I just happen to have a pile of 24V M38 starters. The last early style one I sold went for about $300. The last late-style one I sold went for less than $7. I know this is sacrilege to some but I figured a $7 late-style starter was expendable under these circumstances.
I took one to my trusty old-school starter shop guy where he completely gutted and rebuilt it. Can you tell which one is 24V and which one is 12V?
The one with the white grease on the spring is the rebuilt 12V. You can see he had to mill and shorten the case to make everything fit. That means the stock starter bracket won't work anymore so I'll have to fab a new one but that's pretty simple stuff. With a little luck this thing will look and work flawlessly now with a 12V system.
After a quick rattle can blast.
