Hey guys

This starter issue I thought I had solved but its rearing its ugly head again. It sounds simple, but for some reason its prooving not to be.

So I go to start the truck and theres nothing. No solinoid click. Battery has plenty of juice. You can hear the ignition relay click (I think thats what it is, in the right side of the cab), but some how the starter is not moving. This happens now probably 90% of the time. Every once in a while it will fire up like its never had a problem, so its kinda random.

I replaced the starter a few months back when I was having this problem earlier and it seemed to fix it, but now its back. I bypassed the ignition circut by making a wire that connects to the solinoid (where the ignition wire connects) that you can touch straight to the battery, but with no luck. Just makes a nice light show on the battery terminal. I replaced both positive and negitive leads on the battery, and even re-ground the negitive lead wire onto the frame, but again no luck.

Does anyone have ANY ideas. I'm all out. When I pull the starter and have it tested, it works fine. I'd rather not buy another $100 starter only to have the same problem a few months later.

What am I missing?

 

im having a similar problem, and i cant figure it out either, but ive heard that the ignition key might have somthing to do with it. i havent tried it yet just somthing ive heard so it could be wrong.

 

Someone recommended that to me too, thats why I made the bypass wire. So now the only items in the mix are the battary & its ground/power cable, the starter, and the starter ground. Batt, cables and starter are new

 

You might try a quick voltage test at the starter solenoid to see what is going on:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...shtml#EasyTest

Might be your new (rebuilt I assume) starter has a problem, which would be indicated by a good voltage test.

And if not the starter, could be the wiring, look for broken wires and/or corrosion up under the insulation at the cable ends.

 

I've been meaning to do that solenoid test the past couple days, hopefully I'll get to that in the am tomorrow.

Wiring has already been crossed off the list. Both vehicle and starter wiring. Looked up and down/took apart both of them with no luck. Even replaced the power and ground wires for the battery just as a precausion.

I've been pointed to the battery by a friend. Although it has no definit signs of a battery issue, since it will randomly have full power, and all electronics run without issue, apparently he had the same issue once before on his girlfriends car. Dealer said the computer code was faulty battery, replaced the battery, worked great. The batterys only a couple months old and is putting out 12.3v, but has been though a lot already. I'll get that checked tomorrow too.

 

is it an auto? could be a neutral safety switch problem.

 

12.3 volts is somewhat low for a fully charged battery, depending on the temperature:
- http://www.buchanan1.net/lead_acid.shtml

 

if your putting full battery voltage directly to the solenoid and its not turning over, it could be that you have a defective starter(which should be under warranty if you bought it at a parts store) As long as your using a decent sized wire to trigger the solenoid it should turn. When you bench test a starter, its not under load, which only tells u that the solenoid is engaging, not the torque output of the starter. You could do a voltage drop test on the positive lead of the battery to the starter or just run one end of a jumper cable to verify the cable isnt corroded inside. If your bypassing both wires and hooking up to battery directly and it doesnt turn over, its either a bad starter, low battery voltage or a hydrolocked/seized engine.

 

I was having a problem similar to this. I had a new battery but it still seemed like no juice to the starter. I replaced my + battery cable to the starter, nothing. Then I replaced my ground wire with one going straight from the battery grounding on the block near the starter and another from the battery to the fender. Now it turns no problem.

 

Ok.

Tested the voltage to the solenoid, rated just fine at 12.4 volts, both from my ignition bypass cable and the standard ignition wire. Had the batt tested, just to be safe. Rang in at 500cca out of 650cca, which should have been more then enough to turn over the engine. Had it charged up anyway.

So, that only leaves the starter. Even though its new (rebuilt) as of 2 months ago and is the exact same problem I had before, its the only thing thats left. I'll take it in and warrentee it tomorrow.

Only having my HD to ride in below freezing weather and freezing fog every day to class is getting old Need to get this thing fixed already.

 

That is one of the main problems with "rebuilt" starters, they are often not (rebuilt - that is). For the long term you might keep your eye out for a used OEM starter and clean it up and replace the solenoid contacts yourself, which is probably all that was wrong with your original starter.

 

Yea, once I cracked open the back of the starter, all the contacts were in pretty poor shape. I had recently driven though some disaster areas in town helping out a friend...what can only be described for this area as extreme flooding. It appeared that with the truck sitting in 2.5 to 3 feet of water for a few hours the starter filled up with water and became pretty ugly on the inside.

Took it in, warenteed it, started no problem. Odd though, the new starter solenoid is bigger then the last one.

 

I have been thru 5 "rebuilt" starters in the past 4 years. Best bet is just to keep fixing the old one till its beyond repair, then buy another from toyota. Its a lot more expensive, but you spend a lot less time under ur rig!

 

Aside from grounding the engine block to the neg cable, I found that if I loosesed the large cable nut on the starter and retightened it it seemed to help.

 

i had a similer issue with my truck, it turned out to be low power fromthe ignition to the solinoid. i took a wire from the batt to the solinoid and it turned over just fine. i put in a relay, i took that wire at the fender and made it my trigger wire for a relay and used the same wire to go to the sol. and it gets a batt. supply. starts every time. i hope this makes sense, i'm at work and trying to type fast.

Nasty