Oy, Toyota...

So, doing the dreaded starter replacement. Pulling the intake and throttlebody off together didn't seem like a great idea, so I'm pulling the throttlebody off the intake. The housing behind the thermostat is in the way and won't come out. After banging on it with a hammer through thin cardboard I've gotten it to budge a little, but it won't come off.

It just seems to be stuck on itself, is there some kind of trick?

 

Well, nevermind, I guess. All the banging on it got it moved just enough to get the throttle body around it. Which was all I was really looking for anyway.

It might come up later, but I'll also get a better angle at it once the intake is off, anyway.

 

why on earth do you need to take the throttle body off to get access to the starter motor? I'm not overly familiar with the v8 motors, but can't you access it from underneath where it bolts to the motor heading into the flex plate/ring gear? No room due to exhaust manifolds?

 

Oh no. It's under the intake on our V8's.

 

I've performed that repair more times than I can count but I don't recall ever removing the throttle body from the intake. Too much extra work. Even in the trucks its faster and easier to leave it where it is. Then there's no issue with losing coolant. If you must remove the throttle body, remove the studs that your trying to slide the body off of so you can instead slide the body straight up. No thermostat housing interference.

From the looks of your first picture, you desperately need to clean your throttle plate and bore. Make sure you use a specified throttle body cleaner.

 

I couldn't get the hoses between the coolant housing to the throttle body loose and I didn't want to yank on them and tear them if I could help it, so I took the throttle body off. I was noticing it being pretty dirty around the butterfly there, so I was planning on cleaning it out, too.

 

The build up around the throttle plate will affect the cars ability to hold idle correctly. Its pretty common. I clean mine about every 10-20 k.

There are tricks to those hoses. You can get special hose pliers that have curved jaws the same diameter at the hose to make them easier to remove. If i remember right, you don't have to remove them though. I don't even really take the intake off completely. You can just lift the back of the intake with most of the stuff still hooked up in the front just enough to access the starter. I have a bit of an advantage as I do it every day and have found ways to cheat to make the repairs more profitable.

 

Yeah, this was my first one so I wanted to be able to see what I'm doing.

 

Btw, it's finished and turned out fine. Other than a few little gotchas and lost bolts, it wasn't all that bad. Everything went back together fine; no leaks, no check engine lights.