This morning the strangest thing happened. I went out and tried to start my
97 SuperCab 4x2 2.3 5 speed, w/ 108k miles. I drive it every day, and it's
always been flawless for me in the year or so I've owned it.

When I turned the key, the starter engaged, started spinning the flywheel,
then it acted like it hit a spot of broken teeth. I was highly surprised! I
immediately turned the key off and retried. It again engaged fine, turned
the flywheel for a second, and then again disengaged from the flywheel. I
tried it again and it finally started the truck. I'm confident that the
flywheel is fine since every time I retried, the starter engaged the
flywheel fine. If there were missing teeth, the starter would have just
spun, right? So, you say, I have a bad starter since the flywheel teeth are
fine. Ordinarily, I'd agree with you but listen to what happened next...

This truck has always started instantly and idled smoothly. But this time,
when it started, it was running on only 3 cylinders. I got out and looked
under the hood, but there was nothing obviously unusual. I got back in and
revved the engine, but still that dead miss was there. I decided to try to
drive it up the street to see what happened. Within 2 blocks, it was back to
normal, and it's been fine ever since. But that's not all...

Then I reached down to turn on the radio and I realized that the station
presets were erased and the clock was wrong. WEIRD!

So, I'm thinking that I must have had some electrical hiccups. When the
starter was partially disengaging, I think it was due to a momentary power
drop. The battery/wiring was able to supply sufficient amperage to the
starter for a second or so, but something was then breaking down, reducing
the voltage. As this was happening, there was no obvious signs of low
voltage otherwise though...

I'm guessing that's how the memory in the radio was erased also. The only
thing I don't understand was the miss. It seems to me it would have to be an
injector not firing, since there are 2 spark plugs per cylinder. The miss
was so bad that the cylinder was obviously not firing at all on either plug.

Ever since that first problem at 7:00 this morning, I've driven 20 or 30
miles, started the truck at least 4 other times, and I've had no more
problems.

Now:

1. Do you think my diagnosis is right? Is it a battery or wiring problem?

2. The battery in the truck is less than a year old, but it's an Advance
Auto store brand battery. Do you have any guesses about what the source of
the problem is? Battery? Bad ground? Maybe even the starter is the problem,
and drawing a huge load momentarily?

Thanks for all your help, guesses, and ideas!

CJB