Classified as "electrical" it could easily be viewed as more than that. The vehicle won't run and you obviously aren't going anywhere if nothing happens when you turn the key and try to start the vehicle. I won't rant about the bad starter in this vehicle. They all need work at some time or other and this one was no exception. I replaced the contacts several times. I had a professional rebuild it and replace the brushes. The starter tested perfect. The battery was new. Everything seemed fine. But I later found (no thanks to ANYONE at Toyota) there was only 6 volts going from the key at the ignition switch down to the starter. This was not enough obviously.
My understanding is that Toyota, in all it's brilliance and "oh what a feeling" decided to NOT use a relay switch in their starter systems. So when the wiring gets a little old this happens - the voltage drops too much internally. It's nothing more than what can be called A DEFECT, period. A DEFECTIVE DESIGN. There is no excuse for it in 1988, when all other manufacturers had the sense to have a solenoid (relay) switch. In my case I do not know what else to do (yeah to this day) than to add a Ford relay switch - can't use GM because it's on the starter. This fixed the problem instantly. I mounted it to the firewall, just like a Ford product. I wish it was a Ford product. I soooo wish!
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
Classified as "electrical" it could easily be viewed as more than that. The vehicle won't run and you obviously aren't going anywhere if nothing happens when you turn the key and try to start the vehicle. I won't rant about the bad starter in this vehicle. They all need work at some time or other and this one was no exception. I replaced the contacts several times. I had a professional rebuild it and replace the brushes. The starter tested perfect. The battery was new. Everything seemed fine. But I later found (no thanks to ANYONE at Toyota) there was only 6 volts going from the key at the ignition switch down to the starter. This was not enough obviously.
My understanding is that Toyota, in all it's brilliance and "oh what a feeling" decided to NOT use a relay switch in their starter systems. So when the wiring gets a little old this happens - the voltage drops too much internally. It's nothing more than what can be called A DEFECT, period. A DEFECTIVE DESIGN. There is no excuse for it in 1988, when all other manufacturers had the sense to have a solenoid (relay) switch. In my case I do not know what else to do (yeah to this day) than to add a Ford relay switch - can't use GM because it's on the starter. This fixed the problem instantly. I mounted it to the firewall, just like a Ford product. I wish it was a Ford product. I soooo wish!
- wjl, Lincoln, NE, US