Strange Electrical Problem, UPDATED

Does it crank good after it has sat and cooled down ?
If so, sounds like timing retarded to much.
Also check the ground from the engine to the frame.

Thanks for the replies!

The distributor cap and rotor are new. I'll start by retarding the timing and then go from there.

BTW, will this problem cause any engine damage I should be aware of?

TIming too far advanced means the mixture can fire when the piston is in the wrong part of it's travel, and the engine wont turn. Grab the dist and turn it clockwise about 1/4. It should start for you. Dont forget to plug the vacuum can line to the carb.

Sounds to me like the timing is way off.

If you didn't bolt the distibutor down it can walk a little and not restart.

Here is my failsafe way to start any mopar(car).

1. Set the crank to 0 degrees on the timing mark.

2. Locate the number one spark plug wire and see if the rotor in the distributor is pointing at it or to the #6 wire. If not rotate it to point at the closest one (#1 or #6)

Note: Distributors rotate at 1/2 crank speed so it can be at 0 Degrees on the #1 compression stroke or the #6 compression stroke. The distributor could be 180 degrees off if you remove and replace it without being careful to check it's orientation before removal and don't rotate the engine while it's out.

Since your car ran fine you can be sure it is not 180 degrees out unless you removed the distibutor since it ran.

3. With the distributor rotated to point at the #1 or #6 plug wire slightly rotate the distributor to align the reluctor (spiked wheel under the rotor) to the small metal tab in the center of the pickup. Check to be sure the rotor isn't too far off the #1/#6 plug terminal.

4. Rotate the distributor just a touch more opposite to the distributor rotation until the reluctor just breaks alignment with the pickup coils tab.

5. Bolt it down.

This sets a static ignition timing of 0 degrees and I have yet to have an engine not start at 0 degrees.

Start it and set the timing with a timing light.

Update: I checked every inch of the positive battery cable from the battery in the trunk to the starter and the cable looks fine.

I pulled all but 2 of the spark plugs and disconnected the distributor. The engine spins fine except for (presumably) the 2 plugs that were still left in the engine. During those two cylinders, the starter labors.

After cranking, the positive battery cable (and to a lesser extent) the negative battery cable, were hot to the touch.

Any ideas? The trunk mounted battery setup has been working for nearly 2 years without problems. Why would I have electrical problems now?

I had to switch from stock starter to lightweight type after hot start problems persisted with batt in trunk.

When a starter cranks slower it draws MORE current which heats up the cables, could the batt have dropped a cell & be causing what I threw out there?. Ordinarily from your description of the symptoms I would think a bad connection in the big cable system but you've checked them all.

I've reattached the negative battery cable. It was only attached to the trunk floor, but now I've added a longer bolt which makes contact at the trunk floor and the bottom of the frame rail.

I replaced the light weight MP starter with a brand new light weight starter for an '98 Ram (5.9L). What are the odds of having 2 bad starters?

The battery is an Optima red top and is only 3 weeks old. Tomorrow I'll try swapping out the battery in my '05 Ram with the Charger's battery and see what happens. Both batteries are the same brand/type. I don't know what else could be causing this.

I really appreciate everyone's responses!

I may have missed it in some of the above posts:

WHAT SIZE is the pos/ neg cables?

DO YOU have a BIG jumper from the block to the frame/ body?

When you trunk mount a battery in a Mopar, because the bodies are welded (unibody) you don't need to worry too much about "the frame", but make sure if the battery is grounded to the unibody, then the engine block is, also, IE don't hook to a rusty memeber like the K frame, which bolts on.

what caused the first dist to fry? maybe causing the 2nd to fry?? causing hard cranking

Have you tried turning the engine over by hand?Maybe something is binding causing the starter to labor.

If the engine still cranks with difficulty with two plugs out, pull the other plugs. The engine should spin freely. Ensure that there is no actual binding before proceeding with the other checks...

Let's start boiling this thing down.

First get it to crank WITH THE PLUGS IN and the ignition disabled. The ignition may be kicking back due to a number of reasons:

Too far advanced

Crossfire/ wrong firing order

Something crossfireing in the cap/rotor (tracking)

Problem with the ignition/ pickup causing multiple / off time/ erratic firing.

If you have no1 cables, and they are properly made up, they should not be the trouble

If the #4 engine to body ground is properly made, IT should be OK.

Pay attention to the cable heating--if it's near the end terminals, that may be an indication of poor end termination/ internal corrosion.

You PROBABLY don't have "2 bad starters" but it CAN happen--you buying 'rebuilts?'

At this point I would also suspect the battery. Find some "old guy" with a legitimate carbon pile type tester--not the new fangled fake ones that you can carry in one hand. REAL carbon pile testers probably weigh at least 15 lbs. This is what you need to test starter draw and other tests.

I would certainly get "comfortable" with a wrench on the engine balancer and see how much friction drag (no plugs) IE does the engine turn by hand OK?

OK, 1 problem down, 1 to go
The slow/labored starter problem turned out to be a bad firewall ground. The connections were tight but the firewall connection had some white crap (buffing compound? from the recent body shop visit) under it. I moved the engine-to-firewall ground strap to a better location and that solved the slow starting problem.

Tomorrow, I'm going to retard the timing and see if it will fire.

I really appreciate all the replies. Thanks!

Now if someone could do something about Ike....

!!! MAN !!! Glad to see some progress