Greeting, I am a new member here to Club Lexus. I have a problem that seems to be unique. I am swapping a 3UZ in to my 1980 HJ45 Toyota Land Cruiser. I purchased a JDM 3UZ engine, it did not come with a flex plate. I have purchased a couple of flex plates that are specified for this engine but they are too tall and will not let the started gear extend out and engage the flex plate. I don't see anyway to adjust the starter position. Has anyone seen or heard of this problem before?

What am I missing? Can you adjust the starter position, am I purchasing the wrong flex plate, do I need a different gear on the starter? Any help will be appreciated.

Orlandocav

 

What transmission are you mating the engine to? What flex plates did you purchase?

 

The transmission is a A761E, the flex plate is part number 32101-0C010 for the LS,GS,SC 430

 

Maybe you have the wrong starter? If you have the correct flex plate bolted to the engine don't know what else it could be. Starters are not adjustable or designed to be.

 

Thank you. That seems to be the only thing left to try.

 

Only other thing I can think of is there are bell housing differences but I have not seen this on a Toyota/Lexus transmission meaning a particular unit or even series uses the same bell housing.

 

Just to close out the thread. I finally went to a Lexus dealer but they are pretty limited on their knowledge at the parts department. I then went to Advanced auto body and they were a big help. We checked different year starters and they were able to let me look at the different starters. We finally came upon a reconditioned OEM starter and it's distance between the mounting bolt holes and the rotor shaft center line was a about a 3mm smaller than the starter in my engine. Changed it out and it started right up.

 

Awesome, glad you were able to figure it all out.