Over the years I have had a few starters come back to me totally blown up from a flipped sprag locking the drive train and causing the starter to rev "to the moon", followed by a destroyed starter.
The final effect is known well enough. The thing I have been researching is what is the failure modes that causes it.
I recently got back a second blow up from the same guy.
Digging a bit harder with him I came up with a few tidbits by examining the associate starter drive parts that I asked him to send up to me.
I will be looking to see if some of the same thing have caused failures in others and what are the contributing factors,
I will be looking into the brands of sprag makers besides the 16 or 18 dog bones/rockers.
These one way clutches are, after all, a standard industrial one way clutch and there are enough sources and price points for these parts to make a worth while survey,
It is curious to note that andover norton is supposidly making modified starter drivetrain components at considerable expense. Their sprag is approaching $180 yet a alibaba chinese one can be had for around $20.Some guys are using the chinese ones successfully so far.
