that bloody car hates me !

starter issues , oh bugger

the vans never been much of a quick starter , the starter motor itself likes to turn over very slowly when its cold to the point ive got a HUGGGGGGE battery now rammed into the little hole to try to bang a few volts through it

until a few days ago when it simply wasnt having any of it , sooooo slowlyyyyyyy it simply couldnt start , the leads themselves were roasting hot to the point i have a 10mm bolt head now embossed on my finger

ok a fix then ,,,, off to the mechanic for a chat , he recons its the leads , i recon the starter itself ( why would it turn over ok when warm otherwise ? ) but then hes the man of the moment so a change of leads first , the result a burnt finger as the new leads also got toasty hot , ummm , just in case and on the off chance the 130 amp 6 month old battery cant summon up the courage to start i tried another new battery but no hope so its starter time

quick check on line and theres a serious amount of starters for hiaces and general 3.oL toyotas so im in trouble , google doesnt help and neither does ebays listing , so plan B , take the starter off and copy the number , cant go wrong ? wanna bet

half an hour was all it took to sus out what the hell i needed to do to get it off and have it in hand , from the engine bay it looks beyond a joke but the reality was it was easy , the covers dropped off without a moments trouble and the starter wasnt hard to remove at all except for its weight , i even got lucky in that i disconnected a wiring block that turned out to be for the starter itself , bonus , all this whilst lay on my back on gravel

ok so starters in hand and the numbers ........... 25-2444-p , no problems and ill have 1 in a jiffy yeah ? well no , the numbers straight away popped up an issue , thats for a 4runner , ok then check out the associated toyota number ,,,,, 28100-67020 or 28100-67060 , huston we have a problem mainly im finding listing for this car as 28100-67070 , will it fit ? buggered if i know

http://www.partsbase.net/part/els-252444
a linky to all the numbers of starter manufactors listed for this in case it helps anyone

so popped out and about to hunt a starter down based on reg number and chassis/engine type ( ikz-te ) , no-one could find one except blueprint toyota and the price was only £320 , jebus wept ,,,,, so ebay and i cant find one listed ,,,, so in the end i took to email and asked vrs listers if it might fit , 1 person took the bait and re-conned it would so for £112 ive taken the chance

its listed as on its way .... ill keep you all posted

May only be the starter contacts, less than £20 on ebay. Bit late now I know, still you can resell the starter if it don't fit.

news

starter landed just 15 hrs after ordering , wow , so at 8 this morning i got my finger out

looking at the starters they are exact in every way except for the location of the solenoid wire , the s/motor i took off has a screw and 10 inch of wiring before a plug , the new starter just has the plug fitted and not the other side of the solenoid ,,,, so bung into the hole , wire in and your away yeah ? well no the wiring didnt reach

so in the end i made a loom out of some decent thickness of wire and bolted it up plus managed to get a female spade connecter on the end of this lot , bolted the lot up and got to hear my baby rour for the first time in a week , sounded bloody good

drove all day today without a moments issue so its a fix

hi ya clive
yeah spotted the kits for 17 quid , i didnt want to take the gamble and as it happens i did the right thing , its near impossible to get the starter to turn over when you tug the bendix out so its a body issue rather than elec , i think its basically had it , its either full of gunk ( thats a worry but the bendix is clean enough so ? ) or a bearings gone oval stopping it turning properly , either way for £110 or so im happy with that

Result!

yep , and its a joy to have back , nothing like driving along in the beastie singing loudly to oneself , you forget how easy it is to drive