I will get the battery checked this week. Been too busy to get to the jeep for the last week due to visitors and other priorities.
However I do have two points I wish to raise. The first is the matter of the rear seal. Artificer states very plainly in his flow chart the following:
Yves states that this cannot be so, that is to say, a bad new seal will not impede the starter in turning the engine, yet if it is not so, why does Artificer mention it? I tried to PM him but see he is now banned from the forum.Engine is very hard to turn. Check mechanical reasons engine won't turn...crank/piston/s tight
seized, new bad rear main oil seal. Have someone depress clutch. Anything alter?
New engines may be a little tight BUT this should not negatively affect a good starting system.
The second point is the soaking of the rope seal in oil prior to installation. When I was building he engine last year, I carefully followed the video by Metalshaper on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e39dNzVYsP8. He does not soak the seal. So I didn't. After reading others comments re soaking, and watching another very good video which DOES soak the seal in oil, it makes sense to me that it should be soaked. It was the fact that I didn't soak the seal, and then reading Artificer's flow chart, where 'new bad rear oil seal' is included in a list of potential starting problems, that led me to question whether this was my problem.
It is a fact that I am losing oil from the rear seal, and I am resigned to the fact that I will have to pull the motor and replace it, as I can't imagine it will 'heal' itself, even as it becomes soaked in oil.
So I am interested to hear from others as to how essential the 'pre-soak' is and also an explanation of ' new bad rear main oil seal' as it appears in the context above.
Thanks,
Bob