originally thought it was the starter. bought the truck used back in late june and was having occasional starting problems with it. replaced both of the L shaped brackets inside the starter (when you pull the back cover off you can see them, electrical current goes from them to the plunger that forces the starter gear to contact the flywheel.) and cleaned up the plunger's copper ring. started just fine for the next 2 months then began to act up again. so i had the battery tested (cheapo wallmart battery) and it tested ok. weak but ok. starting got worse until basicly you had no choice but to push start it. was going to pull the starter again to check out the brushes when my dad mentioned that the clutch kill switch on his old 4runner did the same thing when he had it. (even using your little button to bypass the switch wont work if the switch that the pedal contacts is going bad). so i unscrewed the switch from just behind the clutch pedal (up by the pedals hinge), took a screwdriver and shorted the contacts on the back of it. put the truck in neutral and it fired right up every time. cut the wires off of the switch since the dealership quoted me 42 bucks for it (money i dont have) and connected the wires.
upside, i dont have to worry about that switch ever going bad again and the truck starts every time now.
downside, truck will try to start if its in gear and you forget to put the clutch in. i'm used to that with my old 81 gmc pickup that had an sm465, but for other people it can be a problem.
