How To Replace Third Gen Starter

Similar experience,,,,
But there was nothing wrong with the starter ,,it had been in a lot of water of the years . It was the grounding from the starter to the bell housing,( Oxidation)
Do yourself a favour and test it first.
I took mine to a local starter rebuilder, he put it on the bench put a set of jumper’s on it and he tried it about many times and it worked every time.He said it is a common problem and also said don’t every replace it with a aftermarket one .

 

As much as I would love to do that, I gotta just bite the bullet right now. I'm broke down in my work's parking lot and I got kids I gotta get to and from school and then work.

I do think what I'm gonna do is (because of your comment) I'll replace it, then take it in and get it looked at and have it as a back up. I do too much wet stuff to not eventually fry it. Gonna be pretending to be a Jeep with all these spare parts I carry around. Lol.

 

Ok. I'm an hour in to this, and I've spent a good amount of time trying to wiggle out the starter. I can't get it out. I've orientated it every way I could and matched what your photo looks like and nada. I may have to take the starter apart a bit and then take it out of the side between the frame and the fender well, after bolting the brake lines, if I can't get it out.

I was able to get to both starter bolts with a breaker bar to free the bolt, and a regular ratchet with an 3" extension to get the starter out.

I should be getting the new starter in this afternoon, and if I can get the old one out and the new one in, this should have been an 1.5 hour job.

 

Ok. I'm all cleaned up and the truck is starting up like a champ.

Definitely took the better part of 4 hours, most of it was fishing the starter out. It's definitely doable, I did NOT have to disassemble the starter any further, nor did I have to take apart anything else on the truck. It definitely was Teris like and once you got the right combination, man did it go into the right spot smoothly.


Thanks again @grubburg for the awesome write up. I would not have been able to do it without this.

 

Sooo the positive terminal is the one w 1 by itself, and the neg had the black ground w it and red ignition wire a few inches away yea?

 

I can not get my starter out. I've played tetris and can get it sooooo close, but can't get it through the final hole out the bottom. It honestly seems like its just not going to work. Is anyone able to give guidance?

I could disassemble partially to get it out, however no idea how i would get the new one in if thats required...

I have my truck on rhino ramps in the front so the suspension is fully loaded. I don't think having the weight off the suspension would change much?

 

I gave up. Not sure why, but my starter could not fit through the hole in the previous pics without slight disassembly. I removed the two long bolts, which gave enough flex in the housing (like 1cm) to let me squeeze the "nub" (arrow) around the frame. Will report back if I need to do the same for install of the new starter assembly.

Also, before trying disassembly, I used a jack stand to take pressure off the suspension but that did not seem to change my clearance at all (i did not have the suspension free hanging however so maybe that is my issue... idk).

 

We're up and running!!! Woooo!

OEM starter cost $220 after tax from dealer, took 3 days to come in. I would have considered rebuilding my starter, however after going through what I did to get the original out, I did not want to risk having to do this again. My original was clearly defective too, only lasted 38k miles, and it did not get submerged like others in this thread had happen so booooo toyota, do better.

It took me probably about 4-5 hours total, some of those bolts are in such tight spaces... getting enough leverage on them to break them free was a pain, especially because you have to use a stubby on a few (Step 11).

Final thoughts:
- I did have to dismantle my new starter slight as described in the previous reply. Perhaps this can be avoided if the suspension is free hanging. If i was to do this again I would definitely use jack stands and not rhino ramps.
- (Step 4) I would mark a line on each side of your steering column yoke before disconnecting so it is easy to line up correctly when reattaching. I did not, and I thought mine was on straight but it must have been off by tooth or two, and my steering wheel was slightly off center when driving. I had to disconnect it again, and reattach twice, before it was finally straight again.

- (Step 10) The lowest bolt on exhaust bracket that connects to the cat was stubborn. I had to use liquid wrench and a breaker bar to finally break it free. I recommend having liquid wrench ready if you plan on doing this one by hand. None of the other bolts were nearly as rusted:

 

I was able to get mine out without disassembling or undoing the steering yoke. I got it to the same point and pryed it past the frame and CV joint being sure to not damage the boot.
I modified the new one by filling down the heat shield mount and the ear for the motor bolt. I just used a flat file and took about 3mm (1/8”) off. Worked like a charm. New one went In super easy.


because of time and availability I got a manufactured starter. It sounds horrible cranking over. I guess we’ll see how long it lasts.