Thanks Roger, again... Starter going "Click-Click"

Apr 27, 2004 6 Replies

Guys, I've been a yota nut for years, although I may not post here very often, I can surely say this is a great group, nice bunch of guys... As such, I must thank Roger Brown, for yet, another wonderful service he's done "us" yoters....



Recently I had the "click-click" problem with a starter on my 98 Taco. Never having been abandoned, I knew it was coming... So, I ordered the parts from Roger, didn't know what I needed, just knew that he had them, I needed them... So I ordered the full set, A,B,C,D...



After beating the ground a hundred times, wondering how the starter comes off, I sat down, took my p/r tire off, and stretched the brake line, and it was easy as pie.... Popped off the solenoid cap, inspected the copper contacts, or what was left of them... Matched up as close as possible, the one I had OEM was much longer, but close enough for me... mounted them, and then a buddy of mine showed up... Told me not to install it without having it tested first... the next morning. So I waited... The funny part, my drew



14amps, and a reman off the shelf only pulled 12amps... My 6 year old, factory TOYOTA starter, was _STILL_ stronger, more powerful than the brand new, freshly rebuilt stock unit off the shelf.. that was funny.. So all is good, I installed the starter in 45m and had it running 20m later....

All that for $10 or so? Roger, I'll be sending the ones I didn't use back, ain't in no hurry 'bout it though.... Thanks man....


Exactly why you want to repair and retain the original starter, they work better than the rebuilt units do.

Hey Roger, wanna see what came off mine?? They are different, only in length of the curve.. I admittedly worried at first about that, but then realize if it's only 3/16ths longer, the contact IS there, so the length may not be an issue... just a thought...

I think you can get slightly different length contacts (same general shape) with different contact mfgs., as the aftermarket mfgs. make contacts to fit multiple applications, so likely make them to fit a wider variety of starters to keep the number of different parts to a minimum. Its also possible in some cases to install a different shape contact if space permits. As long as it makes a good contact, the exact shape is not all that important, the extra metal may give a few percent more contact life, but that might be the difference of 200K miles vs. 190K miles of use or whatever.

Ok, didn't really think it mattered as long as there was contact... Thanks again....

On some starters, there is lots of room for contacts. For example on my '85/22RE starter, you could run contacts that span nearly 1/2 the circumference of the solenoid, yet there were only the smallest contacts in there from the factory. I think in later years, they tried putting in larger contacts to increase the surface area but there was more "stuff" inside the solenoid on some models, so this limited how large the contacts could be.

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