starter spinning freely (yes I already searched)

[3dimentia]

I have researched this and searched through the boards already and come to 1 of two conclusions.

Here is the story (still haven't bought the car yet, cause of all of this), my friend who owns the car was coming to a stop at a light by his house, when it stumbled and died. He didn't notice any wierd noises when it died (I would imagine destroying the valves by way of the pistons would make an awful noise, though I wouldn't know......is this the case?) so tried to start it, nothing. The starter spins freely.

Two conclusions I can think of from this:

1. The belt has stripped its teeth at the crank. The belt is new, then engine was a JDM swap (6 bolt into an original 6 bolt awd car). The belt he says still feels tight and the cam gears havent jumped teeth (marks on them are still right on) Are belts really this crappy and weak?
Could it have stripped the teeth and died quickly enough to where it didn't destroy anything and if so how likely is that?

2. There is just a problem with the starter, and it happened to be a coincidence that it died at the light (he says he has had some idle surge issues in the past after its warm)

I'm really hoping its just number 2 or lucky enough to not have destroyed anything in the head. If it IS a destroyed head, how much do those typically run for a rebuild/do it yourself rebuild?

Thanks everyone.

 

[Black20FWD]

Take out the starter and see if the teeth are stripped out or gone. Just two bolts and some quick connections and it is off and you have something to look at to troubleshoot. If everything seems fine then it is inside the starter and you should try to find another one. If the teeth are gone try to get a 1/2 drive ratchet and turnt he motor by hand. Go slow and easy and just try to turn it over to see if it seized or something. See how that goes and then reply back with some results.

 

[3dimentia]

We did pull out the starter a while back (this has been a problem for some time, and hes gotten a new car since, hence me wanting to buy it) and checked it out. the teeth looked a bit rounded along the edges at the top. Are they supposed to be 100% square? We also took it in to schucks to have them test it to see if the sollenoid was engaging the starter shaft to make it hit the flywheel and it was. I then tested it out attached to the car (jumper cables) and it didn't seem to have nearly as much juice as it did at the store. I like the idea of trying to turn her over slowly and see if things are working, we should def try that.

Still though, it dying like that at the stop sign and then spinning freely kinda scares me

Thanks for the reply, and hopefully I can get out there maybe sometime this week.