I am in the middle of doing a full tear down on my 22re, and while I'm in there I decided to put in a new starter, when I bought the truck the PO gave me a new bigger starter as a spare. The old starter is a NAPA prostart #16578, and the new one with a bigger motor on it is part # 15737 they both check out to be NAPA auto starters, and they say they are both for my 87 22re 4runner 5speed, but the front of the housing where the pinion protrudes looks different. I'm just wondering if this is something I should be concerned, or just throw it in there and hope for the best. I just want to do this while the starter is easy to get to, going back later after I have the motor assembled would suck. Here are some pics.

 

Its probably fine....if a company can get away with making one part fit a bunch of others while still working fine for all of them, they will.

Its like a napa 1515 or1334 oil filter number. They fit DOZENS of other vehicles. 1334 fits honda civics, motorcycles and a couple toyotas. Its not a OEM part

 

look at where it mates, and see if that type of gears will work. also that napa prostart is like what I said in previous post.

someone correct me if im wrong and knows for sure it wont work

 

IMO take it back and get a real denso re-manned unit. What's wrong with the one you got? The best part of the toyota starters is the denso motor not the solenoid/contacts etc.

 

The only reason I'm putting it in, is the fact that it is new, and I got it for free from the PO, it also has a bigger starter motor than the one that was on before, it is also supposed to be a higher grade starter than the old one. Whether that is true I don't know. I am rebuilding everything except for the bottom end. New cylinder head, timing components, timing cover, water pump, oil pump, harmonic balancer, and fuel injectors, and I might as well put in a new starter while I'm at it. I know that the original starter is the best, but Im tapped out from all of the other parts at the moment.

 

heh, by all means if you got it for nothing better then the other one you got now, then I would use it too. I can't help ya on fitment though. Never really paid attention as many times as I have had mine out. haha.

Thought maybe you bought a new one cus the old one stopped working.

 

haha if you wanna know the truth it will fit like everyone esle said its just not oem and the other one is but personally i wouldnt waiste bc if it aint broke you aint fixing anything...

 

Pray tell why are you not doing the bottom end along with every thing else??

I hope the reason is you have just done it. New Head old bottom end is not a real good mix

The old bearings just don`t like the added compression of the new valves.

 

I just replaced my original starter with another denso. For five bucks more I upgraded from the 1.0 kw to the 1.4 kw starter. (thanks pismojoe for the info on that) they bolt up fine, both worked great, but there were differences in the shape and size of the starter. If both part numbers say they work on 22r's and re's, I wouldn't worry about it. But when your free starter goes out down the road, grab a denso.

 

The bottom was actually rebuilt in 07', and less than 20k miles.

 

I just wanted to update everyone on my findings.

So I put in the new starter, went ahead and finished my rebuild, It is around 10:00 pm, I triple check everything, go to start the truck, and CLICK, (just one) try again click, now Im thinking I should have never put that thing in, so I take out the new one put back in the old one, and the 4runner starts right up. Anyway, one thing I noticed is that the new starter looks as if it was ground down a bit by the flywheel??? I think it is called. I also noticed that my original starter that I put back in has the same ground down area, but a bit deeper, you can see it in the first picture I posted. Could it be that I need to shim my starter, or is it possible that the PO put something in backwards on the back side of the motor? At this point, I am just thinking about the next time I actually need to really replace or repair my starter, and ave a problem, I would rather be prepared.

 

Where did you get it? I do all my shopping at Napa, hoping I can make a little upgrade also.