Corrosion is as you say horrific.  Your Bentley photo is of a different
starter. The 10-ga wire with the white connector should be red/black and is
the control wire from the ignition switch 50 terminal.  The empty
connection is a spare 50 terminal.  On 2.1l it might have a small wire on
it with might signal the ECU/idle stabilizer control that cranking is
active.   If so that's different from how Bentley indicates.  My '89 has
such a small wire, I will have to trace more carefully where it goes but
it's not connected with your issue of the moment.

The black-sheathed wire that is corroding off its terminal is the non-stock
charging wire from alternator B+.  If that falls off/loses contact the van
could crank but would never start as engine harness power comes from there.

You have no alternative but to get all those connections cleaned up,
including the buried one under the rubber boot that is the main battery
cable to/from the battery.  The rubber boot is meant to seal to a barrel on
the connection to the alternator but that barrel is not present so there
could be anything underneath.   Disconnect battery negative cable before
you start messing with it.  You might also start spraying the starter
mounting bolts with PB Blaster in preparation for removing the starter as
it could easily be the real culprit.

Yrs,
d

On Sun, Apr 2, 2017 at 3:56 PM, George Gaudette <gcgaudette@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I attempted to do some diagnostics today.  Questions and observations
> numbered below for easier commentary.
>