Tampa Bay Area Tacomas BS Thread

Mine literally dropped to the concrete when the top bolt was loosened haha.

I got the contacts cleaned up. The one on the plunger was the worst, looked pretty bad in my opinion for only being a year old. I already sanded the small one In the first pic, and all of them cleaned up in the last pic

 

Sooooo shiny

 

Awesome. Don't forget the bottom of the plunger well. If there's crap down in there it could keep the plunger from going all the way down. Could be why the contacts were so pitted: due to arcing caused by the plunger not making full contact (I actually had to take mine back apart because I didn't get that good enough the first time).

Another thing I suggest is to do the thing with the tape over the vent. Speed tape is best if you have any (the stuff that's like heavy gauge aluminum foil). It'll last as long as the starter does.

 

Well I took the starter to advance to get tested and it was working properly. Brought it back to the house and tested it again myself and it worked fine. I bolt it back up to the truck and it just clicks and does nothing. I'm stumped. I pulled out the voltmeter and everything is reading fine

 

Um...can you turn the engine? I think that would be the next thing I checked if I was reasonably confident that the starter was doing it's thing properly. I really hope the engine isn't seized. Beyond that, I'd start looking at the cable from the battery to the starter. Maybe it's corroded and not letting it get enough juice to crank the starter, but making enough contact to read voltage? If you take the starter off the engine, but leave the electrical connections from the truck in place, does it turn?

 

Engine turns fine via crankshaft pulley bolt. I left the starter hooked up but left it hanging and ran a ground cable from the starter body to the frame and it didn't work. I disconnected it completely and hooked it directly to the battery and it engaged and turned properly.

The exciter wire going to the starter reads 12+ Volts while in the cranking stage and the power at the starter reads 12+ volts.

 

Oh, and one more idea, though it seems as unlikely as the engine being seized, the solenoid, I believe, also kicks the spur gear out. If something is stopping the spur gear from coming out far enough, it would prevent the head of the plunger from bridging the contacts to power the starter motor. Since you say it works on the bench, I don't think there's any problems in the gear deduction, so it might be something inside the bell housing, like the gear isn't meshing with the flywheel or something.

 

Okay. That sounds like the cable from the battery then. The solenoid's getting juice, but the starter motor isn't. If you had an extra cable, you could try that to see if anything changes. Beyond that, I'm out of ideas. That's kinda why I hate electrical issues. They can be so hard to figure out.

 

When I turn to the cranking position, this is what the voltage reads


It reads 12+ otherwise. I suspect that your cable theory may be the issue

 

Thought of a quick way to maybe check the cable. Run a set of jumper cables from the positive battery terminal to the terminal on the starter and see if that makes it work when you turn the switch.

Also, I know you have a few electronic extras on it like the winch, lights, and such. Not sure how all that's connected, but I'd check connection there to make sure it's not interfering with the starter cable's connection. A loose connection with do what you're describing as well as a bad cable.

 

You made me realize that I do not own a pair of jumper cables... Rookie move on my part haha. But, I did have some 4 gauge wire laying around with some terminals so I rigged up a power cable and it cranked right up. I hooked the stock cable back up and no crank. After removing the stock cable from the positive battery terminal I noticed it may be a little more corroded than I had originally thought. I'll get it cleaned up tomorrow and report back. Thanks for the help

 

Glad to be of assistance.

 

Just a little recommendation. I'm assuming you're probably running those clamp-on type lead terminals. I used to hate those things because of this very issue, however, I learned a different approach for attaching the cable that made me change my opinion. If you have a fully enclosed loop swaged on the end of the cable with a heat shrink over the connection so it's water and air tight like so...





You can either use a terminal like the one shown, or you can use the cheap clamp-on terminal end, but just use the clamping bolts to bolt the cable to it.


You can then use the other terminal bolt to pull power for your aux fuse panel and other things like the main power for your winch. It makes for a clean set-up that eliminates the corroded cable issue. And if the terminal ever goes bad, it's cheap and easy to replace.

This is just for general knowledge if someone can use it.

 

Who likes my new toy?

 

You got a project trailer to restore! Cool!

 

will do man! sorry for such a late response, I thought I did reply

 

Actually I'm not gonna bother. It has old Ford wheels and used to have car tires which is illegal. So I got them switched out to trailer tires and I may repaint a couple of things to make it look a little bit nicer but that's about it.

 

@Taco No Baka i got the terminals on the battery end cleaned up and the multimeter read 12+ volts even under the load of cranking, but it still wasn't cranking..... Not even activating the solenoid. I unplugged the exciter plug and plugged it back in and now everything is working flawlessly. I'm going to pick up some electrical connector cleaner and dielectric grease anyway and apply it to that exciter plug.

 

for a mod day, i think we should all get together and do retrofits

 

You buy the parts?