The nose of my starter broke off the other day, cracked in sort of a V shape you can actually pull it off the starter. What would cause this? The starter is fairly new can I just replace the body of the starter?

 

I had this happen last fall. Seems somewhat common for some reason. Only thing ive heard on it is one guy found out he had a cracked flexplate when he pulled the trans down. Im planning on getting a SFI certified one when i do my converrter one day.