I guess I'll have to put in my  2� worth here.

I've owned my '84 automatic since '91 and the starter has never once
hesitated.  I have cleaned all connectors and grounds a few times as
preventive maintenance.

When I bought my '85 4 speed in 2002, I would often turn the key ...
wait 3 seconds and the starter would begin to turn.  That was in dry
weather.  If it was raining or the ground was wet and I was driving then
upon stopping and trying to restart .... nothing.  I could usually get
the starter to work by having an assistant turn the ignition key while I
poked the solenoid, through the wheelwell, with a broomstick.

Anyway, without doing anything to the starter itself, cleaning the
electrical connectors and replacing the ground strap at the nose of the
transaxle cured the problem.  It hasn't hesitated even once since I did
that a year and a half ago.

Mike
Houlton, Maine
'84 GL 7 pass
'85 GL Westy

Stephen Overmyer wrote:
>
>
> From:    Jonathan Farrugia <jfarrugi@UMICH.EDU>
>
> Take a look at this:
>
> http://www.gowesty.com/starter_story.htm
> -----------------------------
> what a bunch of snake oil in my opinion.  in 15 years of driving and
> working on vws i have never had a starter fail.  on top of that i have
> never owned a car with less than 100,000 on the clock.  proper vehicle
> service and trouble shooting is what this problem that gowesty is
> rattling on about is fixed by.  but gowesty can't work on the whole
> countries vanagons since they are in cali so why not sell a magical fix
> via the interenet.  the real problem like so many problems on older
> vehicles is a failing ground system.
>
> lucas says the following:
>
> <snip>
>
>
> As far as I'm concerned anybody named Lucas has absolutely NO
> credibility when it comes to auto electrics ;-)
>
> Cheers,
> Steve O
> NSW Australia
> '92 Transporter WBX Kombi
> '00 Transporter Double Cab
> '03 Transporter Double Cab (work truck)
> '78 Landrover Series 3 Soft top Ute (ex-Aust.Army...who in a rare
> display of military intelligence replaced many of the
> components cursed by the Prince of Darkness with Bosch)
>