Hi Kevin,

Sorry to hear you have this issue.

It happened to me about year ago. Unlike yourself, I had started with the Iskra and then switched to the Skytec unit.

You’ve probably checked this, but if not – in the unlikely event that the starter has failed, there is plug on the side of the Skytec starter body which you can remove and observe whether the sktec is in fact engaging or not. Worth a quick check if you haven’t done this.  But – assuming the Skytec is fine, read on!

You do not necessarily have to move the engine forward, or lift it up off the mount as I believe some have done  – I didn’t have touch the engine mounting.  So – if you want to avoid dong this, you might want to try what I did – it worked fine. 

The problem for us is that the adapter is fixed to the block with studs. But we do not have enough room to withdraw the adapter backwards and clear all of the studs – I think was two that wouldn’t clear. I can’t recall which, but once you look at it, you’ll see which ones they are.  So – I removed the offending studs with a stud extractor – took a bit of doing as I assume the studs are installed with super Loktite or similar, but they came out OK. Withdrew the adapter, and my Lame fitted a new shaft and spring which luckily for me was provided by TCM under a warranty claim. Meanwhile – removed the other studs, and then reinstalled the adapter with a set of properly spec’d bolts (length etc critical of course) instead of the two above offending studs.

If the adapter ever fails again – it will now be a very simple job to remove the starter adapter.  

I guess I should caution that I don’t know if what I did is endorsed by TCM – it may be, but I don’t know; I did check with my LAME and he considered it fine, but your call of course here!

Good luck!