Fuses blowing, 4Runner won't start~Help

[t4r92]

Hey everyone,

Looking for some help from some of the troubleshooters on the forum here.

Yesterday I opened the hood and noticed a lot of corrosion on both battery terminals and so I grabbed a wire brush and went to town on it.
Cleaning them wasn't enough so I took the positive off and it broke on me.

Got it to town as it was still corroded shut and bought a terminal for it. (Fully admitting possible guilt and reason for the problem here) The gentleman at Advanced who was helping me replace the terminal and myself forgot to take the negative off.....OOPS!

I replaced the terminal and when I turned the key it had a delay, starter solenoid actuated (rather delayed) and then it fired to life rather slowly.....
Turned car off, waited 10 seconds and then started right up just fine so I drove off.

Later last night the truck wouldn't start at all. Starter solenoid would click, but engine would not turn over.
Bought new battery with 750 CCA and installed. Nothing, same problem.

Took both old and new batteries to Advanced earlier today and they both tested good, which led me to buy a reman starter since I'm in a pinch (would much rather prefer OEM).

Took it to work and installed it and in the hustle of massaging it through the frame rails and all the other crap in the way the "made in Mexico" black connector on the starter came loose. Didn't realize it until after we hooked everything up and tried to start, and the starter solenoid wouldn't even actuate.

Took it back, exchanged it, installed more carefully, and still no power to starter.

My father and I have looked at the fuses and so far this is what we've found.....a 40 AMP alternator fuse is blown. Looking at the wiring schematic posted by a user on yotatech, the power goes through the alternator through the 40 amp fuse and then to starter. So that explains that not getting any power to the starter whatsoever.

A 7.5 amp fuse entitled "ECU B" is also blown (those two fuses are not connected in any way from looking through the schematics to my knowledge). Replaced it with spare and tried to crank engine, and it blew again. This was without replacing the alternator fuse.

I'm going to get some 40 amp and 7.5 amp fuses today and install to see if that rectifies the issue, but I'm curious to know if anyone has any suggestions at this point.

I'm not much of an electrical guru so any help at all would be appreciated. I'm guessing I could have a short somewhere.

 

[Hepar]

You definitely have a short someplace. Where are you located?

 

[t4r92]

You definitely have a short someplace. Where are you located?

Bowling Green, KY. Not much rust on the truck, just noticed the ridiclous amount of corrosion on some of the lines.

I found this link last night and think I may give it a try:

please help. 94 4runner wont start. not starter or battery - Car Forums and Automotive Chat

Though it's dealing with a '94 the same situation could apply to me. "toyotatech" mentioned in the thread : "Here is your fix
So try this!
near the battery is a thick wire at goes to the fuse box right off the left side of the positive terminal if you are facing the vehicle.
Replace that wire with your own thick wire If u can't make one your self then have Someone do it for u because Toyota only sells the whole harness!
This wire is broken or is breaking down inside
It feeds ALL your power to everything even the 12 volt power to the starter."

I believe that is the same for our 3rd gens if I'm not mistaken so that would be a good place to check.

 

[Brian757]

Yeah, the first thing I thought when I read the title was that you have a short circuit somewhere in the vehicle. It is draining your power right when it tries to turn over. Break out the multimeter and POKE EVERYTHING! Haha, but seriously, good luck.

ALSO, if your starter solenoid is attempting to turn over, then your starter is fine. By chipping off some of that rust on your battery terminals, haha, by some freak way, you have increased the amount of voltage your battery now puts out. It might have just kicked your alternator in the pants and it keeled over. Go to AdvanceAutoParts and have them diagnose your Alternator and Starter(Even though i dont think it is that.) They plug in a diagnosis machine to the plug under your hood and they tell you to turn on car, turn on A/C and radio, and it reads voltage outputs and inputs. He prints out the info and you review it. If your alts fuse is blowing, i can only say its your alt. Ya know? Your yota is talking to you...

 

[theizzardking]

check all of you main grounds , sounds like you have a bad ground somewhere.

 

[t4r92]

check all of you main grounds , sounds like you have a bad ground somewhere.

Obviously the first ground I see if the one going from the negative terminal to the side of the fender. I replaced that one just because it was easy and to rule it out. It's getting continuity (thanks to my newly purchased continuity tester and multi-meter .....)

Can someone give me a quick run down of grounds to check off the top of their head?

I purchased fuses earlier today and put them in at lunch and my dash lights began to function again along with my vehicle that started right up.

I parked it back around front afterward and came back out later and the car started slowly, but I didn't really bat an eye. Came back out after working on the LS swap 240sx and the vehicle wouldn't turn over but the starter would click.

Battery tester says the battery is good to go. In order to rule out the starter I'm going to take both starters in and have them tested. That will without a doubt confirm that I have a wiring situation on hand (despite what all you good people are already telling me.

A friend of mine helping on wiring my 240 took the cap off of the starter relay and tried to see if it was functioning properly. When I would turn the car over he would tap on the relay with the end of a screwdriver and it started to turn over once, but didn't have enough whatever to get turned over and run.

 

[t4r92]

Situation resolved.

Wanted to close this out (I see so many threads that would prove helpful if the people experiencing the problems would report back and finish explaining the solution), and explain what happened.

Two things.

Turns out I had a bad starter for sure (as the solenoid would only click once). I didn't need another battery, but when I reinstalled everything the corrosion that had built up on my battery had turned black and I didn't notice it. That meant the starter wasn't getting all of the required 12 volts to fire.

Cleaned the negative terminal on the inside with a knife and it is working fine now. Starts up powerfully.

Thanks for the help/suggestions everyone.