Heck your glow plug might be bad.. If its hard and the engine wont start, try removing the glow plug.. hold engine upside down.. and take it through a few cycles.. pull the stright about 3-4 times.

Put a clean glow plug on, start it with new batteries.. should work.
If glow plug gets fouled with fuel, it will make starting difficult
Put the plug on the ignitor and burn of excess fuel residue in plug
-ram