Plymouth Laser Turbo won't start ...

I have a 1992 2L Turbo with 120k miles on (good miles) she doesn't burn oil and ran great. I run her on Mobil 1 and look after her. About 9 months ago I replaced all the belts and idlers and cam belt. Put her back togeather and she was purring ...put on about 5 thousand miles with no problems. I drove it to a friends house the other day to drop off something and when I came out she wouldn't start. When you crank her over the engine seems to drag slowly. It has a new battery plus I tried jumping it and get the same result. I thought it may be the starter dragging so, being stick shift we tried pull starting it ... same problem.
I got it home and pulled off the oil pan to take a look if I can see anything from below. The only thing I noticed is that the rear ballance shaft I can turn freely with my fingers from the bottom ... is this normal ? :screwy: My Haynes book tells me nothing about the balance shafts ...
Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks
Sam