Well I took the starter out last night and it's definitely not responding
to voltage at all.  I think I'm going to try one of Karl's adapters and a
gear reduction starter along with a new cable to the battery.  My current
cable is slightly frayed at the battery end and at least 2 strands of wire
are broken.  So hopefully that's a safe bet. I will probably try the
voltage test you described after new starter but before new cable.  Seems
reasonable.

On Wed, Jun 29, 2016, 10:29 AM Steve Williams <
steve@williamsitconsulting.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> My first guess would be the positive cable from the battery to the starter.
>
> If there is corrosion or deterioriation of the wiring, there will be a
> bigger voltage drop over the length of the cable.  Voltage drop is
> related to the amount of current being drawn through the wire, so it's
> best to test under load.
>
> If the voltage drop is too much (voltage too low @ starter), the only
> way for the starter to work is to draw more current to compensate for
> lower voltage.  High current is what will generally cause electrical
> devices to burn up.
>
> I've never had to do this, but I would think measuring the actual
> voltage from the starter post to a local ground WHILE CRANKING would be
> a useful data point.  Do the same thing at the battery end of the cable
> & see how much voltage loss is in the cable.
>
> The other disadvantage of high voltage drop is that the drop is lost as
> heat, which isn't really desirable when dealing with the current that a
> starter draws.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve W.
>
>
> On 26/06/2016 12:09 PM, Michael McSwain wrote:
> > I replaced my unknown age starter on my 1.9 about a year ago with a brand
> > new Bosch.  Recently it started displaying the same symptoms as the
> > previous one.  Turning the engine over seemed to get more and more
> > laborious and eventually it stopped doing anything at all.  The last hand
> > full of times it actually started, I turned the key and it turned over
> > once,  then a 2 second or so silent pause then it turned over again and
> > cranked up. Pretty much the same exact symptoms as the previous starter.
> >
> > So far I've jumpered around my ignition switch.  Nothing.  I cleaned my
> > battery/body and transmission grounds.  Nothing.  I bridged the starter
> and
> > solenoid posts with a screw driver and got a little spark,  but nothing
> at
> > all from the starter motor.  Silence on all counts except for the fuel
> pump
> > priming which has been happening all along.  Does this just sound like
> bad
> > luck and it's a bad starter or is there something else that could be
> > causing a premature failure of the starter?
> >
> > I also had my battery checked and it checked out fine.  I have one of
> those
> > cigarette lighter volt meters that consistently shows 13.9 volts at
> speed.
> > If it weren't a 1 year old Bosch starter I would have immediately assumed
> > that to be the problem. Am I just in denial?
> >
> > Any thoughts would be much appreciated
>
>