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