the Yota tech told me I made good time doing mine in 2 1/2 hours, he said he could fix one in 30 mins. He said that he has a lift that I don't have, also he loosens the starter enough to move it to the side and replace the points (removing only the back of the starter), not the whole starter. That is how they do it in 30 mins,

 

update...year and a half later I just had to replace that @utoZ*ne starter again. I broke the plug wire on the knock sensor and thought I got it back together right...WRONG~gotta go back in AGAIN! I am getting good at this after all the practice! lucky me.

 

Toyota starters never die, they just need new contacts every once in awhile. New starter $175 or New Contacts $20.......you do the math!

 

I am an average dude. I can change out simple things on trucks. This seemed a little above my range of comfort, however, my truck is paid off and I love taking ˟˟˟˟˟ apart.

I could share my whole story here (maybe later).....for now, here are a few tips that really helped me.

two of my biggest frustrations with this were stupid.

one was getting the electrical contacts off the injectors. I used a combo of flat head screw drivers...(note: is you use any tool on these....be very careful...I did not break mine, however, it would be really simple to do)

The other thing that pissed me off was getting to the two 14mm bolts holding the starter in place. the first one came off easy after experimenting with different extensions. The second one was a bear....to get it out I reached it from the drivers side and snaked my hand around back about fuel rail level...to get the bolt back in I used a little trick that i ended up using a lot on this project.
I took some blue painters tape and wrapped a small piece around the head of the bolt...this made it fit snug in the socket and worked to hold the bolt.

 

I just replaced the starter relay on my 2001 Tundra (145,000 miles). The contacts had burnt. Should I also replace the solenoid contacts to avoid further problems?

 

I've been seeing this meme regularly on FB and Irate4x4 for a couple of months at least. I did not make the meme, but I knew exactly what it was because I remembered taking similar pictures when I had to repair my startert.

I saw the meme posted again today and I thought that the paper towels in the intake runner looked like something I'd do, so I spent way too long today finding this old thread from 2007. Sure enough, it's my picture (from this thread) that they used for the meme. Look at the distictive shapes of the paper towel sticking out of the intake ports, they are exactly the same.

Can I get a cookie or something?