I've gone through 3 starters in the past 2 months with my '00 Blazer 2wd (4.3L auto). The truck is just ruining the bendix gear in the starters. Last one it screwed up so bad the starter would engage, but just spin freely when too much torque was put to the fly wheel.

The problem is, it seems like when cranking it starts to want to fire wrong and run backwards, and kickin' HARD. I am going to upload a video tomorrow, but too dark to do it right now. Just looking for possible suggestions?

Things I have looked at :

Distributor (Replaced cap & rotor)
Plugs (Made sure they are in correct firing order)
ICM (Not replaced, works fine, 'cause truck runs excellent when started)

Any help would be appreciated, tired of buying new starters each time, or replacing them. Yeah it's a 25 minute job, but that's an annoying 25 minutes.

 

your blazer is a starter aholic? Joking

some starters have to be shimmed

did you use the same brand all the times you replaced it ?

 

The first two were Ultima's from O'Reilly's, this last one is a Beck/Arnley from a junk yard (heard it start the motor right up before it was pulled).

Also, I forgot to say I replaced the Crankshaft Position Sensor also.