Karl,

I don't understand the theory of not under cutting the commuatator on the starter, we always did that and had no problems. The least I would do is scrape the junk out to make sure the bars were not shorted together.

Dumping the armature into the solvent wouldn't hurt a thing. I have dumped entire starters in including the field and case. If they are blown out afterward and given a chance to dry out they should be fine.

Stuart