My '94 LS 400 starter finally refused to engage with the usual contact wear problem.
After making a brilliant car Toyota spoiled it by putting
the starter in the most stupid place they could.
The labour charge for replacing it would now exceed the value of the car,
even though it's only done 70 odd thousand miles.
So if you are handy with the spanners you have to do it yourself!
Everything imaginable is in the way when you try to get to it and
after you have removed all the inlet manifold and attached parts you can finally see the motor.
In their wisdom they bolted this in with two bolts FROM THE REAR so its damn near impossible
to get any spanner on them.
I left the EGR pipe in place which didn't help much, but the 2 lower bolts holding this on
are too far down to reach from the top and I didn't want to lie on the floor looking for these!
Now here are a couple of tips which are the point of this saga,for anyone doing this job
Buy a LONG 14mm spanner, the standard length is almost impossible to work with 'cos
of things in the way. [Couldn't get any ratchet or swivel head spanner or socket in.] Even with this you are only going to get a 1/4 of a turn on either bolt right to the end, allow more than an hour for each!
Faced with the same problem putting them back I devised a cunning plan!
When the bolts are out, carefully cut a neat sawcut in the centre of the threaded end and don't
leave any burrs on it or mark the threads, make sure the threads are clean.
Once you have started the bolts back in you can get a thin screwdriver and WIND THE BOLTS RIGHT IN FROM THE THREADED END. This just leaves final tightening and saves hours of aggravation.
Put rags or something in all open cavities, you don't want to drop something in the engine do you!
Hope this is some help, it's a lot of dismantling, don't forget to get new gaskets.