dead truck

4runner left me stranded at work this morning. Wouldn't start. The lights on the dash work, but I got nothing when I turned the key. No noise or anything. Its been kinda hard to start the last few days, doing basically the same thing the first couple of times I turned the key. I'd kick in the clutch a couple of times, and suddenly she would catch and fire up (but up to this point there was no noise or movement of the engine like it was trying to fire)

So what do you'll think it is? I'm thinking the starter may be bad, or maybe the battery (gonna replace them both anyway)

Headlights bright? Don't take much to run dash lights. Maybe clutch safety switch no es bueno. I like to wire around them anyway so you don't have to push clutch to start. Makes easier for working on, and if you stalled on the railraod tracks or in an intersection you can just drive it out with the starter.

does it have the no clutch start button? have you tried it?

what year 4 runner? mid 90s had fuse box bad connections pushing clutch some times moves the fuse box enough tomake connection

Its a 87. It does have a clutch cancel switch, but it didn't work either. I couldn't really tell how bright the headlights were, but they were on, and my rear power window still worked. Clutch safety switch? What is that? Never heard of one. Where would I find it? The starter looked pretty dirty and old, so I went and picked one up at napa, and also got me a new exide orbital battery. Tommorow morning I'll go back and see if I can get it to start

The clutch safety switch is what the clutch cansel switch cancels.

look on the clutch pedal arm. its like a brake light switch but on the clutch. if your clutch cancel switch works and it made no difference, then pumping the clutch had nothing to do with it suddenly working, just coincidence.

im gonna say either a bad cell in the battery, that can do a lot of funny things that make it hard to diagnose, or a bad starter. starters usually give you some kind of warning. id try tapping it with a hammer or such before i put a new one on.

yeah, I beat the ***** with a hammer but got nothing. I'll try the new battery first in the morning since I was gonna replace it anyway, then the new starter. If neither of those work, then I'll be really confused.

And it all happens as soon as you sell the reliable vehicle

I figured this would happen, so it doesn't bother me. I'd rather dump a few hundred bucks into making sure this thing is reliable versus paying 300+ dollars a month on a truck I put less than 10k miles on in 19 months. Plus I'm happy knowing it has the new parts now than hoping it doesn't die out there on the trail. With the buggy I spent 2 months working out all the major bugs, and after that it never gave me a problem, other than in clayton, which I blame on the fact I let robbie drive it around the parking lot :flipoff2:

eh, I didn't do ****...it's a toyota, what do you expect. :flipoff2:

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Originally Posted by CRaSHnBuRN

I figured this would happen, so it doesn't bother me. I'd rather dump a few hundred bucks into making sure this thing is reliable versus paying 300+ dollars a month on a truck I put less than 10k miles on in 19 months. Plus I'm happy knowing it has the new parts now than hoping it doesn't die out there on the trail. With the buggy I spent 2 months working out all the major bugs, and after that it never gave me a problem, other than in clayton, which I blame on the fact I let robbie drive it around the parking lot :flipoff2:

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as long as you spend less than 300 a month on repairs. I was on the otherhand spending more than that a month on repairs so I could drive to work so I bought something else

I'm hoping to build this thing where repairs are seldom necessary. I always expect a rig to have some bugs to work out, but once those are done, its on to bigger and better things. I think your problem was you started with a jeep wrangler. I'm not trying to talk **** here, I'm just saying that while they can be a pretty decent rig, the stock parts are often not up to the challenge (though this can be said for most vehicles). I do have to say your jeep has survived alot of crazy ****, and I think you should be happy that it worked as well as it did for as long as it did.

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Originally Posted by CheapJeep

eh, I didn't do ****...it's a toyota, what do you expect. :flipoff2:

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I let you in it for 5 minutes and it starts spraying coolant across the parking lot, then proceeds to have evey problem imaginable crop up. I still think you jinxed it :flipoff2:

yeah, I was happy with it, I put mostly stock parts through alot of ****. I ran stock axles for a long time, welded and locked. Its a fine line though, vehicles made for slow speed crawling don't always like running 75 mph.