Re: Dead electric starter

[frankr]

Short story: Up until around the 1970’s all starters had field coils. You can see the wire wound around them. When you hit the starter switch, a fairly heavy current flows through those coils, which makes them magnetic (an electro-magnet). Around 1970-ish, they started using permanent field magnets. Easy to recognize by looking–no wire windings. Much more efficient because there is no electricity wasted energizing the fields. And they can be made smaller too. One caution: Those permanent magnets can shatter. Dropping the starter onto the floor is one way of dong it.