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Question

1997 toyota 4runner repair 4cyl 238,000 miles

Jun 13, 2017 8:16PM PDT

My 4runner has been sitting for a few years (due to an oil leak) and I decided to recently get her running again. I performed all the checks and went to start it up. After a few cranks, nothing. Had spark, but no fuel. Went through the electrical and found that I had no power to the pump. Both relays were good, and fuse, but losing power somewhere inbetween the cor relay and the pump. So I decided that I just had to trace the power loss and fire her up. Well, in my attempts to turn it over to measure voltage to the fuel pump, my starter stayed engaged and would not shut off! Even with the key in the off position and out of the ignition. I ran over and disconnected the battery. So im thinking either the solonoid, starter itself, relay or ignition. Weird thing is, I pulled the starter relay and it still kept cranking. Any ideas?

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
sounds like rust
Jun 21, 2017 9:42PM PDT

inside the starter, on the flywheel too maybe, causing it to get stuck.

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Answer
Starter issue
Jun 18, 2017 11:41AM PDT

Hi, Tex. I've seen this happen quite a few times, over the years. Generally speaking, it is usually caused by low voltage in the battery. If the battery is low on charge, it doesn't have enough voltage for the solenoid to pull the drive gear back out of the flywheel. The drive gear on the starter will get stuck in the teeth of the flywheel. Have your battery fully charged and load tested before you spend any more money. Could be just that simple.

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Starter issue.
Jun 21, 2017 8:32PM PDT

Yeah, believe me, I checked that first. Its a brand new battery. I bought a rebuild kit for the solenoid. I hate throwing parts at a problem. Which is probably why it takes me forever to fix something!