1989 FJ62 Auto won’t start (1 Viewer)

[belouder]

Hey

I’ve got a problem I could use some help trying to troubleshoot.

1989 FJ62 w/350k miles. Original motor w/auto. Normally starts and runs fine-losing a bit if oil somewhere in the front and on side near starter. Last week it started getting hard to start-turns over very slowly but then fires and runs. Once started runs fine. Three days ago it wouldn’t turn over at all. Turning key gives me a click somewhere in front if the glove box. Dome light doesn’t dim much when turning key. Was low on oil (thought maybe I seized the motor!!) but a socket on main turned it over. Checked battery-looks good.

Crawling under revealed a bunch of oil all over starter and solenoid. Was going to try and jump the solenoid to see if stater is good but not sure what posts to short. Battery cables are good.

When it was starting hard I would turn the key and it would turn over hard once, twice and then faster and fire-like something was tight or too much compression.

Thoughts on where to start troubleshooting?

Thx!
BK

 

[LA Z]

The oil on your starter more than likely got inside the and caused the problem.
Take the starter off and clean it out with contact cleaner, or if the starter been on there
for a while just get a new one.
But you should find the source of the oil leak and fix that as well, because if you don’t it will happen again.
Possible source of the leak, valve cover gasket or push rod cover gasket.
Good luck

 

[2mbb]

check your battery voltage and clean the connections.

There are two wires that go to your starter. One is a heavy cable that comes directly from the battery with +12V to carry high amps to run the starter. The other is a thin wire with a spade connector. This is +12V switched from the ignition switch to trigger the solenoid. Disconnect the wire from the spade connector and connect the spade connector to a +12V source momentarily to see if the starter works. Make sure you have your truck in park or neutral and chock your wheels. I use a remote start switch (just a push button switch with two leads. I connect one to the spade connector on the starter and then the other to the +12V battery post. Then I can engage the starter without having to lay underneath the truck. If something goes wrong and the truck lunges forward, I am standing to the side.

 

[bentonrover]

Possibly oil gally plug leaking? I think it's by the cylinder #5.

 

[belouder]

So I was about to do the “remote starter” method to check starter itself and decided I’d first just try “tapping” on the solenoid and starter body. I’ll also cycled the canal wire connection (it was pretty wet inside) and then tried to start-fired right up!! I’ve used the “hit it with a hammer” method on many vehicles to good luck-not sure why I didn’t just try that!!

So I’m going to order a new starter/solenoid and track down the oil leak. It’s definitely somewhere on bottom half of motor, possibly forward and being blown back. But there are hard metal lines in the area that are wet-is this the “oil gallery” you mention? Some sort of return line or going to the rear (trans? Cooler?) etc? How would one troubleshoot an oil gallery leak?

Thx all!

 

[belouder]

Possibly oil gally plug leaking? I think it's by the cylinder #5.

New to this truck and Toyota in general-is #5 cylinder counties ftom forward to rear? And where roughly would this plug be? Is it similar to a freeze plug? There are lots of hard lines going front to back-not sure if it’s rear seat heater, oil lines, trans cooler lines?

 

[belouder]

Also-there’s a cluster of electrical wires and connector just hanging loose next to solenoid-one thing I’ve noticed about this vehicle design is much of the electrical is stupid-ground switches, fuseable limks hanging off battery post, etc. I’m sure most folks have modified in various ways. I’ll take a whack at it this winter when the truck is in storage-meanwhile I think I’ll start a thread asking for pics and descriptions of what folks have done to redo the fuseable link disaster (bussbar with fuse block mounted on wheel well?) and such

 

[Devils Paw 80]

New to this truck and Toyota in general-is #5 cylinder counties ftom forward to rear? And where roughly would this plug be? Is it similar to a freeze plug? There are lots of hard lines going front to back-not sure if it’s rear seat heater, oil lines, trans cooler lines?

My First Galley Plug Fix

So I dove in yesterday, after reading, and re-reading tons of posts on here. I will share my successful method, and add it to the pile: It was time to adjust my valves, so I figured since I was in up to my elbows, why not fix the galley plug, too? Total time was about 2.5 hours. That...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[Devils Paw 80]

But there are hard metal lines in the area that are wet-is this the “oil gallery” you mention? Some sort of return line or going to the rear (trans? Cooler?) etc? How would one troubleshoot an oil gallery leak?

Thx all!

No, the plug is higher up. See post above.

 

[LA Z]

For oil plug see red circle above #5 spark plug.
Hopefully this will help.

 

[toy_tek]

I wouldn't rush out and buy a starter/solenoid. If you do, at least hang on to it until you get your leak sorted out as follows...

Get yourself a can or two of good engine degreaser and soak that entire side of the engine down, including the oil cooler (the black thing with two large "bolts" in the photo above right in front of the starter). Wait 15-20 minutes and hose it all down. Then do it again. Don't buy the cheapest degreaser, GUNK or one of the other bigger name brands actually work better than the brand of the auto parts store you're at (in my experience).

Then take off your starter wires and clean up the connections with electrical cleaner. Also make sure your battery ground cable connection is clean at the frame/block. This can also cause your issue.

Take the truck out for a 15 minute drive to get it warmed up well, then park on a flat surface so you can get underneath with a bright light and start pinpointing the oil leak. it could be any of the things listed in this thread, but until you clean it up really well you'll probably just be guessing.

Best of luck.

 

[avantcruise]

@toy_tek has some good advice here. If it is an oil leak and you replace your starter/solenoid you’ll face the same issue again soon.

I’ve had good luck with formula88 degreaser - you can pick it up at Home Depot. After my oil galley plug blew and I dropped all my oil (and had to ultimately replace my engine) I had a lot of oil to clean up. Honestly, I still have more. As Kent of MercedesSource asks, “Why do we alway have time to go back and fix our mistakes but we never have time to just do it right the first time?” I want that quote framed and hanging in a shop of my own one day.