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Sorted, mf bolt cost me about 2 hrs! Anyway, we'll see on cold morning if jobs right...stripped, cleaned and back in.
Cheers for advice!

How were the solenoid contacts?

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I would have said the fixed contact was 30% lightly oxidised (green)...but generally I would have said it wasn't that bad...I was surprised if that was what was stopping it. Spring Contact (I dunno the technical term) also had a reasonable amount of pitting on it also. Couldn't see any obvious sign of water or contaminate ingress.
Started ok this morning...but I've left the bash plate off if I need to get back in there

Good result then. I can usually count down the days till mine will play up after ive been in muddy water. Clean water like river crossings ets doesn't seen to do it, just muddy water.

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I noted what looked like breathers on the unit, and wondered if they might be the cause of stuff getting in there....2 days so far and the old girl is starting no problem....fingers crossed as I really don't want to have to pull it down again!

I had the clicking starter motor that refused to turn over after some dirty crossings in the Cape last year. Sprayed some contact cleaner in there and it seemed to improve it, then the problem pretty much went away ever since.

Lately though, I go to turn it over and it's becoming more regular that the first attempt or two will just end up with the starter motor grinding and not turning the engine over. Eventually it will go though.

Before I remove it and clean the contacts etc., what's others experience with the same problem? And finding they were just better off replacing the starter motor? I don't want to waste my time having to fix it twice, because I work overseas and am only home every 6 weeks. Don't want to leave the Mrs stranded when she can't start the car!

Any suggestions?

Cheers

Floody

Hmmmm....bloddy bugger of a thing has done it again after another trip...I'm starting to wonder if it's the pressure wash after the trip or general ingress during trips. Looks like another couple of hours in the shed after kids are in bed tonight!

And almost a year to the day...isnt the better half pleased about that!

Ripped out, stripped down, cleaned, sealed and whacked back in....
Seemed to start no problem this morning. Side note, I have no idea why I removed the bash plate the first time! Total job was 1 1/2 hrs from set-up to packed up and not pushing particularly hard.

Hope ya didn't seal it up too well. Those breathers are drains. The problem isn't water getting in, its the dirt suspended in it that get left there when the water dries. I've only ever found mine plays up after playing in drity water, I can go through plenty of fresh water crossings and not have any issues. The old saying, mud=money!

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Nah mate...left the breather well alone. If something has a breather on it, it's generally there for a reason.
I've still go a sneaky suspicion it's when I am pressure washing underneath after the fact that might be causing my issue...not 100% sure (chicken and egg) was surprised again at level of pitting on the central contact. Must be a fair amount of arcing internally with this jigger.
I still have never found any real obvious contaminate....only std small amounts of green copper corrosion and central contact pitting. odd.....

bairdy380 wrote:I would have said the fixed contact was 30% lightly oxidised (green)...but generally I would have said it wasn't that bad...I was surprised if that was what was stopping it. Spring Contact (I dunno the technical term) also had a reasonable amount of pitting on it also. Couldn't see any obvious sign of water or contaminate ingress.
Started ok this morning...but I've left the bash plate off if I need to get back in there

The spring contact is generally called a plunger. If you pull it apart again I would replace the contacts and the plunger. I did it on my 80 series on the weekend. Easy job. Both parts cost me about $70 total. The KUN26 looks like a very similar starter.

Any green is bad, go with the above idea and change all 3, get them from a sparky not genuine, cheap as chips. Also take care to get the contacts in flat, not twisted with a high end, when you assemble it, hold it in a vice and with jumper leads activate the starter 20 or 30 times then remove the power and open the cover and make sure there is an even spread of burn marks across the fixed contacts, if there isn't, give the burn marks a tap with a flat punch and hammer and repeat the process until you get a better spread of contact marks across the contacts.

Also when you fit it to the car hold the battery cable when you tighten the nut holding it on so the stud does not turn at all as this will c**k the contact up again, if the contacts only have a very small contact area the very high current when starting will cause excessive wear and possible failure in a very short time.

martynvella wrote:Also take care to get the contacts in flat, not twisted with a high end

This is good advice. It took me 2 goes to get it right.

bairdy380 wrote:Hmmmm....bloddy bugger of a thing has done it again after another trip...I'm starting to wonder if it's the pressure wash after the trip or general ingress during trips. Looks like another couple of hours in the shed after kids are in bed tonight!

I had the same problem with my 06 GGN25R V6
Few days after a river crossing my started failed with no warning.
Course it was 8.30am Sunday morning.
After 1/2 hour it started up & I got it down to the local Toyota.
They couldn't get it to trip until they washed it.
6 week wait out of Japan for new solenoid & starter motor.

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I've been experiencing issues with mine as well, I gave external contacts a quick clean which didn't fix the problem, so with 380'000km on mine I just decided to not bother with repairs and got a new one from Repco, and they even had it in stock (rural area so plenty of hiluxs), was $230 (10% off that if Repco member) for anyone who doesn't want to risk having to pull it out twice. First time took me a while working out how to get it out, then this evening from disconnecting the battery to reconnecting the battery was less than half an hour

I’m about to do mine this weekend, getting that grinding on the cold mornings. Never pulled one out on the Hilux is there any other parts that need to be removed or that are in the way of getting the starter out?

Check your battery first, a dud cell is common in winter save the new starter motor.