I have a chance to pick up a 1989 Trooper, 170K, for $400 obo, and the owner said 'not sure what happend to it but just stopped one day'. I asked him if it had a 4 or 6 in it, and he said 'I was driving home from school and the battery light went on and steering wheel froze... it turns over every now and then'. He did not say how fast he was going at the time. Any ideas? I had 91 Trooper that kinda did the same thing - alternator went out(bearing), which stopped it dead, caused it to act like the starter or timing went. Replaced the alternator and solved the problem. Think it might be something simple, or a expensive fix?
Thanks,
Jim Welsh

I'd start with the basics: Fuel, air, fire. The engine needs all three to run. Eliminate them one at a time as problems, and go on to the next.

In your case, you have multiple systems shutting down, all at the same time. I'll hazard a guess, based on my daughter's experience. She was driving down the road at 45-50 mph, and her engine died, just like somebody turned out a light. Car is a '92 Camry. The engine would spin with the starter, but nothing more. She had the car brought home on a stretcher.

Her Camry engine had broken a timing belt. The internal parts of the engine were no longer connected. The starter would spin the engine, moving the pistons up and down, but the camshaft wasn't moving the valves and the distributor because there was no timing belt to turn the cam.

I replaced the timing belt, re-aligned everything in the engine, and its been running well ever since.

Just a thought, one possibility on the problem.

Expensive is a relative term. It should be easy to see if the alternator is the problem. Slip the belt off and see if the engine turns over. If it does, run a compression check. If that's good there's only a few other things. It could be the relay that switches the fuel pump from battery power at start to alternator power when running (you want your fuel pump to stop pumping gas when you crash your ride). Or (as in my '89 p'up) the fuel pump lost power from corroded wires or the engine ground is no good, but it reads more like an alternator issue. The light's going to come on and the power steering will get sluggish 'cause the engine stopped so it's hard to say. For $400 you can barely buy a set of tires much less a vehicle to set them on. The fuel pump is pricey but I've read more posts about corroded wires that truly failed pumps.

Sounds like a classic seized bearing on the Alt. The steering froze cause he lost power steering due to the seized alt. and he wasn't strong enough to turn the wheel manually. Like what was said. If pull the belt off, see if it starts (the battery is probably dead at this point though) If it starts, Replace the alt and drive it home or throw it on a trailer and fix it later.