I stripped a balancer bolt before so I am being extra careful trying to turn this car over by hand. Its a 92 Camaro, 305, TBI and the engine may be locked up. I pulled all spark plugs and put a breaker bar on the balancer bolt. I put what I thought was more than enough muscle behind it to turn the engine. It's not turning. It should turn pretty easy with out the spark plugs, correct?

 

yep. should turn over with a normal length ratchet. if its not going over with a breaker bar something may be up.

whats wrong with the starter?

 

Kinda weird how it happened. My wife drove car to work in the morning with no problems. Went to lunch and about 1 mile from work it stalled. We've been dealing with a stalling issue so she didn't think much of it and said there was no funny noises when it happened. Tried to start it and starter would make one click but not turn engine.. Tried jumping it and putting in a known good battery and it did same thing. Took alternator, starter and battery to Auto Zone to have tested. Battery tested bad but since I tried jumping and a different battery I kinda ruled that out as the problem. I checked oil and it wasn't reading on dip stick. I checked it less than a month ago and it was fine and still don't see any major leaks. So after all that I decided to try turning engine by hand. Belt was disconnected and pulled all spark plugs and it won't turn at all. Drained oil and filtered thru paint strainer and it really didn't look too bad - I've seen worse on good running engines. Oil was extremely low with only a little more than 1 quart.

 

I have a 385 which is extremely tight, requiring a flywheel lever to turn even with the spark plugs removed. The valve springs are fairly stout, and cam ramps do not help the situation. If runs just fine, but is very difficult to turn by hand. Turning by a fine-threaded balancer bolt is pretty risky. A strap wrench on the balancer ring might even be safer, but a flywheel turning tool is sure-fire so long as it has a removable inspection cover on the trans/clutch housing.

 

I went to an exhaust shop & bought some studs, I loctited some nuts on to the studs. I used these to replace the regular pulley bolts from then on. I have one of these crank turning tools & have the nuts wired tightened to them so I don't lose them.