid which can also be a source of failure; if it's integrated with the starter the units can be replaced together. If the solenoid is integrated, there will be a lighter gauge wire in addition to the heavy cable that is normally terminated in a ring-type connector held with nuts on its terminal.
Remove the negative battery cable first, then the heavy cable (and, if present, the mentioned starter wire), at the starter.
Then remove the mounting bolts which could be either 2 or 3 in number and pretty large. Once those are out, the starter will liberate itself most of the time so don't let it hit the ground since this will be your 'core.' I have never had bad luck using 'rebuilt' units and the cost will be much lower than new, especially after giving them the old unit.
Clean and reattach the heavy and (if present) the lighter wire terminals and then finally, the removed negative battery cable.

check battery connections at the terminals and at the ground point poor connections will kill starters and Oh so much more good luck

I presume the two leads you mention are:-
a) very heavy main +12V power lead from the battery terminal with approx 3/8" eyelug terminal,
b) less heavy wire that connects battery power to main vehicle fusebox for power distrubution- this cable may incorporate a fusible link.
The two leads (as above) connect onto the same heavy duty 3/8" terminal on the starter motor.
The lower 3/8" power post (closest to the motor housing) connects only to the starter motor and should not normally be tampered with.
There should be one more light duty wire that operates the starter motor engage solenoid .- This is connected back to the ignition switch 'Start' +12V control output.

yes that is right- 2 wires 1 big and 1small both go on the starter 1 is hooked directly to the batt and 1 to fuse box