I just pulled a Lamar starter off my C-180 with Cont O-470K. The thing was only a few years old, with very light use, just pleasure flying. The starter just wasn't making it through compression and this is with fully charged Odyssey battery on firewall and new cables. The problem got worse this year and I've had enough. Once removed, I heard something rattling inside. I took the unit apart and lots of carbon dust and CHUNKS of black material...non-metallic/non-magnetic...not sure what it is...fell out. Something was coming apart inside. I lost a starter contactor as well...fused shut from trying to crank a starter motor that was self-destructing. The starter adapter on the engine has never shown signs of slipping so I don't think that's an issue. Cylinders are newish Titans and pretty tight so maybe the motor just couldn't hack the job.

So, a new SkyTec ST5 is on the way and I sincerely hope it fixes the problem! I don't want to slam Lamar starters, and maybe I just got a bad one, but I'll not buy another. Just my .02.

Sounds like the brushes came apart.

You may be able to get new ones for way cheaper than a new starter.

Brushes looked OK actually, all were equally worn with no cracks or gouges. Strange. I had excellent service from a SkyTec in my former RV8/Lycoming so I just went that route. Starter should arrive in a few days. Plane is down for annual anyway and Christmas/work/honeydo's are all in charge now. No hurry!

I had a Lamar starter on an O-360. It gave up after a couple hundred hours. Did pretty much what you described. Pulled it off and installed a Skytek starter. I wouldn't buy another Lamar.

MTV

Much the same here except I was dumb enough to put up with it for 7 years...bump, bump, start....on o470R..first Continental Millenium. Went back to old boat anchor style and no more problems for 4 years....

Sky-tec has given us excellent customer service thru a few issues we created. They've got my business!