need some help!

[74chev4x4]

1974 chevy 3/4 ton 4x4 454 with turbo 400.  I recently pulled my motor out to change the rear main, oil pan gasket and to clean and paint the block.  I put it in a week ago and have been slowly working on getting everything back together.  Today I bolted the flexplate to the torque convertor and put the starter on.  The exhaust is not hooked up to the exhaust manifolds yet and I have 3 of the 6 trans bolts in, but I just wanted to start it before I went any further.  Anyway went to start it today and it will only crank short cranks(2-3 seconds) and then it sounds like it has trouble turning over, pulled the starter and tried it and it spins fine.  It hasn't fired yet, backfired a few times, but no real start.  I know I can figure it out, but just worried about it having trouble turning over.  What would it be binding on, I rotated the motor as I put the bolts in the flexplate to the convertor and it moved without much trouble so I'm not sure.  Hopefully I haven't screwed anything up?  Any help would be great!

[jaredts]

Maybe get your starter tested and double check your connections.  If you're worried about something more mechanical you might try again rotating the motor by hand all the way through 360 degrees and make sure it moves smoothly.  My bet would be that its not mechanical, but who knows.  A starter spinning fine with no load is really no test at all.

[Captkaos]

Do you have a good battery?  What is the condition of the starter?  It it binding like it cannot turn over?

[beastie_3]

Throw those other 3 bolts in and finish your exhaust. If your running without exhaust, you will have a harder time hearing if something is wrong.

When you pulled the motor, you didnt do anything else besides the rear seal, pan gasket, and paint? Make sure your battery is FULLY charged as well. Never know. Did you take out your dizzy?

[74chev4x4]

nope left the dizzy in, battery has 12.2 volts.  It seemed to turned over fine when I was rotating it to put in the flexplate to torque convertor bolts, starter seemed fine before this.  Not sure what this could be.  I did take off all the plug wires and put them back on, could have mixed them up, but this doesn't explain the binding?

[74chev4x4]

also I did nothing mechanical to the engine besides replacing gaskets and cleaning it up.

[beastie_3]

Double check the starter is shimmed properly and the bolts are tight. There should be a specific gap between the flywheel and starter teeth.

[74chev4x4]

Yeah starter is in exctly like it was before, I will try charging the battery!

[Josh454]

Is the flexplate on backwards?

[74chev4x4]

pretty sure I put it on the way it came off, would it bind if it was on backwards?

[Irish_Alley]

just a guess but what about timing, sound like its too advanced. i know it will slow down the rotation of the engine when warm but not sure about cold and your back fire kind of backs this ideal up. did it back fire out of the carb or pipes. carb means too advanced and pipes mean to retarded

[TexasRed]

12.2 volts isn't much voltage, I think like 12.7 is closer to fully charged?

[74chev4x4]

update:  Ok so I had the battery on the charger all night, came out this morning to start it and it cranked more than before, but still no fire, then it would barely crank.  So I had jumper cables going from my other truck to the chevy and tried to crank it and it would barely turn over.  Then it kept cranking even after I took the key out and smoke started coming from under the motor and filled the engine bay.  So now I have a burnt up starter and to make matters worse I noticed that oil was running off the back of the motor near the rear main seal that I just replaced.  So I am a little mad at that thing right now, I think I will just keep the truck and sell that motor and put in a small block like I orginally wanted to rather than figure out why it is leaking oil again.  I know I will still have the same electrical issue to deal with, but I hate that 454 everything I do to that thing goes wrong and I am pretty good with motors, no expert, but not bad.

[beastie_3]

Sounds like either the starter is bad or the ignition switch.

[74chev4x4]

starter was new like 5 months ago and worked great before I pulled the motor?  I will go through and check everything, going to pull all the plugs and make sure it is still turning over smoothly, not sure why it wouldn't?  The torque convertor was spinning freely before I bolted it to the flexplate so I don't know what the deal is?