Smoking/rough idle, but drives fine

[LostBoyScout]

Hi everyone,

I have a 1981 Rabbit Truck with a 1.6D.  It has been a strong runner for the year I've been driving it daily, but just this morning I've gotten my first running issue with it.  This morning it didn't want to start, it just clicked and didn't even turn.  The battery is a new Optima and has been extremely strong, so I don't suspect the battery charge was low at all.  Third try it fired up although barely.   But then it was running rough at idle and smoking a whole lot (blue grey).  Once I got going, it was fine.  Would run a bit rough for a second or two as I left idle but then blew itself clear and drove normally, until the next stoplight and I reached idle again.

Ground points seem to be ok.

Any ideas guys?

[zyewdall]

If it clicked, but didn't even turn, and the battery and wiring was good, that seems like a bad starter motor to me.  Or maybe starter motor solenoid.   This wouldn't cause anything different once you got it started, so maybe they are independent problems? Sort of suspicious they both happened at eh same time though.

[LostBoyScout]

Yeah I'm not sure if it's related to the starter or if the fact it's idling rough has to do with it having trouble turning the motor at idle and thus having trouble turning the motor to start it.  I don't notice any extra resistance when driving but maybe there is a bit of a loss of power I didn't notice since I was so concerned about watching for smoke!