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Starter & Relay Questions - M1009

redwolf3

New member
24
0
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Location
Sacramento, CA
Hey All-
I'm new to this board. I was recommended over here by Magnus who has been a great help to me.

So, the short story. Have an M1009. It has had 4 owners since the Military, 2 of them have been me (Long Story). Low Mileage, 26,800 or so right now. Always runs and starts like a champ, have had few problems.

Fast forward to last Thursday. On my way to school I hear what sounds like a belt squeaking when I stop at the stop light. I was expecting this as one of my Alt belts was a tiny bit loose, so I wasn't terribly surprised. I was about 1/4 mile from the schools parking lot so I figure I'd drive it there and fix it after class, no biggee. Well, as I sit in bumper to bumper school traffic, it begins to become a problem. The sound starts becoming worse and I notice my Alternator guage jumping like a madman. About 1 1/2 minutes after the initial noise start (I've been idling around basically at this point as we move one car at a time to the stop sign in front of the parking lot), I notice smoke coming out of the wheel well. I pull out and around the 3 cars in front of me and off the side of the road out of the way of traffic.

I immediately shut down the CUCV and try to get the hood open. Large amounts of electrical smoke are pouring out the hood at this point and my mind is racing to engine fire (woohoo). After about 30 seconds, the smoke starts subsiding... about 30 seconds more and I finally have the hood open. When I pull the hood open I see 2 things. The smoke appears to be coming from my starter area as well as one of the battery terminals.

The positive terminal on the second battery (closest to the firewall) is completed melted off. Its still attached to the battery, but the location where the wires enter is a puddle of goo. As I pull on the wire that is sitting there (thinking it is still attached and the battery is dead) I pull the wire and see some nice sparks. Woohoo. Well, I tucked those out of the way as well as the other ones. Now, smoke is still drifting up and I tried to trace it. As far as I can tell it was either the starter, starter solenoid or the Starter wires down by the starter as nothing else seems to have taken any damage.

Upon Magnus' suggestion I pulled the relay under the dash and it appears that it failed in the "Closed" positio (Great). But, I was wondering if anyone else had any picture of a relay that is new, specifically the internals so I can make sure it was in the right position. Normally I would just check with a multimeter, but it is in my other vehicle that is in the shop getting a new motor (woohoo).

I'm hoping that if it was just the relay and that I didn't totally smoke the starter.

Has anyone else had this issue in the past? I am trying to go about this the best way possible, but I also don't want to arbitrarily dump a load of money on it either. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
 

gasser

New member
316
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Location
Ocean Springs, MS
Hi Redwolf3, I got nothing for ya other than have you tried to pop in a new starter relay and fix your batteries? I am curious as well as to see if was just the relay that got damaged. Take care,

-graham
 

redwolf3

New member
24
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0
Location
Sacramento, CA
Well, looks like its either the solenoid or the starter itself. I pulled the relay completely and touiched the cables and nice arc flash (like welding, weee). So, my next step is to pull the starter and have it tested.

I looked under the Blazer and it looks like there are just 2 bolts holding the starter in. Do I just need to remove these and I'm good to go, or is there something more to it?

I will do a search, but I figure it can't hurt to ask here as well.

Thanks guys.
 

Jetnoise400

Member
238
0
16
Location
Sparks, NV
Hey Redwolf,

In addition to the 2 bolts you already found, there's another attach point towards the front of the truck. It's a small bracket that bolts to the end of the starter at the top and attaches to the block. This bracket is very important, so if it's missing, get one on there without delay or you'll snap off starter bolts.

Also, I highly recommend downloading the TMs for your truck from the manual section. You'll find many of your repair and maintenance questions answered in there.

Good luck!
 

1956_4x4

New member
368
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0
Location
Crestview, Florida
I had the same thing happen on mine. Turned out that the starter stayed engaged with the flywheel after the engine started. The only thing that I found was a broken ring that might have allowed the bendix to move too far forward into the ring gear. I changed over to 12 volt since I had to replace the starter anyway...

Smitty
 
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