Now you have me feeling kinda stupid!   I had the exact same situation with my DoKa starter.  That one had been rebuilt only a months before.  I commonly spray off the engine, but that shouldn't have caused the wire to disintegrate. 

Thanx for the outcome.  

Karl Wolz
Sent from my electronic umbilicus

On Dec 17, 2012, at 7:32 PM, neil n <musomuso@GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> Nothing new for the old hands here but interesting to me.
> 
> The failure is obvious. That braided copper "wire" was corroded and
> falling apart. Like it appears bits of braid had fallen out (or were
> eaten by corrosion) creating a hole. Image:
> 
> http://tinyurl.com/bmcvzx5
> 
> Turning the 13mm nut slightly caused the wire to disintegrate and break.
> 
> Image: http://tinyurl.com/bqz998z kind of shows how worn the braided wire was.
> 
> I guess I'm showing these images so people can get an idea of what can
> go wrong with a starter. I suspect that this van sat a while and
> moisture etc. took it's toll. Like I bet the bushings etc. in starter
> are in reasonably good shape.
> 
> Installed my spare Bosch reman. starter. "vroom, vroom". All good.
> 
> Thanks for the help people!
> 
> Neil.
> 
> --
> Neil n
> 
> 65 kb image Myford Ready For Assembly  http://tinyurl.com/64sx4rp
> 
> '88 Slate Blue Westy to be named.
> 
> '81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco"  http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/
> 
> Vanagon VAG Gas I4/VR Swap Google Group:
> 
> http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines