Midget96

So my truck was making strange noises when I would start it for the past week or so and I really didn't think much of it nor did I have a break in my schedule to diagnose it. Turns out the starter pinion wasn't retracting fast enough upon startup, putting enormous stress on it. It finally decided to blow up in the middle of nowhere Saturday evening, causing me to have to hitch hike into Phoenix and change out my starter at midnight in 25° weather with a handful of flashlights and a bucket full of swearing. Got done at 3 AM.

When I put the starter back on, I could feel a few teeth missing in the flex plate just on the section accessible through the starter hole. It's making a different noise now on startup, and I know it's skipping teeth, but how long will the starter last until I can get in there with a new flex plate? The new starter is surely retracting so I would imagine it's not going to destroy itself the same way as the 185K mile original did.

Also, while I have the transmission off, what else should I replace? I'm thinking rear main seal, all u-joints and perhaps the O2 sensors. I don't want to have to take this thing apart ever again!

And when you buy the u-joints from Toyota, I'm assuming the two $46 part numbers includes all the u-joints needed for the front and rear respectively, correct?

Maj

Depends on where the missing teeth happen to be positioned each time you turn the motor off. If it is directly by the starter bendix it will just spin and you are screwed unless you can rotate the engine by hand. If the motor stops with the missing teeth in close proximity to the bendix, there might not be enough momentum to spin the engine past the missing teeth and you end up with another grindfest.

Try and see if you can snake a socket and breaker bar down onto the crank pulley nut. If you can, you can at least rotate the motor by hand in the event the bendix can't catch on some good teeth.

Yoda

Don't know how long your new starter will last. It sometimes kills them soon, but may take a short time. BUT! it will kill it.