Is it possible on start stand 1st fire up at 10 to 1 compression on a 312 mild cam stock valve springs, that the starter is to weak? New battery, New cables, good ground. Will only crank very weakly for a second then moan to a stop like dead battery. With plugs out of hole you can turn crank with about 20-30 lbs of torque pressure. I pulled starter and spun very fast on bench. Any ideas welcome thank you.

Gary

Long shot I imagine, but are you sure timing is correct?

1 at tdc 6 in overlap advanced about 14deg. on damper set rotor on #1 and installed. dizzy sets about center of swing to all the way against valley cover and same weak cranking

Put a timing light on it.  No guessing.

A stock starter, in good condition, should turn it over fine.  New battery does not always = good battery.  Put a volt meter on it and see how far voltage drops while cranking or pull a battery from another vehicle for a quick test.



Lawrenceville, GA

I will spin by hand with timing light thanks, I pulled my 875 cold crank from my truck that spins it great...same results.

The starter could have a bad field coil, won't hardly turn under load, but will spin on the bench.

If you need a starter several of us on this site went to the high torque setups and they work very well. Not to mention smaller and easier to get in and out. Chuck
http://www.autoelec.com/html/y_block_ford_gear_reduction_starter.html



Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire

I would look at the starter.  I rebuilt a motor years ago.  The starter was fine with the worn engine, but when I put it in the rebuild, I had a similar problem.  I installed a rebuilt starter and it cranked over fine.

Another way to check if the engine timing could be keeping the starter from spinning your engine over might be to dis-able the coil from sparking by grounding the wire from the coil to distributor and then trying the starter. Pete

According to a recent post here, by our moderator, if your distributor in an original 1957-58, 14 degrees initial is to much. Don't know if that matters on start up, but total will be to much. Might want to dial it back to about 6 deg for start up ?..  edit; Sorry, I credited the wrong source for the above information...I should have credited John Mummert in Y-Block Magazine..   


Paul