Hi,

my 91 S10 Chevy Blazer 4.3L 4x4 died on me in the middle of freeway traffic yesterday... it suddenly lost all power, machine shut off and it started to just coast.
I managed to steer it to the shoulder of the road safely, and had AAA tow it back to my appartment complex...

The situation:
Everything looks fine - electricity comes on etc., but when I try to start the engine, it doesn't crank as usual, all I get is the first impulse of starting... a single (albeit normal/healthy/powerful sounding) "thud".
Simultaneously, the dashboard displays go black and nothing further happens.

Another aspect to the story is that the car has been emitting a puff of white smoke occasionally on startup when it was resting for a while.
Not always, and to different amounts: This suggests to me that there might be a leak in one of the cylinders which would change the amount of water burned off depending on how the machine came to rest.

So, it seems what I am trying to find out is:
Do I "just" need to replace the starter motor, or is there another/bigger problem in the engine and this would be the time at which to ....retire the whole thing ?!?.. . . (noooooooo!!!)

It happened after a day of continuous driving, after 3h on the freeway, and my fear is that it is not the starter that fails but that e.g. the crankshaft simply won't turn when the starter motor wants to crank it, because the engine is jammed.

How can I best isolate the problem?
Am I on the right trail or should I look somewhere else?

 

You could try to turn the engine by hand with either a flywheel wrench or a socket/ratchet on the front of the crank to see if it is locked up.

Is your starter engaged all the time maybe? You should be able to take off the dust cover and look at the starter. The starter gear should not be pushed out and meshing into the flywheel. If it is engaged, then the solenoid and/or bendix failed in the out position and burnt up the starter.

 

Thanks for your reply swartlkk!!
I will try both of your suggestions.

What I am wondering however is if a locked starter could result in the motor stopping from one moment to the next in the middle of the road?
I really hope it can...?

 

Hi... I'm not sure how to approach the manual turning attempt...
I suspect the lowest wheel of the fan belt is directly attached to the crankshaft?
Unfortunately, my Chilton manual doesn't give me a clear visual about what to do... where is it best to attach the wrench/socket?
Is it necessary to take that wheel off first?

 

Hi, I'm sorry that I started multiple threads about this.

Just in case you had a similar problem:
In my case it turned out the alternator had locked up and was blocking the engine via the fan belt.
With the fan belt off, I could turn the motor over by hand. I could have found the problem sooner, I just wasn't sure how smooth an alternator had to run.
fyi, a functioning alternator rotates glass smooth with very little force required.

After replacing it with a new one my engine started right up.
Thanks for reading and good luck to you should you run into a similar problem!

 

Glad you got it fixed. It's hard to lock one of these motors up,unless you dont take care of them! glad it was just a alternator.