first post here. thanks for any help. ive read and tested till I'm about to lose my mind. so I'm working on an 89 toy pickup 22re manual. truck had no starting issues, went on a trip for a couple days, came back and wont start.

So heres what I know, turn the key and all I get is a click. click from the COR and the starter solenoid. swapped the starter with a spare I had and the same thing. so I'm thinking maybe both starters are bad, take em both to oreilly, they test good. full spin and gear sticks out. put back on the truck, same issue. manually jump power to starter solenoid again I get the gear to stick out but the starter wont "crank". I can turn the engine by hand so I'm not seized. just under 12v on the battery and at the main power cable connected to the starter. double checked all my grounds. checked to make sure my starter itself was grounding well to the block.

the main thing that has me stumped is I cant "redneck" start my starter by jumping it, but yet it tests good at oreilly. and I tried the jumpered and regular start while I had jumper cables from my other truck hooked up in case my voltage was too low. thanks for any thoughts or help. ive read several other posts on this issue but in one way or another they were able to isolate the problem. I cant seem to isolate the issue.

 

"Just under 12v" is a dead battery (if your voltmeter is accurate). Depending on temperature, you should have something like 12.6v.

Do you have a charger? A known-good battery and some no-˟˟˟˟ jumper cables?

 

The parts do not have a problem. It is the way Toyota wired the starter relay that is the problem.

Really? Have you read this?

 

I figured 11.4 volts would be enough to power to start seeing as how its just over half a volt less. but I have a couple of spare batteries for my trailer that are brand new, so I will try the battery swap tomorrow. i do have a charger, but this battery is only 2 months old, i guess I'm taking it back. thanks for the reply.

 

roadrunner. i read a few posts about the relay addition. where i found that to not be the fix here (i could totally be wrong here, and please correct me if i am) when i try to run direct battery power to the started solenoid, ( the small wire) the solenoid engages(clicks), the gear extends out, but the starter does not turn. jumpering the starter should take out all the in between stuff correct? if so, then would that be a lack of power issue?

 

Sometimes the fix is the simplest thing. I didn't occur to me seeing as how the battery was only 2 months old. But it was dead. Thanks for the help fellas.

 

As you have found out, lack of power contributed to the issue.

There is still that wiring problem. A healthy battery, a smoother solenoid plunger action, all mask that flaw. I still suggest you fix it.

 

When you take that battery back, they'll put it on a load tester, and if it passes you get no money (you do get the battery back, so it's fair). Just because your battery isn't charged now, doesn't mean it's bad. You could have a bad charging system (do you get about 14.1v at the battery while running?). You could have some parasitic draw that will run the battery down in a few days. (Did you leave the dome light on?)

You might want to look into those before you schlepp that battery down to the store.

 

I put the battery on the trickle charge over night. I'll test it out tonight after work. See what the voltage is at now. And definitely gonna see what my charging system is doing.
I'll read up a little more on the fix for the starting system, and get that taken care of.

Thanks again fo the input. This forum has been a god send since I pulled this yota out of the field it was in. Especially with all the troubleshooting after the motor was built and put in.