Scott,

Thanks for the info – one thing I learned almost a lifetime ago was that God is not an Anglo-Celtic Catholic – as the sharing of the grey (gray) matter has not been equally distributed.

So transposing all the info into simpleton’s terms takes awhile.

Anyway you’re gonna love this – I have been doing some work on Lancair stuff, and last Friday the starter relay died. Replaced it with an identical starter relay, and did a dry crank only to find the Bendix did not retract from the ring gear.

Of course, I had the usual entourage of admirers hanging around, all giving me their pearls of wisdom.

But all including me came to the ultimate conclusion that there was nothing for it but to remove the starter and take it to an auto electrician.

Late in the day, I thought I best plan for a replacement, so sent the LML email which you saw, and also rang the outfit which did the bulk engine strip in March, basically to see if a replacement starter was available here.

Having told him what happened, he said: “Of course you realize the Bendix doesn’t retract from the ring gear until the engine starts????!!!!!”.

Oh MERDE!

Recovered starter from Auto electrician – replaced, used a litre of WD40, and bingo.

Yes, I can here you all laughing here – but what a learning curve.

Cheers

Dom

PS Funny how French for MERDE, doesn’t quite have the same effect as the English translation.