[Christ]

When (if) you replace the starter, take the old one out and pull it apart.. It's just a couple bolts, and if you stick pieces of stiff wire in the holes at the bottom (from memory, they may be elsewhere), the brushes won't come out on you.

When you pull it apart, check the magnets on the housing, and check the epoxy on the armature. If the armature's epoxy appears to be melted, puddled, whatever, the whole starter is bad (or getting there), but if the housing and armature look OK (no cracks in the housing, no fragments or burnt/melted/etc epoxy), you can probably replace the brushes (about $10), clean up the contact points and the armature, and you'll have a spare starter if you ever need one.

I don't buy new ones, b/c it's usually the brushes that cause them to go out.. if you've ever heard someone talk about a "dead spot" in a starter, it's melted epoxy or worn brushes.

The epoxy melts from heat... when it melts, the windings in the starter short out on each other, and don't generate the proper magnetic force necessary to turn the armature with enough torque to spin the engine. This starter is now a brick. This particularly happens when people crank on the starter for more than 10 seconds (read the owner's manual for almost all vehicles), without letting the starter cool down after they've done so, and do it again. I've seen people who wouldn't stop cranking until they saw smoke coming from the starter... by this point, damage is imminent.