HELP 1997 silverado 5.7L will not start.

I have a 1997 Siverado with a 5.7L,auto trans. The truck has 162,000 miles on it . This it the first problem to come up since buying truck a year ago. All I know about this truck is that old owner took very good care of truck and did all the maintance every 3,000 miles . He told me that he just replaced fuel pump and battery 1 year ago.

Well I noticed that the starter was draging so I bought a new OEM, NOT the cheap ones priced at 59.99 . WOW! what a difference,worked like new.

Well 5 days go by and everything seems fine intil driving on freeway about 65 mph my truck seems to have a slight misfire and it did throw a code .
I had the code checked and code was a misfire code. All I did is change spark plugs and clear code. Everything seems fine for about 2 days and the truck starts to feel like to have a misfire again but did not throw a code.

I park over night in my driveway and go to start the truck and it just cranks, does not turn over. So I crank over and over again. After a min of cranking ,sounds like starter got jamed ,MADE A clunk noise. I did hear some small back fires in mufflers . So I let it sit for a while and got some starting fluid and sprayed into TB and put everything back together and try again,it just cranks and has small back fire into mufflers not loud at all.

Now it seems that I hurt my new starter . The starter engages and just cranks the engine for 2 seconds and then sounds like the starter motor is not engaged and just spins. I take the starter off to have it tested at local auto parts store . They say starter is in good condion. Pass thier test.
So I put starter back on and it does same thing. Now it looks like I have 2 problems .Do you think battery has gotten to low on amps or volts??????
Just to let all you guys know that I can hear the fuel pump come when I turn the key to the on position,and then it turns off 2 or 3 seconds later.

Have any of you had this problems?? What do you guys think I sould do NEXT ? I have read some old theads but seems nothing like this was posted . I read things like crankshaft/camshaft position sensor problems. So what do you guys think?

Welcome to the forum. Just an fyi, this post belongs in the C/K forum. This forum is for '99 and newer (new body style) trucks. I would start by trying to turn the motor over with a rachet. Or try a different starter, the testers in the parts stores do not turn against anything they just free spin and check the amp draw on the starter.

Just thinking that with that many miles, it might be a timing chain. The original misfire was probably from being stretched and it finally jumped time so bad it won't start.

make sure you have correct fuel pressure. also if no spark could be crank sensor remove sensor and clean if dirty and check resistance if resistance very high over 5,000 ohms or open sensor n/g should read 2-3,000 ohms. do not crank engine more than 10sec. then wait 3min then crank if you overheat starter it will stop cranking. also when cranking battery should put out more than 9volts if battery drops more than this charge or need new battery. look at distributor/coil see if wiring ok possible corrosion..........