[Healeys] chicken and the egg

[healeymanjim at hansencc.net]

found the problem with the starting system on the bj8.  tried to start it yesterday after washing the engine and letting it dry in the sun. all i got was "click" of the solenoid.  checked battery and it was low so charged it a while. nada.  tried to jump start using moms sedan. again nada.  finally tried connecting battery directly to starter.  nichts.  pulled starter and bench checked it.  would barely turn over and some of that lucas "smoke" started to escape.  question?  would the weak battery cause the starter to go TU or would a bad starter drain down the batter(or both).  this is the original starter so i got a good run on it and have already popped in a spare, which works fine.  battery is about 5 years old so got good service from it, i guess.  thought someone more knowlegable than me might know.  hjim