TACORICAN

Hi,
My LX had some clunking noises while starting. It was an intermittent clunking noise. The Starter was an aftermarket starter from AutoZone installed by the previous owner. I bought an OEM Starter from the dealer but the problem still exists. (I don't trust anything from Autozone). I noticed there is a Black/Red wire/connector that plugs into the starter but it was not connected. Instead, a "speaker" wire was spliced into the connector that plugs into the Ignition Switch and ran from there to the starter, using a butt plug connector instead of the actual OEM connector that's dangling there. I plugged in the one from factory and does not send any signal to the starter although all my lights in the dash do turn on while the ignition is turned on. Connecting the Speaker wire back into the starter, does allow it to start but does have the clunking noises from time to time.
The pictures attached show the Black/White wire from the connector at the ignition switch which is where the speaker wire was spliced into. The White connector is from the ignition switch, the black one is the connector that connects to the white one and runs to the Starter. If you notice, the white one has a brown/red wire which the black one does not have (hence the empty space). Is there anything that goes there?
Has anyone experienced this issue?
I don't want to ruin the new starter nor make this worse, but I need to get the LX moving.
I believe it had a remote starter/alarm which were removed.
Is there anything else I should look at?


Thanks in advance.