Starter with bent shaft

[cfordman]

I'm working on a friends car. he has had it for over a year, he has never used the timing lever always driving retarded. he only makes a mile trip to town so no highway driving. the car was used for a wedding sunday and numerous people were in the car, on Monday the motor kicked back and broke the ears off the Bendix spring. I pulled the starter and thought I would get him off easy, but the shaft is seriously bent. since he never used the lever he never checked the advance when he started it Monday ( he never checks the timing lever )

I looked at the timing lever and it was pulled down about 1/3 of the way. is this enough to cause this? it has electric module no points out of wack. I don't want to destroy another starter without touching all the bases. we pushed the A down hill to start it and it ran great to my shop.