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When I bought my car it did not come with a starter, so one was purchased. I went over it and did a check on brushes and did a 'rattle can' restoration on it. Upon completion of the motor build I found it did not turn the motor over. Not too surprised on this as a new build takes a strong starter and I figured I would just send it off for rebuild.
Fortunately I found a very capable man, they call him Starter Steve, and he knows his stuff. We bench tested it and he did get it to spin but it was too slow and the bendix gear would not even spin all the way to the end of the shaft. There is some corrosion on the shaft so disassembly and polishing up the shaft would be in order. Steve was still not impressed with the RPMs and noted someone had been into it before as the external field coil screws showed evidence of having had a punch used to remove them. (Not me, but I had noticed it but just though it was part of a previous rebuild)
A forensic examination and part number check revealed that the unit is a 6V starter, as I wanted, but someone had replaced the field coils with 12V ones, these of course would not allow proper strength or RPM on a 6V system.
Proper 6V field coils are on order and will allow it to operate as designed.
Thought I would share so anyone who has a starter that is not acting as it should may think to have a look at the coils to see if they are correct.
Have fun.
Bob J.

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At least someone went to the effort to do his 12v conversion the right way. Most just bolt on a new 12v solenoid and run a stock 6v starter on 12v. Works fine and the starter cranks the engine double speed until one day the extra torque and speed of the pinion slamming into the end stop causes this to happen.

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Wow! Steve asked if I tried it on 12V, I said no as I was worried about overheating the armature wiring, never thought of this happening. Bet that made a loud noise accompanied by a few adult words!
B

Starters are one of the reasons I keep my eyes open for reasonably priced parts cars, especially 356s. You just can't go to the box auto parts stores and buy this stuff.


As some of these old farts who have been clinging to bits like starters under the "my stuff is gold and your stuff is lead" theory, and the market is shrinking, I wonder how much of this stuff is going to find its way to the landfill when the heirs inherit.

Too much stuff is being junked or tossed.

At the very least, uninterested persons could lay out grandpa's old car stuff and take pictures, then offer it on ebay or some local list. The same is true with old furniture, radios, radios, motor bikes, clocks, etc.

Any car club might have someone who would be willing to look at and identify stuff.

The problem is that most family's dont know what Grandpa has or what it's worth. Or have the time to list and sell off items, especially when the priority is sorting the rest of the estate.

It behooves us all to leave instructions for the family members. Like "Call Bob at 555-555-5555 and have him come take all the car stuff if something happens to me".

A good portion of the literature on this website came from a couple of different estates where the gentlemen had the forethought to leave instructions as to where all this paper should go. Rather then it end up in the dumpster.