Gefutzed no more,  Thanks to Vanagon Wizards at StephansAutoHause, the
haint has been banished.  Turns out that the starter had an internal
short, just like one of the listfolk said.  Hard to tell till you get
it out I suppose.  Thanks to Kong the exorcist and Stephan the
beneficent the beast growls again.  I wonder if Bosch will make good
on it's warrantee.  I'll have to see.

The internal short causes a major current draw of course so I should
look at other collateral damage.  As soon as my plastic recovers.

Pensionerd.

On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 1:54 PM, Al Knoll <anasasi@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks, that's got to be it!
>
> �Lets see if I understand, if the bendix doesn't retract correctly
> then the shaft grounds the starter sufficiently to keep it spinning in
> place with the shaft touching the ring gear/flywheel. �Could be the
> spring in the 'solenoid assembly' of course not letting the hook on
> the solenoid plunger pull the part away from the flywheel. �We did try
> the light impact method, to no avail unfortunately.
>
> Now if I had my x-ray vision glasses I could...avoid lowering the
> transmission to get the starter out to have a look. �If you're right
> then of course I owe you the ceremonial bag of gummibaren, if you're
> not quite right then at least we had a few good ideas on what it might
> be.
>
> For now the stuck bendix mechanism is the MLC (most likely candidate).
>
> Al
> On Fri, Apr 30, 2010 at 8:45 PM, Jake de Villiers
> <crescentbeachguitar@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hey Al, take that thing out of your van and disassemble the Bendix housing.
>> Clean it and grease it nicely and re-install the sucker.
>>
>> The motor turns and that's the tricky part, so fixing the 'no return'
>> situation should be simple.
>>
>> The motor keeps on spinning because the act of pounding the gear into the
>> flywheel teeth also makes the contact for the starter and the starter is
>> always energized with that fat wire from the battery.
>>
>> Or you could just whack it percussively with a (small!) hammer to help it go
>> back to its spot - unless the spring broke, in which case you'll be removing
>> the starter anyway. See above!� ;)
>