has the starter been making a grinding sound? if there has been no grinding sound it seems the "Magnetic switch" (or bindex gear?) might have went bad. this causes the gear inside the starter to not launch out and come in contact with the flywheel. so it will just spin.

if there has been alot of grinding you may have just broken the teeth off the flywheel/starter. if the teeth snapped off the flywheel you could manualy turn the motor with a socket on the front main pulley to get to some new teeth on the flywheel. this could get you to a shop or a warm place.

i just had to pull my starter out of the 99toyota 4runner just before winter. the contacts were bad and it would have been right out and back in except the contacts i got form toyota were wrong and had to wait 3 days for them to get the wrong ones again.... then another 3 days and finally i found them at my local starter rebuild place.


Napa rebuilt starter : $160+
Toyota: $200+
Contacts from a hidden shop LITERALLY down the street: $2.50

EDIT: i just re-read up on it and it is not the magnetic switch and for the life of me i cannot remeber the name of it maybe bindex.... anyways all the other information is correct except the specific name. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />