I just purchased a 2000 blazer. I'm in love with it so far, but the starter makes a terrible noise when starting. It has 100,000 miles and is 13 years old, so my first guess is the starter. The low mileage scares me because it would make sense that most normal maintenance (such as starter replacement) would have never been encountered. My other worry is that the flywheel rusted and became weak over time and chipped teeth. It has only failed to start once so far. What are the odds that I just bought an expensive problem? I really don't want to go tearing the tranny out to get to the flywheel. Any and all input would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

first off, welcome to the forum.
you sound quite worried and have already gone to the worst case. here is what you can do.
jack it up and put it on jack stands. there should be a flywheel cover that you can remove and take a look at the flywheel. leave the starter on for now. you can take a screwdriver and move the flywheel one tooth at a time if you feel like it and look at them. i would imagine that you just may need a new starter. good luck.

 

best case senario -a starter shim

 

Confirmed! The starter is a very worn out cheapie! I've had a look at the flywheel and the teeth seem to be in O.K. shape. Their is only one other problem. One of the bolts holes for the starter completely cracked up the middle. Now it seems they JB welded it and the threads are good, so it seems like a rig job that held up alright. I'm thinking this may have put the starter off center or something, and helped wear the teeth down. What say you?

 

Sorry I forgot to specify which teeth were worn. The starters teeth were very worn.

 

yea, bad started, i had one that was "remanufactured" it wouldnt engaged all the way so it had a metal scraping aginst metal sound. took it back under warrenty and got a NEW one.

 

New starter still does it. So I got underneath while someone ran the starter. It pulls upward when engaged. I have shims now and am waiting for it to cool so I can put them on. I've owned 9 cars and have performed my own maintenance on all of them, and I've never used a starter shim. It kinda blows my mind I guess.

 

well with the crack in the one bolt hole is probably your problem....there are only 2 ways to fix it....one is to replace the block. the other is to get it welded. but to weld it, you have to pre-heat it since its cast-iron. and i dont think that you are going to find someone to do that while the motor is in the car, and still assembled. so in other words, its going to be expensive.

 

Thank you for your help guys. It still does it even with the shims so Im gonna go with twip and say its that bolt hole. it must be flexing under pressure. What are nebraska lemon laws again? lol