The starter motor on my Triumph Spitfire jammed a couple of times recently.  The first time I managed to free it by rocking the car back and forward with a gear selected.  However, the second time even rocking the car didn’t free it, instead I had to loosen the bolts and wobble the starter motor.

Upon examining the starter, I found that the teeth on the Bendix were damaged as can be seen in this photo.

To remove the Bendix I needed to compress the large spring to release a collet.  A special tool can be purchased to perform this task, but I decided to make a tool myself as shown in the following photos.

Here are the components of the Bendix removed from the starter motor.

The new and old.

While the started motor was off the car I checked the brushes.  Two of them looked almost new while the other two were fairly worn.

The brushes that are soldered in place were OK so I left them and just replaced the ones connected to the bolt.