97 E350 van with 5.4L - When I went to start it up after stopping a few minutes (at an auto parts store, no less), at first the engine turned over and it sounded like I let go of the key a little too soon before it actually fired up. When I retried, it wouldn’t turn over. It sounds like it has enough voltage to the starter, and the starter sounds like it’s engaging and trying to turn, but like something has the engine locked up and won’t turn. Ended up replacing the starter (partly as preventative measure, since this was the original starter with 257k miles on it, although the old starter tested good off the vehicle), but with the new starter it does the same thing.

I’m wondering if something electrical may have been fried by the failed initial start attempt. Or is there something mechanical with engine that could have gone haywire just at the wrong time. Any ideas?

 

No offense intended but your description of the symptoms isn’t helpful.
Your wording of the symptoms are describing your hypothetical conclusions. (“Sounds like it has enough voltage” )
Describe to us exactly what it does.

Is the engine rotating? Or is it just a click? How old is your battery? What condition are the terminals?

 

Remove the serpentine belt and try again. You might have a seized belt-driven accessory. The compressor clutch pulley is a common item.

 

 

I believe you can get a different belt and by pass the AC, that is if you want to go that route.

 

Yes. You'll need both the clutch pulley and the clutch hub.

 

 

You need to replace the whole compressor because both the pulley and compressor are locked. If it were just the pulley then the compressor would turn with the pulley. If it were just the compressor the pulley would turn without the compressor turning.

 

That is quite incorrect. I've been down this path several times before. The pulley's bearing collapses and that causes the pulley to seize, but does not affect the whole compressor. When the pulley seizes, the serpentine belt causes the rest of the engine to appear to be locked up and the starter cannot rotate the engine. Been there, done that, got the ride home on the AAA flatbed.

It's easy to check on the state of the compressor's internals to see if there is internal seizure. Just put a wrench or socket (8 or 10 mm, IIRC) on the bolt head on the clutch hub (it's attached to the compressor shaft) and see if the shaft will rotate or not. As long as the clutch hub is not jammed into the pulley, this will tell you what is going on.