Jeremy P.
Adventurer
I recently began to have issues with my starter, which began shortly after a couple of semi-deep water crossings in Moab. The starter would give a distinct click but nothing else. Luckily the only place it did not evenually start after a few tries was my driveway. As I looked into replacements, I found plenty of information on replacing the contacts on earlier model toyota engines, but not much on the 4.0. I decided to pull the starter and take a look at the contacts since there seems to be a lot of anecdotal evidence that rebuilt starters are often sub-par in quality. They were somewhat worn down but mostly dirty from arcing and dirty water. A quick cleaning verified that the starter would again operate correctly. I wanted to replace the contacts anyway and after exhausting a number of local sources including the Toyota dealer and a starter/alternator rebuild shop, I found a number of solenoid repair kits on Amazon made by Victory Lap. The one I went with was the ND-34OL which had the contact shapes I needed, even though I think the ND-36OL kit has closer to the correct diameter solenoid disc. The contacts matched up just right to the originals, and although the copper disc is slightly smaller and may wear a bit quicker, I am still okay with it for slightly over $13. I was almost tempted to get both kits for how cheap they are.
You can see the new copper contacts installed in my starter:
A comparision of the old vs new parts:
There isn't much room to get to the starter bolts, you can get about 1 click on the ratchet at a time from below, and initially breaking the bolts loose was difficult. I snaked the starter up and out from above.
You can see the two bolts with 14mm heads in this picture from under the vehicle:
I also pulled apart the motor side of the starter to check out the brushes, but they had lots of life and things were clean other than brush dust. It is a good feeling to have learned a bit more about the vehicle and to know that an uncooperative starter in a remote location isn't necessarily a deal breaker, but possibly just a set back of a couple hours as long as the correct hand tools are along.
You can see the new copper contacts installed in my starter:
A comparision of the old vs new parts:
There isn't much room to get to the starter bolts, you can get about 1 click on the ratchet at a time from below, and initially breaking the bolts loose was difficult. I snaked the starter up and out from above.
You can see the two bolts with 14mm heads in this picture from under the vehicle:
I also pulled apart the motor side of the starter to check out the brushes, but they had lots of life and things were clean other than brush dust. It is a good feeling to have learned a bit more about the vehicle and to know that an uncooperative starter in a remote location isn't necessarily a deal breaker, but possibly just a set back of a couple hours as long as the correct hand tools are along.
