Ok . . Ok . . a little dramatic, but I did get that little heart skip when I noticed a few stray sparks emanating from the left front vent opening on my cowling while departing LHZ tonight.

After a quick once around the pattern and immediate stop, I pulled the cowling off and noticed that my starter never disengaged. The teeth were sufficient worn / busted and even after parking the starter was still engaged.

All that being said, I obviously need a new starter (annoying since this was a rebuild and just installed on 3/6/06 and only has about 50 hrs on it).

Anyway, has anyone had any experience with the E-Drive units from Kelly? They claim to be immune to kick-back and are not driven by the archaic Bendix drive that every other start has.

Any other recommendations for lightweight starters? I've heard a few negative reports about early failures on the Sky-Tech although they seem to be the most popular.

Thanks!

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Chuck Rinker
N4532W - '76 112TC
NuMedia Productions