Procedure for replacing 100 series(98 and up) starter contacts (2 Viewers)

[dnp]

FWIW

Thanks to the OP and everyone that posted on this thread. It sure helped a lot today when I did our 99 LX470 with 81K miles.
A few things that I found helpful were:

I backed up the truck on to ramps and then I removed the front tires/wheels. I then lowered the front lower control arms onto 6"x6" wood blocks. This made it much easier to reach most of the "operation".

I removed the hood struts (and later replaced with new) and tied the hood up into a more vertical position to allow more clearance.

I only removed the bolt that holds the transmission wiring harness which enabled me to move it around and use a long 14mm socket to reach both starter bolts.

I didn't remove the rear coolant crossover line but did remove the two rear wiring harness bolts.

I noticed that the fuel injector isolators/grommets (part # 23291-41010) were severely cracked so I went to the Toyota house and purchased a set for about 3 bucks each. Very simple to replace and provides piece of mind that they won't need to be replaced in the near future.

I disconnected the fuel line at the filter (which I replaced) but removed it from the FPR and intake to reinstall. If I did it again, I would remove the line from the FPR before removing intake to keep from bending the fuel line. A crescent wrench will work here if you don't have a metric wrench big enough (hint...it's bigger than a 19mm).

Here's what I replaced and all is good now.

FWIW, I'm only counting 7 injector grommets.......

 

[SUMMIT CRUISERS]

FWIWFWIW, I'm only counting 7 injector grommets.......

Good eye. I tried all the dealers in the OKC area Saturday and I could only find 7 at one of the dealers. 6 of the 8 were in bad shape. The 2 front ones looked fine. That's why the 7.

 

[ccasey]

This thread saved my a bundle of time and headache. I also took my hood off, which was a tip from a prior poster - huge time saver and gave me plenty of room to work. I never had to put a foot inside the engine bay to get the job done, although I'm 6'6" and have a longer reach than most. My only addition was a step to get the driver's side bolt off that holds the starter to the frame. If you use a 14mm socket with a 1/4" to 3/8" adapter and then use a 1/4" socket wrench with an extender, that makes life easier because of the room that the smaller socket wrench will give you. Finally, do check your electrical connections BEFORE you bolt the manifold back on and hook up all the hoses. Lesson learned. A one second crank to make sure you hear the starter before you bolt everything back together will save you a headache later.

 

[PDPerry]

While the intake manifold is removed, has anyone taken the opportunity to grind-off the flashing just inside of where the throttle body attaches?



I know it ain't port&polish, but seems a no-brainer...

 

[AfricanToy]

Does one need to remove the starter to replace the contacts?

 

[OGBeno]

Does one need to remove the starter to replace the contacts?

Yes you do.

 

[AfricanToy]

reman starter

If I were to do it all over... I would still do the work myself, just buy a reman starter instead of trying to rebuild it.

WHy? what happened that made you not want to replace the contacts instead of buying a new reman starter?

 

[AfricanToy]

coolant leak

Yes you do.

Thanks,

I have got everything out and now I am working on removing the starter

pulled one of the coolant pipes out by mistake...funny thing it just sits in a hole in the rear of the engine bay next to the intake #8 cylinder. It leaked some fluid into the valve chamber....so I had to use the shop vac to suck it all out as I wouldn't want it to go into the piston chamber. Is there something tricky with this coolant pipe....seems to me that it should be in this hole better. Does anybody have any thoughts?

 

[AfricanToy]

IN PIC #11

notice in the back of the engine bay there is a pipe (coolant) which sticks up on the right hand side connecting to rubber hose....I bumped that pipe and now it is leaking coolant from the bottom (where it attaches to the metal base).

Does anyone out there know how to fix this problem?

 

[AfricanToy]

Edit: Hey guys, sorry about the broken picture links, I just fixed all of those (and e-mailed several people the pics who asked for them)...Good Luck...-Mark

Chris, great writeup. A week or so ago I used this writeup to change the contacts on a '99 Cruiser...I took some pics if anyone is curious.

I took several pics of the sides of the engine before removing the intake. It really wasn't near as hard as I thought, and connecting all the hoses was not tough at all to figure out even without ever looking at these pictures. One thing I think that was left out of the writeup was disconnecting the electrical clips off from each injector, they just unclip, I had to use pliers since I couldn't get on them good enough with my fingers. The ends of the intake are what has the studs, so each side has the studs on the ends and 3 bolts in the middle like Chris mentioned. You will definetly want a magnetic picker-upper tool to fetch those nuts/bolt and also for putting them back in. I found out if you put a bolt/nut into the socket, then hold the magnetic thing right beside it, you can slide both down and get it started perfectly, that saved TONS of time.

