86 Pickup Starter

Just acquired an 86 Toyota pickup from a buddy. Originally it was his dad's. Has 115,000 miles on it. They never had any problems with it. I had it (use it for a farm vehicle) for several months and all was fine but the other day all I had when I went to start it was a clicking solenoid. Thought maybe the battery was low so tried jumping. Same clicking noise. Just for kicks we clutch started it thinking maybe the starter was stuck engaged. It started right up doing this. Turned the Key off and the truck shut down. I crossed my fingers hopng it would restart with the Key. Nope, same click from the solenoid/starter. Today we took the starter off to inpsect it. Once off we placed jumper cables on to see if the solenoid would kick in. It did, it moved in and out real nice, but did not spin the starter. We inspected the contacts. One was paper thin and the other showed very little ware. Internet searching shows that a possible cure is to replace these copper solenoid contacts. Sounds easy enough for me. But is this cure as simple as it sounds? Having to spend only a few bucks compared to a rebuilt starter/solenoid assembly which could run 80.00 or more sounds too easy. Anyone ever have it that easy and work? Or should I just bite the bullet and buy a rebuild? Would hate to place in new contacts and have the same problem and have to go through the remove and install again. Thanks, Gary

Replace the contacts, this has worked in exactly 100% of the starters that I have pulled for the same problem, being that is only 9 of them, I would say its a good bet that the contacts are doing it.

These starters are really bulletproof as starters go.

Good Luck

Yahooooooooo. With the addition of $4.00 starter contacts, the problem was fixed and the 86 pickup came to life. That simple. I highly recommend anyone having any sign of starter trouble to pick up a set and install them. I got mine from eBay believe it or not as the local auto store had no idea what I was looking for.....