need help diagnosing my starter trouble...

I tried cranking my truck (87 4r, 22re, 5sp) a couple of mornings ago which happened to be the coldest morning yet.....probably about 18degrees...

at any rate, my otherwise good battery wouldn't spin it but a few times and not enough to kick it off. so now all I can get is a single click when I go to try. I've charged the battery, and even boosted it with one of those portable jumper boxes (fully charged) but everytime the same. just a single click.

can't tell if I somehow burnt the starter, starter relay (if there is one?) or crappy connection, etc??

where should I start? do these things have a starter relay that I can jump past to test?


thanks.

 

Try smacking it with a hammer a couple times then try it.


Everybody here is going to tell you to rebuild it.

If it was me I'd go buy a new one. (I did not to long ago actually.)

 

x2 on smacking it, reach through the fender well with a small hammer and tap on it, I have to do that from time to time myself. Its a 5 speed, roll it off.

 

true.... I was able to roll it off... or drag it off rather...

but I just wondered about a relay... on an old nissan I had, I remember a bad relay shut the whole thing down.

If smacking it doesn't work, should I be able to (putting it in neutral, with someone pushing the brake and clutch) hit the terminals on the starter with the jumper box....?

 

if u put 12v to the starter it doesnt matter if u have it in gear or not its gonna turn tho id reccomend the whole neautral and brake thing lol have the battery tested if its shot u wont b able to charge it or jump it sometimes

 

I was refering more to neutral as in, not running over me ...;^)

 

lol yea but u dont have to push the clutch in

 

true.... the bypass switch.

might be nice to have someone on the brake though!!!

so....is there a relay or not?

 

if it clicks more then likely its not a relay its either the battery connections or the starter try taking a jumper cable from the positive post touch it to the starter terminal (note not the big wire the small) if it turns then from that terminal to the switch is your problem if nothing happens then its either the batter or the cable or a poorly grounded starter or the starter itself

 

If everything is up to par with the battery and cables etc. you most likely have bad contacts in the starter. you have to remove the starter to replace them, but is much cheaper than a new sterter. Usually the only problem with toyota starters.

 

ok.... hammer didn't work...

but I was able to hook my jump-starter pack to the big lug on the starter (and ground to the frame) and then turn the ign. and it worked....

so I'm guessing battery? I pulled it and checked the water level and put it on charge over night. I'll hook it back up and let you know.

may have been that the super cold night did it in....

what do you think?

 

Look at this if you don't have any luck. Fixed my problem. And for the love of god, clean your battery cables and connections before you do anything else.

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/Starter.shtml

 

assuming I put the fully charged, or even a new, battery in and get the same result: just the single click?

what's between the ign. switch and the starter?

 

I recently went through somewhat the same problem. Start with easy things first. Do you have a multimeter? If so check voltage at the battery should be over 12v. Then check the voltage on the cables themselves, should be same or tiny dropoff. Then check the voltage at the solenoid, small wire. Should be very close to battery voltage, i think a .3-.4 drop-off is acceptable.

The 12v power from the batter goes to the ignition switch then through the starter relay then to the solenoid, which kicks the starter. The starter may have good voltage, but if the solenoid does not get a good 12v kick it won't crank. Sometimes the old wiring just can't carry the voltage anymore. You can run a direct wire from the batt to the starter relay to fix that problem.

 

make sure all connections are super clean and tight if they are even a little loose sometimes current flow will actually move the cables on their connection it happened on my truck and it was cause a single click, right after i replaced my starter. even if they look clean from the outside they build up corrosion on the inside sometimes, dont beat the crap out of your starter with a hammer you can damage it more try to get on the back side of it with the hammer and give it some decent taps while someone is putting the key in the start position on and off as fast as they can, your starter should be rebuildable if its not to damaged like mine was it completely grenaded somehow, and they are not to expensive even for new ones, and you can always bump start your truck use second gear though first will make the tires hop.

 

if u hooked it to the big wire on the starter then it is either your positive cable or your battery