MuuMuu101's 68 Dart, A Learning Process...

Well it turns so that’s a good thing.

Does it turn easily? It should turn pretty smooth and easy without the plugs in. If it has any tight spots, and places that don’t feel smooth, then you may have damaged something bearing or ring wise.

If it turns easily, then go back to the known problems. The starter and the water pump. The starter sounds like it’s toast so replace it. Check out the water pump, you can pull the belt and see what the water pump shaft does without tension on it. But if it was wobbling then it’s toast too.

After that you’ll have to see if it fires back up and runs, unless something else presents itself along the way. You said the #1 plug was black, how did the rest look? You’re running an AFR too aren’t you? What did that say? I would expect it to have indicated rich if any of the plugs are black.

I just rotated it 2-3 times with the breaker bar. It depends on how you classify easy vs. hard. I'd say it wasn't easy, but it wasn't hard. Some effort had to be made, but not all. I didn't notice any high spots.

All of the plugs were black. I'm going to order new ones. I don't have an AFR gauge, but I do know that my engine was running rich due to a manual choke cable I had not opening the carb completely for a year. I removed that almost a month ago.

Any recommendations on starters or water pumps? I noticed starter prices are all over the place $72 from a no-name on Amazon, $110~ for parts store, and $200+ for "high performance" ones on Summit.