Good call 1955meteor.
When I start my cars without electric fuel pumps after they've been sitting a while I prime the engine with 32/1 two stroke gas. I think two stroke oil leaves less residue in the combustion chambers than motor oil would. As he says; doing this saves wear on the starter and internal engine parts. I keep my mix in a one pint plastic bottle with a flip up spout.



"FREE SAMPLE"

mix some gas with eng. oil3parts gas 1 oil,put it in a squirt can and shoot into carb. my preferred way is squirt several shots then put the container away from a pos backfire. this allows instant lube for cylinders and valvstems. give it try works for me.(and like others say make sure the did is not 2 far advanced

Thank you all...I broke down and replaced with a Napa rebuilt stock to my car and she spun her like nothing and fired. My old starter even though looked great inside and out bench and instrument tested at starter repair shop and deemed in great shape, would not crank my motor. Sometimes you get lucky throwing money at parts and sometimes you don't I suppose. Appreciate all the great advise sent over.

Gary

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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