Starter won't turn over

[Lee]

I recently purchased an sp311 with no battery in it. Did lots of preliminary work and purchased a batter from Pep Boys. Turned the engine over o.k. with plugs out to get the oil pressure up. Put plugs in now barely turns at all. disconnected coil and charged battery. Same results. <P>
The ground connection seems to be good. Can't reach in to check the positive on the starter, but will. Any other ideas?
lcb@brannenconsulting.net

[S Allen]

Hum! If you have a fully charged battery(and it seems you do!)--It turned over fine without plugs but does or does not turn over with plugs? When you were turning it over without the plugs in was it pretty consistent? Putting the plugs back in should not make it not want to turn over unless you have a 13:1 race motor. I assume you can put a socket on the crankshaft pulley and easily rotate the motor with the plugs in? You might want to try that. Are you sure this is a runner that you bought? There could be something internally wrong inside of the motor. Hopefully not. Double check your electrical connections. Make sure both grounds are on. The one from the battery is a no brainer but there should be one from the bottom bolt of the starter to the frame as well. This one gets left off more often than not. You can smoke choke cables and the throttle cable with this off. It could very well be the starter too! Good luck.

Steve