I am about to throw a wrench through the fender on this thing now! I am hoping some of you guys might can give me some insight I may be over looking. I have a 87' 4runner-22RE. I recently took the upper intake off, to have the injectors sent out to be cleaned. Got them back and re-installed everything, got into to start it and "click". It has never had a starting issue. I put jumper cables on the battery, checked the voltage of the battery, it was good, and made 4crawlers starter tester, and was getting 11.4 or so volts to the small wire on the starter. I tried taking jumper cables and touching them off on the starter, and nothing. I finally got feed up, the starter had a lifetime warranty, so I went and got another one, had the new one tested to make sure it was good before I ran home with it, and it tested fine. Installed it and same "click". The relay is clicking, I even can feel the solinod clicking, but the dang starter will not turn over. The main ground is good, and the battery seems good. I am getting full voltage power to the starter also, so i assume the wire is good. I am thinking I left a ground off possibly?? Where does the relay ground off? I grounded off 2 wires joined together on the bottom left of the intake runners when I reinstalled the intake? Was there any other grounds I might have missed? The only reason I think this is, because these symptom has never happend until I did the injectors.

 

have you checked all of your fuses? you could have a blown fuse have you tapped the starter with a hammer yet my last truck a ford would do this same problem every now and then so i carried around a hammer and when i wouldnt start i banged the crap out of the starter

 

voltage means little without a ground...
Is the ground from the engine in good condition?

What I mean is that you can have good voltage but if the ground sucks, it can't carry the amperage... like putting a hose on a fire hydrant and having all the pressure from the hydrant diverted somewhere else.

 

yea, i beat the old one to death trying to get it to work.
It is a brand new starter, and I had it checked just to make sure before I walked out with it! That is what is on it now.
I checked all the fuses, not certain that there is a starter fuse on an 87', All lights and accs. come on without issues as well

Yes, the main ground is good, from the battery to the block. Where are the other grounds I can look for? Where does the solinoid ground off?

 

I can think of three: battery to block, head to firewall and the one that you mentioned thats on the intakes. On the starter IIRC there's a main power wire and signal wire...?

 

on the starter- there are two wires... one from the battery and one from the ingition switch. The starter grounds through the engine and transmission.

OH... and you have to either depress the clutch or press the 'clutch start cancel' switch before trying to start....

Not that these are your problems... just... that...

 

Thanks guys! I am going to go probe around on it here for a bit, I'll let you know if i find out wha it was

 

OK, everything seems to be working, the relay is clicking, and getting sufficient power, and even the solinoid is clicking/engaging. I have 12 volts to the starter, why won't the starter turn over???? The only other explination is it is not grounded. It is a new starter, which I pre tested at the place I bought it, and it is tighnened on there good. So how can my tranny/motor not be a good ground. My last resort, I am taking the battery up to be tested, who knows. Th ebattery has tested on my meter, and I have had it jumped to my diesel truck. I thought this is giving it enough juice. Hopefully it will be the battery, and I will end up feeling like a big dumb #$@!

 

hey willie its your positive battery cable clean it up real good and even eplace your positive termanial then try it i had the same problem!

 

Check your cables. U may have the 12 volts to the starter, but your starter needs amperage. Look for corrosion in the cable

 

OK you guys nailed it! I cleaned up the battery connection and got it to fire off! I guess it was my stupidity to think into it more, that is just "couldn't" be something that simple. Oh well lesson learned for trying to overthink things!
Thanks to everyone for your help in trying to diagnose the issue. This is a great site, I am very glad that I found it!

 

Glad you fixed it .