Starter issue
 

I bought a 99 blazer 4 door 4wd with 170,xxx miles for $850 yesterday. The people said the starter went out so they bought a brand new one and put it on. Then said they forgot to tighten a nut on the solenoid and it messed it up. The battery was dead from sitting around 3 months so i tried to jump it off to see what it was doing. All i could get it to do was turn the engine over maybe once then it would start clicking like a dead battery. So i take a chance and buy it and take it home. I try using my truck to jump it off this time and it turns just a little more and back fire's out of the throttle body as soon as the starter clicks like the battery is dead. So i take the battery and put it on fast charge, remove starter and take it to autozone and test it 5 times and everytime was good. So i go home and about 2 hours later go put the starter back on and check all bolts and nuts for tightness. Clean battery connectors and put the battery in. Now it turns the engine over maybe twice and the solenoid will kick back off the flexplate but the starter still spins. I don't want to have to spend $150 for a new starter if this one is still good. What else would make it kick back off like that? I'm going to check all the wires and grounds when I get a chance just to rule that out. I really need to get it working because I don't think my truck is going to make it much longer. Thanks in advance.

May be just an assumption , but it was probably sitting a lot longer than 3 months... I'd have that battery tested...That may be all it needs...

well im pretty sure the battery is toast because my charger didnt move off of the lowest charge mark after about 3 hours of charging. But it had enough juice to try starting the blazer for about 30 minutes with about a 30 second puase between attempts with the same result everytime. Kept trying just to make sure. I have another battery that won't hold a charge long but it still shows that its charging. But would a weak battery make the solenoid kick off?

Low voltage does all sorts of weird things on these cars , and many others...

Just so I could get to working on my Blazer when I got it , I just went over to Walmart and grabbed one of their Value batteries for $49 and threw it in..

I hope it is just the battery. The tray is about rusted out where it looks like a battery has leaked out on it. Might have been the one that is in it now. I'll probably have to cut the tray out and put a new one in. I'm gonna have the battery tested later and check all the wires just to make sure all the grounds are good because my first thought was it's not getting enough juice to keep the starter going.

I just remembered something else i find odd about what my blazer is doing. When I turn the key to the ON position, the radio has no power. Maybe ignition switch is bad?

Definitely check the radio fuse for that.

the radio works until the ignition switch clicks into the on position. Checking the fuses is the first thing i always do on a new vehicle.

ok so there is no problem with the radio with the switch in the run position. I just had the radio turned all the way down and off and the previous owner had the dash lights all the way off. I didn't think to check that because i was trying to keep everything off to keep the strain off the battery while trying to get it to turn over.

Here's what it's doing