Ever Have A Starter or Start Gear Jam Up a Motor?

I had a weird one this weekend:

Went to autocross with the F500, I warmed it up first thing and it was fine. Then about an hour and a half later I went to start it to pull it on the grid, it ran for about 3 seconds then died, I went to refire it and nothing but clunk. 

I a needed to put a pry bar in the primary clutch (don't recommend) to get the motor to spin. It would free up for about a 1/4 turn and then jam again.  I made the assumption the poor AMW motor had finally broke an it was time to start the conversion to the Rotax motor.

Well last night I started taking it apart and just out of curiosity I fiddled with it some. Same deal, I needed to use a pry bar to turn it. We ll something made think to see if the starter was locked up somehow. The gear did not appear to spin as I wiggled it back and forth. I turned the thing over a couple of more times and then all of a sudden the motor spun freely as did the starter gear. Motor runs perfectly fine and the car now fires up no problem. I'll pull a the starter tonight and replace it.

So anyone ever had a starter do this and jam up a motor?

Lucas starters in English cars do that frequently, and I have seen it with other brands of "Bendix drive" starters as well. Doesn't seen to happen on the more modern types that push the gear with the solenoid.

In reply to TurnerX19 :

I did a post on the F500 group and turns out this is not unheard of. Now that I know it's a possible thing I know how to fix it track side.

I once bought a Fairmont that was advertised as engine seized $125.

 I towed it home and started unbolting stuff to replace the motor when I started thinking and recalled the PO complaining about all the money he'd spent in the last six months, and how he'd just put a starter in it a week ago, but was fed up and not putting any more money into the piece of E36 M3. So I pulled the starter and tried it, fine. Put it back in and it fired right up.

I sold it a few days later to two guys who thought they were going to flip it and make some money