Good afternoon everybody! Glad to be part of YotaTech forums now and wanna start by saying, this site has helped & taught me so much especially when it comes to this lil truck. I know I may get referred to other post on this forum concerning this problem but I have looked thru them all and they either do not have a follow up post or their problem is solved differing to my issue.

I have a 1986 yota pickup 2WD MT(4Spd). 22R Motor! My problem is when i go to start the truck, all i get is a click coming from engine bay. When i inspect the area it seems to be the starter BUT it sounds like the starter is engaging and working properly. The PO told me it was only a few years old and had not seen many miles. So i went to get it tested at autozone and it passed with flyin colors! Solenoid engages and functions properly. Long story short, this has ALWAYS been a problem with this truck. I know the PO personally and even when he thought he fixed the issue, it still persist. He had this problem originally and his solution was splicing a wire from gold box starter relay/solenoid? thats on passenger fender wall to the pos battery terminal. Wire getting power, starter getting power, and if you remove the wire from the battery, the starter will not engage so i know that power is getting run. Also inspected it without the housing and the solenoid coil is making contact and getting spark. Tested battery myself, read 12.50 somthin and when she does run its kicked up 14v's! Even brought battery in for testing and it also passed flawlessly.

Suspected clutch switch. Wires good and connected. Had luck a few times FULLY pushing the clutch plunger alllll the way with my finger and it turned over but has not worked since. Also looking at electrical skats for truck it seems the starer & ignition will not turn on if clutch switch dont work, so ive ruled that out?

NOW with all that being said, here is the real kicker. Are you ready... once i get her to turn, she runs like a top! As if nothing is wrong with her. Runs perfect! Haha
Sometimes it only takes 10 turns of the key....Sometimes it takes 80 but she will eventually turn. And the weird thing is once i get her runnin ill go for a drive and whatnot, come home, turn her off and she starts right back on first turn! Hell ill even leave truck sittin for 20-30min and it turns over easily. Even might turn if I let it sit a day but unfortunately more times than not...she will not turn over or even give me signs of engine life. Had a good run about a week ago driving it almost all week with no problem, then it returns. Sometimes during these little start up fiascos, the engine will give me life...like briefly act like it wants to start up...then its back to the click when turning the key. And then boom might act like it wants to start again except it tries to start alil longer then.....nothing. Theres times it wont even do that and after so many clicks it will just turn over perfectly without struggle. Ahh i love this truck and just want it to be a reliable as i know it is!!

Any help is appreciated and would love to hear what you guys thing on the situation. Maybe i did overlook a post on this subject but everybody's symptoms seem to be just a little bit different than mine. I also have a vid and will see if it post below! Thank you YotaTech!

- Sim

 

ok, I'm going to jump on my favorite possibility: Bad ground. Did you check the heavy cable going from the battery negative to the engine block? Normally connected to the AC compressor mount? Ohm out the cable with a decent multimeter? Did you check both ends of said cable to ensure they are clean, no grease, corrosion, etc?

Did you check the cable going from the battery positive terminal down to the starter? It should go to the heavy bolt on the side of the starter, with a thick, heavy, red rubber cap on it. Are both ends, once again, clean and shiney? It takes a surprizingly small amount of dirt, grease, or corrosion at either end to cause big problems. Again, ohm the cable out. Flex the cable while ohming it out.
The battery acid mist that occurs when the battery charges, like right after a start, can get under the cables insulation, and corrode the wires inside the cable. Invisible from the outside, but enough of the wires inside the cable's insulation corrode through and break, and there's no longer enough current available to turn over the starter.

Also, check out the key switch's contacts? It doesn't take a lot of corrosion on them to prevent the current from flowing to the starter.

Just a few thoughts. I get so few anymore...
Pat☺

 

If the ground is good, the battery is good (not just volts) but CCA capacity is good, the starter is good, then might be the starting solenoid. It's easy to open by prying the 4 tabs open on the metal case and sliding it off. I did mine and saw the contacts were pitted. Used some fine sandpaper and smoothed both contact surfaces. Then electronic spray cleaned everything
reassembly was as easy. If not fix the problem you now have a good contact operating solenoid to rule out that cost next to nothing to renew.

 

Starter contacts are good and shiny. Starter signal wire was a little cruddy so cleaned that up a bit. Now as for that main ground to block cable, i have not inspected enough. I remember checking if it was loose and it was all good. The wires seemed good too BUT the engine block side of the cable is starting to get more oily from oil leaks haha this is something i will check out tomorrow

 

Yup everything across the radar on the battery passed. Autozone told me its getting old but is still at 100%.
Now the starting solenoid, i have already removed and inspected the coil inside and everything seems to be looking great actually, even the contacts. Other day i had someone turn the key while i had the housing off and could visually see the contacts engaging and spark (assuming that supposed to happen?). Funny tho, i always seem to suspect the same thing...maybe its not producing enough power to power one of the 4 wires attached to its harness?

 

I had the click no start problem for years. 9 times out of 10 tapping on the starter with a small hammer would get me rolling again. Pretty sure it was a dead spot on the starter windings. I replaced the starter and hasn't been a problem since.

 

What about the starter rely? Mine had crusty contacts.

 

I had a similar problem for years and it went away when I finally replaced the ignition switch.

 

PLS check if your starter solenoid CONSISTENTLY works when you apply 12V directly from battery to its control pin as shown on my post here:
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f199...l#post52367443

If above test CONSISTENTLY energetically actuates the starter solenoid and runs the starter motor, it is very likely that your starter relay WAS WIRED WRONG AT THE FACTORY.

Easy fix for a few dollars: https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116.../#post52422426

Explained further, and fixed the problem here:

 

Hey yall! Thank you all for replies and suggestions. Sorry for the LATE response had to put yota up for a bit but it ended up being the starter. Got a duralast gold starter and aint look back haha we will see how long it last (2mo so far) but she starts STRONG and quick everytime now!

- Sim