Why won't it start????
Asked by Jessica Jul 07, 2012 at 07:26 PM about the 2001 Chevrolet Blazer LT 4-Door RWD
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
I have a 2001Chevy Blazer with the 4.3 Liter V6 Vortec engine. Last Thursday the car stopped accelerating but was still running, then died completely. The battery light came on as soon as it had stopped accelerating. Got it home by tow. Found out that the distributor rotor had not been secured properly and had jumped time. Fixed that by realigning it with top dead center, along with regapping andd cleaning spark plugs. Checked all the fuses and wires. Also replaced dry rotted vaccuum lines and charged the battery. After all that, It was running great. Trouble codes went away, battery light went off. Took for a test drive and less than ten minutes into the drive, acceleration bogged down and battery went out again, within ten minutes. Not even enough charge for emergency blinkers. Now have new battery in place and the vehicle still won't start. Could this be a ground wire problem, short in circuit, short in alternator, ECM, bad starter. etc? I need some clues. I have found that there are many common electrical problems in the Blazer line. Please help. I may lose my job if I cannot fix this by Tuesday. Thank you.
12 Answers
Figured it out. The distributor gear was stripped so it kept jumping time. Just got the new one. Putting it on today. I'll let you know how it goes.
Yes please let us know. I have not seen this before. At least not on a 4.3 vortec.
It was the distributor. The button that the rotor cap screwed onto had become stripped. Apparently, so had the holes for the cap to screw into. One of the screws had fallen out while I was driving and caught underneath the edge of the rotor causing it to catch, stripping the gear and causing the distributor to stop working.this caused it to go out of time. Also, the crankshaft sensor and the PCV valve were bad. Changed those too. After finding TDC and setting the distributor in. It fired up. After, getting it running, I noticed it had a vacuum problem. Some of the vacuum lines were dry rotted. I replaced those too. I drove it over 70 miles today to make sure it was okay. No problems now, except the brakes still squealing a little.
Correction on above answer. Had to replace more vacuum line.
Welcome to being a proud owner of an older vehicle. Good find. Change the oil if the gears on the rotor are stripped to get rid of any shavings that may have been caused by the stripping of the gears. Don't forget the filter. You can score the cam and main bearings quickly if there are any metal filings. It cost me a complete new motor when my timing gear drive went bonkers and stripped the gears in the drive. A $10,000 product failure. (On tear down, found metal failure in the block. Had three stress cracks. Motor was over 30 years old and well over 300K on it. Time to get a new one anyway.)
01 4.3 chevy blazer..redone head gasket and lower intake madifold gastet..blazer ran fine until i put it back togather..know it just cranks..its hole 58lb fuel and geting fire but will still not start? any helo
I have a 2001 Chevy blazer..went to the store came out car wouldn't start had to get towed home..changes the fuel pump still won't start I'm totally cluelesswhat now
See if you can get a diagnostic read. You may have a computer failure if it stopped running so suddenly.
I have a 2001 Chevy blazer..went to the store came out car wouldn't start had to get towed home..changes the fuel pump still won't start I'm totally cluelesswhat now
What I've noticed first Before it suddenly stopped...I've noticed the mileage appear to have changed or flipped from a high mileage to very low,..
johnsonfam321 answered 7 years ago
Ive got a 2000 model blazer and it needed a head gasket so we changed it now it wont start. we've had it put in time and it still wont start. Any ideas?
Okay so i have a 01 chevy blazer Lt 4.3 vortec 4x4 an it want to turn over but it seems like it's not getting gas to the engine but also the day before it was shifting down to 4 low on its own from 2 wheel drive an the next morning went to go start it an it wasnt starting so i thought it ran out of gas but also i had a friend put gas in from a gas can that might have been mixed gas but i wasn't sure could that be my problem