The gaskets on each side (visible with the intake removed) are reusable, I was going to buy new ones, but CDan said they do not even replace them at the dealership so we just left them. You see the pile of leaves in there, we shop-vac'd all that out, and cleaned all the dirt from around the intake ports. I disconnected the incoming fuel line like Chris, by far the easiest way I think, you have to somewhat snake the hose out and back in, but very easy, take 10-15 seconds maybe.

The bolts for the actual starter are a PITA to get to. Well like Chris said the left one is not hard, but the right one is. For the right one I used a 3/8" ratchet, 3" extention and 14mm deep socket, reach back there pushing the wire bundles aside and slip the socket through the bundle (just the socket and extention, easiest IMO to not have the ratchet handle on here), wiggle that around until you're on the bolt. My socket never really got on it all that good, I think I was partially hitting on something else but I was on it enough. Also there are the bellhousing bolts slightly further down, so if you're really confused (we were) you may be trying on those, which are 17mm and therefore the 14mm feels to small, well then you're on the wrong bolt. Once the two starter bolts are removed you can move it slightly, enough to disconnect the incoming power wire (12mm wrench), you have to roll the starter a bit to the left, which is a pain, very little room to work in there. Then just unclip the other wire (small one from the ignition) and the whole thing should come out.

The starter contacts are functionally idential to a 80. Interesting the new contacts came with a little paper piece, I didn't know where that went, there was nothing like that at all in the factory ones, so I didn't put it in.

When putting it all back in you have to hold several things out of the way to drop the intake back on, somewhat of a pain but not bad with two people. We cleaned the throttle body a bit while it was disconnected (never removed it, just push it off to the side), it was very dirty, a ring of gunk around it and the intake was very dirty too, but we didn't want to deal with pulling that apart. I'm not sure what would make that so dirty, I was thinking bad gas, but no gas hits this, this is all just air, so I guess just dirty air. (This vehicle had about 85K miles in these pictures)

Throw everything back on, take a look at these pics if you get confused about what went where, but it really wasn't to bad.

Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3

Pic 4
Pic 5
Pic 6

Pic 7
Pic 8
Pic 9

Pic 10
Pic 11
Pic 12

Pic 13


Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
Book 4

If these links don't work feel free to e-mail me: mabrodis@colorado4x4.net

IN PIC #11

notice in the back of the engine bay there is a pipe (coolant) which sticks up on the right hand side connecting to rubber hose....I bumped that pipe and now it is leaking coolant from the bottom (where it attaches to the metal base).

Does anyone out there know how to fix this problem?

 

[imzjustplayin]

Two pieces of advice I have to give anybody on here are 1. When doing the starter job and disconnecting the starter, you'll see the starter bolts to the intake manifold as a ground. CLEAN UP THAT GROUND! Make sure the bolt, the eyelit, and washer are all scrubbed until they're shiny. 2. Clean up the connections to and from main ground cable that runs from the battery to the body. Also clean up any engine grounds the run from the engine to the body just like in my 1st suggestion for the starter ground cable. The reason for this is that dirty grounds lead to faster starter contact wear. When the grounds are dirty, the voltage sags which leads to higher amperage draw which leads to more corrosion. Because DC electricity will inherently corrode, cleaning up the electrical grounds in various places is absolutely necessary and needed on a periodic basis if you intend to keep your truck for a long while.

For some perspective, DC electricity is used in welding while AC is used in your house. AC doesn't corrode like DC which is why you don't have to replace your light switches or electrical outlets every few years like you would if it were DC.

 

[euclid]

Thanks for the good tech in this thread.

I found it easy to get the intake off with the fuel rails removed. At 180K ALL of the grommets and o-rings for the injectors were shot. I hadn't anticipated this, so I had to source the parts in a hurry.

Anyway, my local dealer sold me the grommets that go on the end of injectors where the injectors insert into the intake. The new grommets were a different shape than the original ones. I tried 3 times to install the injectors, each time they leaked at the intake. Confirmed the part number with my dealer, and called another parts guy who also confirmed the correct number.

The solution I came up with was to put the o-rings that came off of the top of the injectors (where the injectors go into the fuel rail) on in between the lower grommets and the injector. It stacked the grommet out enough that the fuel leak went away. Worked well. I put about 400 miles on it since then with no fuel leak.

Lastly, DON'T let your local parts shop sell you o-rings for the injectors. I called around looking for fuel specific o-rings. Several parts stores were eager to sell me regular old o-rings for this purpose.

 

[Karps]

Just did this job over the weekend with the help of a buddy. Between two of us it probably took 4 or 5 hours. Many thanks to the contributors on this thread...definitely made planning for the job easier. A few bits of advice:

- LONG ratchet extensions come in handy big time for removing about half the bolts/nuts

- have a good telescoping magnet tool for picking up the bolts/nuts that will inevitably fall somewhere into the engine while you are working -- I also used mine (it had a round flat tip, about the size of the bolt heads) to position the manifold bolts back into the block before I tightened them down

Re-installation of everything definitely went quick but be sure to take lots of pictures before you take it apart - this helped us when we second-guessed ourselves with placement of a few things

In my opinion this afternoon of wrenching was worth it given the labor savings at a shop. It also gave me a chance to familiarize myself with the engine bay of a Cruiser that I just recently bought.

