1991 s10 4.3 needs a lot of work
 

hello,

please forgive me ahead of time, the first vehicles i worked on were heavy diesel machinery, and all my daily drivers have been of the compression ignition variety so i am a total newbie when it comes to carbureted gas engines. my boss just picked up a 1991 4x4 s10 blazer with the carbureted 4.3 for his son. i'm not 100% sure on everything it's doing so bear with me here:

1. there was no fuel filter when we got it, just roughly an 8" break in the fuel line. we fixed that first and moved on to trying to see if it would turn over.

2. here comes the weird part: not sure if this vehicle was stolen before or something but someone took the ignition switch apart and the actual switch is dangling, making it a "pull start" (basicaly the key does nothing, you just pull the switch out one stop and the batteries turn on, pull it out one more to get to where it seems like it should try to start the engine). we pulled on it and nothing happened, doesn't turn over or anything. i figure we should check the starter, and starter relay but i don't know where these are located on this engine.

3. we haven't gotten to checking the fuel pump, as one of the bolts on the gas tank bracket is horribly seized and we couldn't get it off, but i figured it would at least turn over even with a bad pump. could be wrong though.

4. we replaced all the fuses in the panel on the drivers side dash, is there another one? also i figured there would be a power distributor of some sort under the hood but i failed to find it in the available light at 2am.

anyone have any ideas on how to get it turning over? again sorry i'm not familiar with carburated engines.. which seems funny. most of the time it seems like pops takes you out and opens the hood and shows you what's what on his old carbureted truck.. well mine took me out and showed me what's what on a CAT C7. it seems like they'd be similar in getting an engine to start but i'm drawing blanks on this one.

thanks,
aaron

Just a note: it isn't carbureted (unless the engine's been replaced), it's TBI.

If you go to www.autozone.com, you can sign up (free) and view online repair guides for this vehicle, with diagrams and pictures.

First thing I'd do is remove the idiotic (and probably problematic) pull start thing installed by the PO and install a new ignition switch (one out of a junkyard, perhaps).

my bad.. I don't know what a TBI is LOL. All i know is that it looked just like a carburetor sitting on top of the block. alright we'll start on that, thanks. does anyone know if you can jump these from the battery directly to the starter solenoid? i've done that before on diesels to help narrow down the possible suspects in a possible electrical problem.