Hey all, I'm a Toyota virgin so pardon my ignorance. I'm not a virgin to working on cars and trucks though,been doing that ever since I got my license 30 (cough) years ago.I also spent about 15 years racing and I wasn't big time enough to have a crew to wrench, so you get the picture.I was searching for an extra work truck for my remodeling business when I stumbled across a rust-free 93 4 runner with a 3.0 auto with a bad tranny for $600. After spending some time on some other forums I finally found this place, it clearly blows away all other 4 runner forums. I've been doing quite a bit of reading up and research and have found a lot of helpful info. Also a friend of mine owns his own auto shop and he let me download his Mitchell file on pulling the tranny.

Now to my questions how the @#$% are you supposed to get to the starter?

And I seem to have trouble disconnecting the snap in wire connections, do I need a Toyota tool?

Any helpful comments would be greatly appreciated, go easy on me.

 

Welcome.

If you want a full shop manual (which is amazing by the way) its in the sticky thread called "Links to Factory Shop Manuals & parts numbers" It will tell you everything.

I dont know any answers to your other questions. good luck, im sure someone will help you out.

 

should be a bolt under that snap connector.. you need a socket and some extensions to get at the starter there is 2 bolts.. one on top and one ont he bottom going into the tranny from the engine side..

anyways my experiance is on 22re toyota..

 

On my 3.slow, in the passenger side fenderwell there's an access panel you can unscrew. I think you have one too.

 

yeah you have to unscrewthe acess pannel!!!then use extensions on the 2 bolts!! forgot about the pannel!

 

I have one bolt from the front and one from the back in my 94 4runner. Get to the bolts from the front and the back (works pretty easily if you lay down under the truck). Take of the access panel and wiggle the starter out through the wheel well. It's tight but doable.

 

Exellent, thanks for letting me know about the access panel. I'm also trying to unsnap the transmission wiring harnesses on top of the tranny, maybe it's the cold weather or the end of a long day but I had trouble trying to disconnect them. Any tricks?

 

a screw driver sometiems helps with those connectors!

takea break and get atr inthe morning fresh..
with that pannel off the starter shouldnt be an issue.. my first one i did was and hour...now i got it to 10minutes..
and im still a newb!

 

There's a little access cover in the passenger side wheel well which permits easier access to the starter.

From http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/maintenance/starter/ :



No special tool needed. Toyotas are really good about not needing special tools (unless you count a lug centric wheel balancer). For the connectors, you have to pinch a little tab like you do on a phone cord. Sorry, I can't find good pic, but here's the best I have.

 

Thanks, I was trying a little flat blade screw driver but was afraid of breaking the connector and causing more problems. I think I'll try spraying them with WD then pop them apart with a screw driver.

Edit; Don't I feel stupid those connectors are very easy once I could see what I was doing.
Thanks for the help.