Well, to begain, a bad battery will not damage a starter.

However, you may now have a new starter with a problem.
If you can hear the drive gear staying engaged after the engine starts, there may be something broken in the bendix (drive gear) and/or the forks that move the bendix; or, the starter is mis-aligned in the bell housing.

 

And those problems could take out the flexplate (flywheel). Ask me how I know.

Ted

 

It seems to be intermittent almost. When it does crank awhile and finally start it takes a second to get up to idle like its not getting fuel or something.

I had similar symptoms shortly after replacing my first fuel pump, which turned out to be a bad fuel pump (what is it with this era GM and fuel pumps??).

Diagnosing involved attaching a fuel pressure gauge and monitoring fuel pressure carefully. What I discovered was that, when it was hard to start and took a bit to get going, the fuel pressure was "low" (around 50 psi). When the fuel pressure was "high" (60+ psi where it should be), it started easily and did not stumble. To make sure it was the pump and not the regulator, I used a clamp to carefully pinch off a section of the "rubber" hose in the return line, and could see not increase in pressure. Replaced the fuel pump and all was well again.

My first recommendation when it sounds like it is not getting enough fuel is to put a fuel pressure gauge on it and see what the fuel pressure is doing when it is hard to start and stumbling.

 

Turns out the spider injector was leaking and flooding the intake. Bad battery voltage can put a hot spot on the armature of the starter which damages a starter.

 

Thanks for letting us know the problem, Blake. It can help others when they're searching for a solution to their no start/hard start.

And one other thing that might help them. If you hear the starter spinning very fast but the engine isn't turning you likely have broken teeth on the flex plate/flywheel. GM starters are designed with the solenoid mounted to the starter. The solenoid won't pass battery current to the starter until the solenoid armature (piston) reaches the end of it's movement which means the pinon gear is fully meshed with the ring gear. It then passes current to the starter motor.

So if you hear the starter motor spin but not the engine it means the teeth on the ring gear at that position are missing allowing the starter to spin at higher than normal speed with no load on the starter.

If the starter has a broken shaft or broken pinon gear it can also cause the starter to spin with no load.

Once the starter is removed it can be bench tested to verify operation. And the ring gear in that location can be viewed where the starter mounts. A mirror and light may be needed to view the ring gear. Sometimes missing teeth on the ring gear can be determined by feel if it can't be viewed.

Ted

 

on my old 94 burb while replacing the tranny I noticed a bunch of worn down teeth on the flex plate. I could not replace that at the time as we were broke broke from buying the replacment tranny n parts to put it back together. I installed the tranny and got back on the road... a few months later the starter freespins at the grocery store, I was at a loss for a few mins not sure what to do. then I remembered the teeth on the flex plate were screwed. luckily I always have some tools in the truck... I took a pipe wrench and spun the motor a few degrees jumped in a fired her up. victory. I drove it for another 9 months like that until she finally left me stranded down the road at the pharmacy, this was when we still lived in town. the very next day I bought the 97 4x4, I couldnt believe how much power it had over the 94 rwd. I accidently spun the tires the very first time i drove it and the rest is history.

these trucks are friggin AWESOME!

Cheers!

Al

 

With my 76 Blazer I was usually able to roll it past the broken teeth by pulling on the fan belt. I was a lot younger and stronger in the seventies.

When I had the flex plate swapped out it had three cracks in it.

Ted

 

With my 76 Blazer I was usually able to roll it past the broken teeth by pulling on the fan belt. I was a lot younger and stronger in the seventies.

Yep, I can remember doing that, haha, we all were.