Slightly Grumpy

I got curious about this and found a video showing you how to salvage them from old hard drives http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2301828/how_...deopatent_info/

I was in a similar position, different engine and starter, Perkins 4.108 with a Lucas M45G starter. I tried all of the above and more several times over. Dozens of people tried to help, but it took a long time to hit on the answer, which came from an electrician who had seen the problem before. To cut a long story short, the starter turned out to have the wrong armature, it was for a petrol engine, with a different number of winding slots. Once the correct armature was fitted, everything was OK.