Regrettably, my experience with local rebuilders is the same. They are a
dying breed. the last good one here recently called up and told me to pick
up my Vanagon starter. They said the only replaced the braided lead from the
solenoid into the starter. Inside was like new, they said. Oh, $20!
This was on a starter I'd owned for at least 10 years. Salt brine we drive
in accelerated the lead's demise.
I like the idea of fixing one of my own units with a known history, rather
than an Autozone unit that came from an assembly-line rebuilder who gets his
cores from who-knows- where. The core supply is one of the major problems.
Some are like new, like mine. Some have been stored under water. Rust never
sleeps, especially INSIDE stuff.
A starter is an intermittant duty DC motor with a duty cycle of about 25%.
that means 15 seconds on, 45 seconds to cool down. No cooling fan.
Do you suppose the pile of cores at autozone were treated that nicely? Many
were burnt to a crisp.
Ask your local independent lift truck or construction equipment repair shop
who thay have fix starters. That's who you want! They know how and know
where to get Bosch parts.
My next favorite source of a good starter woud be from someone on this list
or other Vanagon enthusiast with a name and address or even an Ebay vendor
who believed it to be good. And it came from a car with other problems.
Often I get them on Ebay for $15- $30.
Furthermore, it is pretty easy to take off the end cover and look inside to
verify the brushes and commutator are looking nice. Taking the 3 screw out
of the solenoid can be a bear (use impact screwdriver here!), but you don't
even need to do that to look inside.

Al Brase