 

[uwabaseball]

Just did my starter this past weekend. Not a bad job just have to have a lil patience and no kids around and repeat have a magnet handy to get bolts had to go buy one after I dropped the last bolt under the intake

 

[maximoisgood]

Fustrated by the starter.

I have removed all the parts to reach the starter. I have removed the 2 long 14mm bolts that hold the starter in place and the small 12mm bolt that goes into the plastic yellow casing. I have disconnected the ground cable and the blue connector from the starter. But my starter will not come out. I tried hitting with a piece of wood thinking maybe it was glued by the grease and engine gunk and nothing.
Is there a special way of removing the starter once all the bolts are removed? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.

 

[lx470cinci]

Just replaced my starter contacts this weekend. Here are a few of my tips to add to this awesome thread.

1. The tough to remove starter bolt is not too bad to get to if you do the following: Disconnect the black (driver's side) cable harness going to the tranny (it has the white rotating locking bar on it). Next disconnect the gray cable next to the black one you just disconnected from the sheetmetal it is snapped into which sits on top of the tranny--simply pull it toward the radiator. This will give you enough room to use a 3/8" 14mm deep socket connected to a 3/8" to 1/2" adapter socket connected to a 1/2" ratchet. You will now have plenty of leverage and can easily grab the ratchet handle.

2. I found the passenger side engine hoist hook to be in the way when removing the manifold. So to make installation easier, instead of removing it, I simply took my 17# sledge hammer and persuaded it (bent it a little bit) toward the passenger side. Re-install of the manifold was much easier than removal.

3. To keep the drivers side wire harness out of the way during removal/install I put a bungee cord on it to pull it toward the driver's side.

I did this job without any assistance from a second set of hands, it wasn't that bad, it just takes some time.
Good Luck,
Greg

 

[LX101North]

I just want to thank everybody from all of these different threads for all of the information on what I think is now a super easy job to do. I got in and fixed the contacts and then I was right back out. Smooth as butter. My girls happy it's done so now she can drive our new rig that she hasn't been able to drive yet. Thanks again!

 

[rph74]

I am glad that the write up I did almost 10 years ago is still helping people out today! I must say that I am very surprised after all this time that nobody out there has taken detailed step by step pics to improve on my write up, but I guess it all must be self explanatory. 75k has passed since doing this job, so likely At some point in the future I will be using my own write up to do this all over again lol

 

[RubiK]

Lx-470 Starter Contacts

Just completed this task, and I too want to say thanks to the Originator of this post! As others commented regarding the driver side starter bolt's removal difficulty… I'm a self-proclaimed home garage mechanic. This wasn't bad to remove/re-install. My tips- start with the driver side bolt first. There is a bracket holding x3 electrical connections on top of the bell housing near the starter bolts. This bracket is held in place with a single 10mm short bolt. Remove the bolt and you can manipulate this bracket harness counter-clockwise, pinning it on its end. This allows you plenty access to the driver side starter bolt. Also with much importance, use a flex head ratchet with a deep socket to access the starter bolts. After removing the driver side starter bolt, manipulate the wiring harness back to its original position to remove the passenger side starter bolt. Another tip-- when removing the multiple bolts securing various lines on the intake, put them back in their original place. Makes keeping track/re-install simpler. For all those thinking this task it too difficult, it isn't. Map your progress with photos. The self-pics will assist you when it comes time to buttoning things back up, after you successfully complete the starter upgrade.

 

[fireball]

Just used this today, thanks to the OP and all the others for the helpful tips!

The post above about moving the wiring harness on the tranny to access the DS starter bolt is the ticket. This made removal very easy, no problems at all. The hardest part was finding a place to sit/stand/kneel in the engine bay without breaking stuff!

I would strongly recommend AGAINST smacking the PS engine hoist bracket with a big sledge. It's attached to an AL block with 2x14mm bolts. Either remove it or work around it, but IMO it's a bad idea to whack it around.

Spending a few bucks on a magnetic 12mm socket to get the intake bolts/nuts on and off would be a great investment and time saver. I used the magnetic pickup tool upon removal and newspaper trick for reinstallation, but both were a PITA and made it took way too long to R&R 10 bolts!

I never did see a torque spec for the intake bolts. Does anyone have it? I went with "pretty darn snug with a 3/8" rachet." Hopefully my forearm was in correct calibration!

Here's a photo of the relatively easy access to DS starter bolt with that wiring hardness disconnected and pushed out of the way. I used a standard socket, 3" extension and locking flex head ratchet.



Hopefully I won't need to revisit this thread for at least another 143,142 miles