My Blazer was giving the previous owner problems with not starting at times. It has gotten worse to the point that turning the key to run, the DRLs come on and the dash lights up. Turn it to start and there is one click, the DRLs go out and the dash fades and sometimes goes out.

The battery does seem to go dead over a few days but it is fully charged. The battery connections are clean with dielectric grease to stop corrosion. I pulled the starter (it never fails to bother me how bad GM vehicles have gotten to work on over the last 30 years) and bench tested it. I took it to AutoZone and had them test it. It tested out okay but I'll visit a couple of other stores to see what they get. It was such a #$%&&^% pain to get out that I may just put a new one in anyway. I'm going to clean the wires at the starter pretty good before reinstallation.

My question to the masses here is this, what else would be a common cause for this? It's a 1996 Blazer LT with the 4.3 and 239K on the chassis. The transmission and motor mounts look pretty good so I'm thinking it's had a drivetrail transplant.

I can probably track it down but a short cut would be welcome.

 

ignition switch. ive been told several times 97's are bad about it,and since 96-97 is a pair,maybe 96 is bad about it too.

 

That's what I'm thinking. I was hoping it would be like a Mopar and just a module under the steering column. No such luck. I'm going to run a bypass to hot wire the starter and see if that makes a difference. If it doesn't my problem is somewhere else, but I'm pretty sure it is. Plus, most cars are around $20 and this puppy is $70.

 

Could possibly be the ignition switch, and the dash fading out is a clue here.... total loss of voltage to the cluster. Remove both battery cables from the battery and shine everything up. Reconnect them and charge the battery. If that doesn't do anything, check the circuits from the ignition switch.

 

I'm begining to think I have either small drain or a bad battery. 30 minutes after jumping the battery and running the Blazer for a bit, I slapped a volt meter on it and got 11.67 volts. I either have a drain or a weak cell. I'm hoping it's a small drain as the battery is only 8 month old.