I just bought my 97' Z71 a week ago or so. I went through the usual maintenance(new battery, ran injector cleaner(Sea Foam) and replaced the plugs). Well now I'm getting a hard start every once in a while, like the starter isn't turning fully. I've even had it not even turn over at all when i turn the key, but all the lights stay on and I know it's not the battery. Well today I walked out of work to start it, and when the starter went to engage, the arm didn't fully engage and i heard the little whirl sound it makes when it misses the fly wheel(I know there's another name for it, but can't think of it off hand). Could this be a bad terminal on the starter? I already cleaned all the battery terminals. The engine compartment was steam cleaned before being put on the lot where i bought it, so could the corrosion from the steam have built up on the starter too? The battery cables were pretty bad when i did them. Any help would be great!! Thanx....

 

if its ":whirring" the starter itself is functioning...it could be a bad flywheel as well.

 

I unplugged the wire that prevents the plugs from firing so i could just crank the starter, and it would crank for a sec. or two then the starter would give out and just wind like it pulled the piece that hits the flex plate(forget the name off hand) back again. It doesn't sound like a bad plate, because it doesn't make any grinding noises like it was missing teeth. It just sounds like the starter wasn't deployed the entire way to the teeth. I'm considering just dropping the starter and taking it in to be rebuilt??

 

Yeah a couple years back the starter on my '95 was doing the same thing.. Well needless to say I had to buy a new starter.. You could try and rebuild the old one but mine was pretty fried on the inside.. I think it will cost around $175.

 

I'm just gonna buy a rebuilt one from NAPA and the place I bought the truck from said they're put it in for free. I've only had the truck like 3 weeks? Maybe 2 even. Then my serfvice engine soon light kicked back on and I went to Advanced auto to get a free ODB-II scan, and it's m O2 sensor(the second one). So i'm gonna end up buyin one of those too. Grrrrrrrrrrrr. The guy told me when i left the lot, that if the light came back on within the next week he'd fix it for free. Well it decided to wait a week after my trial period to come back on so it's to late. and I had the guy clear the code too before i remembered that I might be able to get it fixed. So it's not gonna come back on for another few weeks.