Hey there,
I just bought an 89 sr5 4wd pickup and replaced the 3.0 with another used 3.0, the truck had been sitting for a few years in inoperable condition. I have the engine in and have a question about the starter. When I try to crank the engine to get it to start the starter seems to turn the engine at an unusually slow speed compared to most other starters I've seen, is this normal on the 3.0s? And if not has anyone else had this problem? (I haven't tried push starting the truck as the fuel pump is having an issue as well, but I wanted to see about getting this cleared up first) I'm trying to figure out if it is the starter or a problem with the engine.
Thanks
Alex

 

You bought a engine that you did not see run??

No the starter should crank the engine just like most other starters.

Rust on the cylinder walls causing it to crank hard.

worn tired starter.

Poor ground cables

poor positive cable

Battery terminals corroded or cracked.

Battery discharged.

Could be any number of things break out the meter and start at the battery to find out if it is electrical or mechanical .

 

The engine came with the truck when I bought it, it came out of a wrecked 4 runner with 50,000 miles. I used a full battery from my other rig and I think the cables are good, but I can try to mess with those a bit... I might try to take the starter off and run it without a load and see how that goes...
Thanks for the advice!

 

"I think" along with "look good" has gotten many to replace parts they didn't need to when the cables were the problem all along. I'm not saying that's your problem but why not make sure? Voltage drop testing is the way to make sure and here's a long explanation that gets the point across.