CAT 955 starting troubles

This past weekend my dad and I fired up his old dinosaur (CAT 955) He has always told me that it is a 1957/1958 or what ever year was the last naturally aspirated engine. After he threw the right track (and then the rain came) we spent Sunday morning putting the track back on. After we got it started and up out of the hole he shut it off. He never shuts it off. When we tryed to restart it, the compression lever was stiff. We noticed that the linkage was hitting a bolt. After clearing this we proceded to try and start it again. When engaging the pony motor and then switching the compression lever over for compression it wanted to act like there was no compression. After several attempts we walked away to come back later with cooler heads. :Banghead I pulled the valve pan cover off to see how this lever works. It seems to turn a long cam style rod that holds open or closes the intake valves. When operating the lever at no time does the flat spots on this rod "roll over". Are they supposed to? Is this what happens to allow the valves to close for compression? And how can all of a sudden this rod become "out of Time". Is it possible that it spun some how? Please all advice is welcome. I know this machine is ancient, but I am hoping someone out there knows how this portion of the starting system works