Kingjerd

Ok Ive seen where some people turn the key and get nothing but clicks. Thats the case ith mine......about 50% of the time. It sounds as though the starter is clicking as well, but wont turn over. Its a brand spankin new starter and solenoid. Would a bad relay cause everything to still click? Also, if I let the truck roll and pull the clutch but just barely long enough to bump the motor a tad, and runs freakin smooth! Would the Hotshot fix this?

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

What kind of condition are your battery terminals in??

What is the condition of the cables??

While the hotshot will help it might not solve your problem.

Have you checked the voltage going to the solenoid??

scope103

"...runs freakin smooth." The engine? The starter?

If the starter only clicks, then cranks okay after you bump the starter, you probably have bad contacts in the starter, or less likely, an open winding in the rotor (so that you need to turn the commutator a hair to get a working winding).

But the most common cause is that you're just not getting enough current into the starter. A bad battery can do that, but if your starter problem is intermittent it may not be the battery. What will do it, and intermittently, is an intermittent cable from the battery to the starter.

A quick test is to put a voltmeter on the battery when someone else turns the key. If the voltage drops to, oh, 8v, during the clicking, the battery is bad. If the voltage drops hardly at all, you've got a bad cable or bad contacts in the solenoid.

Kingjerd

Thanks all, I apologize for the lack of info in the post. I was half asleep and a few beers down when I wrote that. Looking back at it now Im thinking I should have waited till this morning to post this question.....

What I meant about "runs freakin smooth" (did i really say that?) was once I bump the motor a hair the starter fires up and the engine cranks immediately. My past experience with this kind of thing has usually been a bad starter solenoid but this one is brand new. Ill make sure my cables and connections are good and do the mentioned tests. I appreciate the help guys.

REDYOTA

How many miles on the starter? Mine did the same thing and i always thought it was a connection issue. The tabs inside the starter wear out over time and cause the same condition. I did a write up let me see if i can find it.

REDYOTA

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...er-fix-216099/

Kingjerd

Starter has about 75 miles on it. Just replaced it thinking the old starter was going out. After the replacement, nothing changed. Thanks for the link, im unna go check it out now.

REDYOTA

If youve got a new/reman starter id get the voltmeter out and find the bad connection between the battery and the starter. Get some new terminal clamps and a post cleaner. Check your ground and the hot on the starter.

Kingjerd

Well gentlemen, I appreciate your help. I wasn't thinking at all and always just figured if the battery could start the truck, it was good. Not the case I guess. New battery, new postive and negative cables, obviosly the new cables came with new battery post clamps. Now she's starting like a champ. So far today I've started her 12 times without fail. I've done motorswaps and countless jobs on vehicles but the electrical stuff, not this guy. I've always avioded it because it just confuses me. I really appreciate the info guys!

RAD4Runner

Hi Kingjerd and guys,

Last Friday, We felt that starter solenoid needed testosterone, click was weak, meaning it was not actuating well enough to close contacts (new) completely

Using this special service tool , we were able to consistently start the truck.

Using this guide, we verified that the truck also has the cranking circuit wiring flaw, meaning:

• Starter relay contacts get power from ST1 contact of ign switch so 12Amps needed to energize starter solenoid runs through ST1 contacts - no good.
  
• Not enough power to solenoid because of voltage drops in the starter solenoid coil circuit because of cranking wiring flaw, AND
  
• Because solenoid contacts do not completely close, they will be arcing and/or heating up unnecessarily (like bad connection between power cord plug for electric flatiron makes plug and wire hot), hastening their demise.

Details on the fix are here.


Kingjerd,,
An alternative, so you would not need to dig into fuse block, is connect Pin 4 of starter relay to a AWG 12 wire to a 25-A fuse directly connected to battery positive.

Kingjerd

Ray, you are awesome to no end! Thanks for stopping by and helping me understand some of the electronic situations about this thing! Working on the wire rerouting now.

Thank you Toyota Yoda!!!

RAD4Runner

Cool to know you got it working. Keep us posted.

LOL! Most welcome.

RAD4Runner

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiji_Toyoda

Kingjerd

Nice! Good to know!