car runs great but hard to start 94 1.6 dohc help please!

[weaponR_91si]

i have a 94 mx3 1.6 dohc 5 speed, i just put a new timing belt on it, it has 124k on it. it turns over really hard, sometimes the starter just stops, but you can coast start it or sometimes it starts, and it runs great, no engine noise, never smokes.
now leading up this, i had a hard time timing the car so i pretty much wore down the battery trying to start it, enough that the wire going from the batter to the starter started smoking, after that it seemed to be downhill, so do you think i could just replace that wire and make sure all connections are good, or does it sound like something else?, i would have thought timing, but it has perfect idle and runs great when i can get it started, i put a fully charged battery on it but it didnt help, any info would be greatly appreciated,
thanks
p.s. car is for sale for $1400 in WV

[weaponR_91si]

nevermind, ended up being burnt posative and even bigger the alternator isnt charging the battery fully.

[azazel95]

Well the alternator probably wasn't charging properly because of the connection. That could have caused your alt to burn out prematurely too so you will want to check that.

[weaponR_91si]

i sold this car almost 3 years back, and i just bought it back a few days ago, nothing had been done to it, nobody drove it, it just sat there. the alternator was locked up so installed a new one. the car started up and i drove it home, it still turned over fairly tough, and i noticed that the distributor was turned all the way clockwise. i set it close to center and when you give it gas it dies and will not start until you readjust the distributor all the way out. so pulled the timing belt to re-adjust it. now, the problem i am having is with the timing marks, they seem to leave the alignment of the cam gear marks very general. there is the "x" pattern on the back plate with the E on the intake cam side and the I on the exhaust side. also on the cam gears there is an E and an I but there are also engraved lines. soo what needs to be lined up where i know it is e mark to e mark on the intake and i to i on the exhaust. but do i use the engraved line or just the general stamped letter on the gear. and do i line it up with the top, bottom, or center of the "X" on the rear cover, or line it up with the small stamped letters? if anyone has any info please let me know, thanks

[OldMan]

You may want to pull your starter and has it tested. It sounds, by your description, as though it maybe dragging. This will draw a lot of current off the batery and cause the battery cable to get very hot.

OldMan

[weaponR_91si]

thanks, any insight on the timing marks, it is driving me crazy, i must have tried timing it 5 times. seems like a lot of room for error with such a larger area for those marks to point at. the book didnt seem to be much help as far as whether to use the line mark or the letter mark on the gear. and the x mark or the letter stamp on the back cover, anyone else ever have problems timing their dohc?
only time i had it running ok was when i timed it and put the distributor all the way to the right.