well, a couple days ago my new (for me...) truck wouldn't start :-( didn't have a whole lot of time between work and classes to mess with it, but the headlights and radio worked so I was worried right off the bat. finally got some free time and spent about an hour and a half (i'm not exactly a professional diy-er) testing the battery, alternator, and starter. an easy way to test the starter is to take a pair of needle nose pliers and touch the positive battery lead connector bolt to the inside of the plastic casing that holds a little black wire that goes to the solenoid--i think. if the starter tries to kick in, like mine did, then it's good...and you've got a problem somewhere else. anyways, i have a stick, so through process of elimination i finally found the culprit:



yep...clutch switch. there's probably not one person on here that doesn't know what this is or where it's located, but hey...why not. it goes here:



anyways, a much easier fix than the starter. i'm probably just gunna end up connecting the wires and getting rid of the button all together. tools required:



yeah, they're black n decker from home depot :-/. working in a condo garage sucks...



i guess that's all...if you have a manual tranny and your truck won't start, check the battery, then i'd suggest going straight to the clutch switch...easier to check than the starter imho.

 

My 95 has a clutch cancel switch on the dash.
Was your switch bad or could it just be adjusted to make the switch push in further.
Great pics and write up though.

Congrats on your new truck.

 

My trucks also have this clutch cancel button...always check for easiest fix first...good job though on not buying a new starter and then kicking yourself when you found out this was the problem

 

If ya'll notice, his is a 2WD. 2wd trucks do not have the clutch start cancel switch.

 

If the truck will turn over but just not start then the most likely culprit (assuming that you keep everything in tip-top shape as far as tune up parts go) is the EFI relay. It was 28$ wholesale when I bought my first one back in '94 and they are up to 32$ now wholesale. So if it just won't start and then randomly starts perfectly, then it is the EFI relay going out.

 

If you have and use Cruise Control (CC), you may not want to jumper the switch. It functions to disable the CC when you push the clutch in, as a safety feature. I don't want you to have a nasty surprise....

 

Ok Now I see where the wire came off the terminal in the first pic. Soldier it back on then you should be good.

Good Luck,

 

that's true about cruise control!! i don't have it so i didn't have to worry...and yeah, mine's 2wd so i don't have a cancel switch either...but i'm thinking of ditching the button altogether and rigging something up. there's a black plastic casing that holds in those wires and mine got cracked...no idea how that happened...it looks repairable, but would probably need replacing eventually. i'd rather put some sort of switch in that could also act as a anti-theft device...i live in a pretty sketchy neighborhood :-/ not exactly sure how to do that, but i'm looking into it! anyone heard/done anything like that before? maybe i could just hide a cancel switch somewhere sneaky. right now i'm driving it with the wires taped together so i don't have to clutch start it, hopefully i'm not hurting anything by doing that...

 

well this is an embarrassing post...after getting all proud of myself for figuring out my problem, my truck won't start again i ran it for about a day with the wires normally connected to the clutch switch spliced together. i asked my mechanic before i did that, and he said it wouldn't have any negative effect...but i'm afraid having the wires connected fried something...anyone know what might be going on?? it's like i'm back to square 1...

 

having the wires crossed won't cause any ill problems. I link the wires on all my race cars (Stock MR2's) so I don't have to push the clutch to start the car. Not sure what you could have possible fried unless you started crossing other wires.

 

me neither...i'm at a total loss. the truck started like a charm when i jumped em with a paper clip...and for the past day and a half that i've had em connected...i just put a little wire cap on there with some electrical tape, took it all off just to check it and of course they're still touching, but once again truck isn't starting...

 

When you say you jumped em with a paper clip, do you mean at the starter relay? I am not getting a start and I want to try doing this but i don't know how. Could someone explain please?

 

No, i used the paper clip to connect the wires on my clutch switch and bypass it. to jump the starter i used needle nose pliers (although anything conductive should work i suppose..) and touched one end to where the positive battery lead connects and the other to the solenoid terminal. should be a smaller black wire clipped in to a plastic housing. if you try this, make sure you don't touch any other metal with your pliers and that you aren't in gear...parking brake firmly engaged. i also wore gloves just to be safe...

my truck still won't start by the way

 

I see. i have the clutch start cancel switch so the paper clip isn't required. Thanks for the info though. i would like to see if i can get her to start before i change my wiring harness. Thanks for the info.

I'm pretty new at this but have you considered the relay? Seems you are bypassing it by jumping and this works so maybe your problem is in there.

good luck!

 

hadn't had ANY time to look at the truck till today. took the voltmeter down there and i'm only getting voltage from one of the 2 wires, i'm not sure, but that seems like a problem to me! anyone know if that's abnormal??

 

Hi all,

Starter clicks when clutch engaged on '91 Tacoma 4wd, but if I pump clutch and leave key on engine eventually starts. If I push the clutch switch in by hand and try to start it clicks like the solenoid is getting current. Sound like starters bad or could the clutch switch need replacing?

Thanks

 

sounds like the starter to me...

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

you can test the clutch switch by taking a paper clip (or anything conductive) and connecting the 2 wires that come off of it, bypassing the switch.

 

i kept kicking around in my head the idea that you may have burned out the field coils in the starter body.

how much did you try to get the starter going until you decided you had another problem? because if you did burn those coils out, that would be a good reason why the starter will not engage or turn

 

Being that you have jumpered out a switch you will have voltage on one side only.

I think the easiest way to do this is just make a jumper wire with two male spade connectors and insert that and tape well your good to go.

If your splices are loose they will not conduct if you can solder them you are good to go.

 

Thanks for your help,

I've been driving it over a month with this problem and has just been getting harder to start.

Thought it must be the starter, but they always went out quickly on my earlier models. I'll change it out today and see what happens.
I miss spoke, this is a '97, I must be in denial or something, last one was a '91. Gave it away with 260,000 miles, very dependable.