I have a 1992 runner V6 3.0. I recently had to replace the water pump due to a leak so while I was in there I replaced the timing belt. Did everything according to manual and made sure all marks lined up. now when I try to start it the starter clicks and nothing else. The battery is charged, terminals are good etc. would this problem have anything to do with the timing belt change? I also removed the plenum to change the gasket and PCV valve/grommet at the same time. any help would be great. Thanks in advance

 

More likely dirty battery ends. Did you clean the battery and the connectors before you put them back on?

Did you make sure they were tight?

The click is often just not enough power getting to the starter, be it dirty connections or bad solenoid on the starter.

Do you have strong head lights, do they dim big time if you leave them on and try to crank over the motor. Often if they dim a lot while trying to crank it over, that will point to dirty battery connections...if the battery tests good.

 

Am I at risk of seriously damaging anything if I push start the car? I am 99% positive I did everything right on the timing install etc. but could i have made a common mistake that could damage the engine if push started. maybe a stupid question, but i'd rather be stupid than have a dead rig. thanks

 

Not sure if you want the extra hassell, but if you pull all the plugs, there will be no compression and you can spin the motor over by hand. That way if the timming belt is off a tooth or what ever you will feel the parts hit before much/any damage can happen to the motor. If with the plugs removed it spins freely for several revolutions it should be safe to guess the motor is put back together right. So a push start should not hurt anything.

But I would start with making sure the battery and the conection to it are clean.

 

thanks. for some reason I didn't even think to check the terminals. turns out the neg terminal was so bad ther was almost no real contact. tried after cleaning terminls and it started up geat. thanks again. yotatech is awesome!

 

Cool.