busted starter & engine shake

[BonesDT]

im working on a '96 S-10 4.3L Vortech 5-speed manual. my friend is looking to buy it from this girl.

the starter is busted and it needs to be pushed started. the girl that drives it now though, drives it every day to work and claims the starter works a lot of the time, but i havnt experienced that yet. when you turn the ignition you can hear a buzzing sound, and from the way it sounds, i cant imagine that it ever would start, but then again, the girl is small and i wonder how she push starts the truck everytime she parks! the solenoid looks slightly loose. im not too worried about replacing the starter, but one mechanic said maybe a new flywheel.

the big problem is that the engine shakes a lot at idle. the starter itself isnt loose though. hit the throttle a little and it stops shaking.

im getting under it and pulling the starter this afternoon to take a look. does anyone have any ideas? the engine shaking is our biggest concern and my friend will buy it once i solve that alone. do you think the shaking and the starter is related? or is there a seperate engine knock issue here?

thanks for any replies

 

[BonesDT]

got under it and took the starter out today. def looks like a bad solenoid.

turned the flywheel and all the teeth look fine.

we seem to pinpoint the noise near the tranny, t-case, and cat. sounds almost like loose/idle gears. could a cat conv or other exhaust cause such shaking. the shaking goes away with little throttle, it idles around 550rpms and it shakes a lot, but over 1000 and its very smooth (p.s. this is all with the starter removed, so its not that anymore).

the tranny and t-case look bolted tight.

im going to check the spark plugs tomorrow.

could it be a busted connecting rod or something?

we tried idling it in neutral t-case, neutral tranny, tranny in gear, clutch in, clutch out in gear and neutral t-case, tried all the combinations but still same shake and sound.