Cranking Slow in 360

"I have a Chrysler 360 that ha

"I have a Chrysler 360 that had been recently rebuilt by a previous owner. I have installed new exhaust manifolds, rebuilt the Carter carb, and replaced the original distributor with a mallory electronic one. There is also a rebuilt Arco starter motor. The engine has been idle for nearly 3 years with all these improvents.

To get it ready, I removed all plugs, squireted cylinders with Marvel, removed distributor and gear and rotated the oil pump clockwise with a drill and confirmed oil pressure was good. Then put in new plugs, new wires and reset the distributor so that the #1 distributor port pointed toward the #1 cylinder. I have spark on all cylinders when engine cranks. The battery and all battery connections are clean and making solid contact. The engine seems to crank about half normal speed and is not enough to get it to do more than a few pops. Unfortunately, I cannot get to the timing marks the way the engine is in the boat, so I adjusted the distributor to fire #1 at the best compression point on #1. After a little bit of cranking (30 secs) the starter battery post is discolored and I see some smoke coming from the post. The #4 cable going to the starter is warm, but not hot. It seems to me that the starter may have some internal corrosion on the 12v terminal. I also hear a "clunking" sound that goes with each complete rotation of the engine. Anyone have any symptoms like this? It will not even start with ether injected into the carb. It tries to fire, but the engine is cranking too slow.
Ed"

"Uuummmm! First, get the start

"Uuummmm! First, get the starter rebuilt again--you gotta have something that you can count on.

Question: When you were wheeling it over with the plugs out, did it make that once per rotation clunking sound?

Jeff

PS: My 360 has an alternate timing mark location on the bell housing. See if there's a small plate held with one bolt that's about 6 inches from the distributor."

I will pull the starter and ge

I will pull the starter and get it looked at. I don't recall hearing any noise when cranking with open cylinders. I thought maybe a collapsed lifter given how long the engine was sitting idle. On the bell housing I do have a small plate... I think it is a rubber trapezoidal shape with a single bolt. I have much better visual access on the bell housing end (engines are with V drives under cockpit). I will look for some timing marks there... Thanks.

..."On the bell housing I

..."On the bell housing I do have a small plate..."

That's it!

Jeff

Now if only I can see in that

Now if only I can see in that hole in the bell housing without my glasses fogging up....

"I found the timing marks, but

"I found the timing marks, but forgot about two rotations of the flywheel per compression stroke, so as fate would have it, I didn't pull #1 plug again to verify compression and it appears I got it timed on the wrong stroke. Then the sky opened up and I decided another day will be better. At least I was getting misfires out the exhaust instead of through the carb. Is that progress??? ;-)"

Yes!

Jeff

Yes!

Jeff