Cruising along the riverside in the snow at night.. Came up on a washed out section frozen over and didn't realize it, ice broke, hydrolocked the 22re.. Bent the relay rod and broke a lower ball joint getting it out. All this on a saturday night in my work truck that I had to have back together by monday for work lol. It was a rough weekend. Anyway, I straighten the suspension out, got the truck running, changed the oil a few times and aside from an occasional sputtering mid rpm range it seems pretty well worked out. The problem is after the truck sits over night the starter won't turn over, I really don't feel like it's a dead battery. No click click click sound. Accessories all still work including sound system with amp.. The starter just makes one click and doesn't turn the engine. When I hook up the jumper cables it does turn over and struggles to start the first time of the day. I can drive it for 2 minutes and shut it off and it starts right back up. I've checked the distributor and maf, they're dry and clean, the fuse block seems dry, I'm out of ideas for both the occasional missing out and no start. Maybe the starter itself is locking up?? The no accessory ignition off draw on the batt is 7.8mA, 3mA to the efi fuse and 3 to the dome fuse. Any advice is appreciated!!

 

did you try another battery?

 

No, don't have one laying around but it's a great battery unless it got damaged in the process somehow. As soon as I cleared the cylinders it started the truck no problem after sitting in freezing water over night... it tests good, shows 12.9v after surface charge is removed.

 

water is a strange thing. how hard was the hit when it went in?

 

I know this may sound obvious but double check all of your grounds. Take them off and clean them Water can really mess with them!

 

this is what i was getting to. if the truck took a good thump the grounds can cause all kinds of trouble.

 

Not too bad, but I rocked it a few times before it took the drink.. It was about half headlight deep with the rear tires on dry ground so a diagonal line from the bottom front corner of the door up to the headlamps. With the fan turning it could have sprayed water anywhere. I've verified that the grounds are still attached, I actually just went through and redid the grounds and added a few just a couple weeks ago.

 

check the (white?)wire from your battery to the fuse box on the firewall,if its loose at all it wont start,but youll have lights and etc.....

 

Well I was yanking it hard enough to bend the relay rod and break a ball joint trying to get it out actually so a thump could be part of the issue I guess. I'll take a closer look at the grounds and see if I find anything. The strange thing is everything seems to work fine after that first start like the starter needs an extra boost to turn over for the first time and then its fine the rest of the day, I start it every couple hours tops through the day so it's only acting up after sitting for a long period of time.

UPDATE: I left the truck sitting with the battery disconnected for 4hrs, hooked it back up and it did the one click thing on the first try, started right up on the second.

 

check the starter for any dings or dents, make sure all the wires are good to go. my 4runner would do the same thing and found out a wire was loose. still attached but loose.

 

sounds like u might have water in the starter or the starter is going bad...

 

The contacts in the starter sound bad pull the starter n look to see if their pitted, my starter had the same problem click click click some less some more then vroom. 4crawler has contacts if yours are pitted, that's what I'd put my money on.

 

I was leaning towards a starter issue too, sounds like a good place to start.

 

I have swamped my rig more times than I care to admit.... that being said... ^ he has it right... aside from water getting in there, think about mud, dirt etc.... Time to tear the starter apart and clean, or buy a new one!

 

Starters don't like water as a rule.
I know they don't in boats anyway.

 

could be the starter, clean the contacts could be good. But where you said it turns over after a few minutes of driving, Sounds more of a battery issue, the battery might work for acc but may just not have enough Cold Cranking Amps to turn over the engine. the accessories do not draw as much current from the battery as the starter. The starter draws a lot of current very quickly.