B Starter

I checked the armature bars to the shaft and the the ohm meter registers no flow, so it seems the armature is not shorted. The wires that are exposed do look like they were very hot at some point and melted away their coating in places (they look gray in the picture not the golden color). Could those exposed areas cause the short when its fully assembled (is this what you meant Don V.)? If I'm getting this right then this means it needs to be rewound with new wires?

I suggest a good shop that works on starters to get it tested and find out exactly what the problem is with your starter.

I wouldn't place too much stock in the auto parts store test.

The problem with this test is that there may not be a “short” to ground but rather a condition where the current is taking a shorter path through the wires and not producing the electro-magnetism that is needed to make it turn. You need a growler to test for this problem.

I’m guessing you have the short to iron on the armature. Please post back with your results.

Anyway, "over current fault" means the starter is drawing WAYYYYY too much current. Probably a shorted winding. Testing for continuity will not find this problem, because the winding is SHORTED, not broken. It will still show continuity because there's still a circuit there.