440/500 Cranking issues

"I pulled the plugs and when I crank motor with a rachet on crank I’m getting a tight spot and an almost rubber sounding squeak.Maybe bearing?"

Just how tight is it, some idea of turning torque?

Does it crank OK with ignition disabled? In other words is it simply kicking on the starter?

Some thoughts

Have you measured cranking voltage AT THE STARTER? Do whatever it takes to clip a lead to the main starter terminal right at the starter, and a lead to the block, and measure starter voltage under cold and warm condtions

Measure voltage drop when cranking of both ground side and hot side. Get a long piece of wire to reach front to rear. "rig" it to one meter probe. Clip one meter lead to engine block, BEST TO stab other probe into top of battery NEG post. Crank or have someone crank engine and read the drop

Same thing hot side. Clip one side of meter to starter main post, stab other probe into top of battery PLUS post. Crank engine, read the drop.

In both cases the lower the readings the better. Zero volts would be perfect, but is unobtainable.

Have you changed starters and what are you using for a starter?

Get/ buy/ borrow a carbon pile tester and measure starter draw.

You do this by clipping load tester to battery, cranking engine for 10 seconds and while cranking, read load tester voltage accurately. Then crank in load to load battery to same voltage reading and at that point read ammeter on tester. This is your starter draw.

Also battery terminal voltage for stockers should be no less than 10.5 when cranking, a "built" engine you should have more battery and should have more voltage.

Test the battery, Google and research load amps vs quality of battery On that note, batteries which sit a lot can get sulfated, and this reduces their effective capacity

You said " 1 ot". Is this no1 cable or "ought" cable? Just making sure

Detail the battery ground path from battery neg to engine block

Detail the battery hot path from battery PLUS to starter