All,

Tuesday morning we had a “no crank” situation in the Hyena (’88 2.1 WBX) and were “late for swimming lessons” as I shifted the kid pod from the Westy back to "Mom’s car”.

My multimeter and kit is at another location - I’ll fetch it on Friday - but today at lunch I had 15-minutes so I pulled the plug off the ignition switch and stuck a strand of 14/2 Nomax between 12V and 50.  I head what sounded like the solenoid “slam” into place, but only the once.   I then went aft with my stand of 14/2 and bridged #50 at the solenoid … nothing.

Batter seems fine … according to the simple meter on the charger … will measure this again with multimeter.

So it is looking like the {original} starter has packed it in … I’ll go out on Saturday morning with the meter just to make certain I’m getting all the required voltage at all the required places.

While I was under there, I noted there is nothing attached to #16 on the solenoid … isn’t there suppose to be a connection to the ignition system (coil) here?

Let’s assume I need to replace the starter.  
1) Do I really need to disconnect the right axle to do this {as I was told over the phone today}?  It looks like I should be able to get at all the bolts (after a little cleaning) … not as easy as the ’66, but should be possible.
2) Is there an improvement that can be made over the OEM starter?  {i.e. something like a starter from a mk2 jetta i4 that is cheaper to procure}
3) Is a rebuilt starter worth the cost savings (50%)?
4) Was there any significant change in the starter over the years?  The Hyena is a 1988, but I know of a possible ’84 donor nearby.

I also noted a couple more ground straps that need cleaning/attention (including the one between the solenoid and starter) … I’ll take care of these before ordering a new starter.   I’ve never had a starter fail completely w/o any prior warning before, so I’m not 100% convinced I do not have another notoriously bad ground/earth.

I may as well use this as an opportunity to remove all that current from the ignition switch and install some additional relays.

Roy