Things I've learned about starters

[3A-C Power]

I fixed my starter last night (got sick of push-starting it) and thought it might be helpful to share this information:

The last 3 times I've had to fix a starter, it hasn't needed replacement, but only had dirty, loose or worn contacts somewhere. This could be one of the two terminals where a high current wire bolts on. If the starter becomes erratic or won't work at all but you can still hear the solenoid click, it could be as simple as tightening a nut or cleaning the terminals. Or, it could be the ring contact inside that connects the power lead to the motor when the solenoid goes in. There's a brass ring that pushes into two contacts opposite from eachother, which are just brass angles with one hole drilled in them. These would be available from a rebuilder. In my case, the contacts were worn unevenly and so the ring would only hit one of them, and since it was after shop hours I just bent the worn one so it ended up at the same height as the other, and the result is flawless starting.

[takza]

Have a feeling that a lot of "rebuilt" starters just get cleaned up and a couple of new parts added...then out the door.

good info....maybe you should put it over in the writeup section?

[sherlock]

I rebuilt the starter on my toyota 4X4 truck for $10 with new brass contacts.
Saved a fortune. The following website tells you how and will sell you the contacts for almost nothing. Don't know if the contacts will work on a tercel starter cus I haven't done it yet. <a href='http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/Starter.shtml' target='_blank'>http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks ... r.shtml</a>

[Typrus]

Is that the place that tells you how to rebuild the alt for 90 amps? We have the 55 amp alt, same as the 4Runner, so I'm sure we could do it, only issue is that I dunno where to get the supplies nor know if I could do it.