I recently bought 2 Case 444's from a friend of mine who had them sitting in his yard for at least 3 years. After bringing one in the garage, going through the carb, and replacing the battery I tried starting it. It wouldn't crank over at all. I put a wrench on the starter/generator and it was very hard to turn. I removed the starter/gen unit, had it rebuilt by a local shop and reinstalled it. Now the starter functions without the belt on but as soon as the belt is attached to the engine it will barely crank the engine over! If you put the wrench on the start/gen nut you can easily turn the engine over by hand. When you crank the engine with the key it barely moves, not nearly enough to start. I'm at a loss here. The engine cranks over fine by hand, the battery is brand new, the starter/gen unit is rebuilt, why won't it crank faster? I pulled the spark plug and it doesn't look like the piston is moving a whole lot,... maybe half an inch? When cranking it by hand you can hear compression coming from the plug hole. I wondered about a bad battery, but it doesn't get any faster with my automotive jump box attached. If it had internal engine damage, wouldn't it be hard to turn over by hand too!? Frustrations abound, I'm determined to figure this thing out!! Help!!