I just changed the rear seal on my 216. I left the top rope in and just shimmed it out with 2 steel strips from a wiper blade. I put a new Felpro rope in the bottom half. I did everything right, set the seal as best as possible, left the ends just a tad long then removed the bearing and torqued up the cap without the shims so as to seat the seal. Pulled off the cap, trimmed the rope flush, replaced and lubed the bearing and torqued the cap to 105 ft/lbs. When I first installed the cap without the bearing and shims I noticed the crank would not turn with a long pry bar against the flywheel. I loosened the cap bolts just a tiny amount and the crank turned. When I reinstalled the cap with bearing and shims, same thing, crank won't budge. I lubed up the rope seal before installing the cap.
I put the pan back on, filled the oil, stomped on the starter pedal and nothing but a hum from the starter and a warm battery. I am still running 6 volt, never had problems and no interest in changing to 12 volt.
My next move is to tie the old girl to my truck and pull her around for a while in 1st gear to hopefully loosen things up. Then try the starter, and if still too tight I'll turn on the key and see if it'll fire on the rope. If it starts I guess I'll just let her run for a while and start parking on a hill until things are normal.
