Tacoma290
Active Member
Success! You are spot on, Henry. Tapped the starter with power on, and it retracted. It was done though. Drained all the water from the muffler and used the pump to evacuate all water from the engine. Switched the starter from the other motor and the motor turned. Ran the starter till all the moisture was out. Put the plugs back in and the belt back on. Put the drain plug back in. Took awhile to get it started but it finally caught and ran. Ran it for minutes and checked for steam at the cap: none. Checked the oil: no water in the oil. Ran it for 30 more minutes at high idle. So far so good.I'm not sure you are going to be able to pull the starter. You may have to tap the starter housing to jog the drive into retracting. Since you probably also won't be able to get near it with a hammer, you can use a metal rod/bar to contact the starter housing and then hit the free end with a hammer (went through a winter semester with an old chevy with a bad Bendix drive).
Thanks to all the folks that chimed in. So much solid knowledge.