16v suddenly cranks slow, won't start

[treed2 at wsu.edu (T. Reed)]

Grrr

Just when I thought my car was going to make it a month or so without
breaking, this happens.

The car had been starting reasonably quick.. not immediately but after
about 1 crank cycle. About a day ago, I drove it to the store, parked,
went in, came back out and tried to start it again. The starter just went
wuH, wuH, wuH slowly and didn't kick over the engine. If I held
the key at start it would begin to slow down even more. As a quick fix I
tried popping off the battery terminals and putting them back on, hoping
it might free some corrosion. Nope; had to get help from a passerby to get
the car push-started (I was in a perfectly flat parking lot).

Got home, parked, still wouldn't start.

So today I popped the hood and tried to jump start it with a spare car
battery - didn't help. Checked battery voltage: 12.20V

I tried attaching the jumper cables to the battery and directly to the
starter + terminal and metal case to bypass/augment the in-car wiring. No
help.

I pulled the battery terminals and cleaned minor corrosion off them with a
dremel and a wirewheel. Then I pulled my chassis ground bolt and cleaned
all the lugs on it as well.

Measured the resistance from battery (-) to the radiator bracket as 0.2
ohms. Measured the resistance from battery (+) to the starter (+) terminal
and it was 0.1-0.2 ohms. The 8 ga wire is relatively new and in good
shape. Likewise for the ground strap.

Nothing was working so I push-started the car and let it idle for about 25
minutes to charge the battery. I parked it on top of a hill and turned off
the engine. It started with the starter after some hesitation. I figured:
okay, just a low battery. Parked and let it idle some more, then turned it
off and ran inside to grab my cell phone. Got in and tried to start it:
wuh---wuh---wuh again.

Hooked up a voltmeter so I could watch the volts as I was cranking but
freakishly it started and I decided to drive around some more. Well, long
story short I got in to a muddy driveway and the engine stalled. I spent
15 minutes turning the car around by pushing it back and forth and turning
the steering wheel. Push started it on the way out of the driveway and
drove back home. What a pain; I'll never do that again.

It has only started twice by the starter since I monkeyed with
everything.. and both times it was very "strained". It has not-started
countless times since then, however. So the problem is far from being
cured or intermittent.

So here's where I'm at:
- the battery seems to have sufficient power. (Also, it was replaced about
  2 months ago.)

- the battery terminals and chassis ground have been cleaned of corrosion

- the starter (+) terminal looks okay. The starter has its own aux. ground
  strap at the lower starter bolt.. it might be slightly dirty or oily but
  I didn't have the tools handy to pull it in daylight today.

- hooking up a second battery seemed to have no effect

- nothing I did above seemed to have any effect whatsoever

- the starter is a bosch reman and was replaced ~17 months ago. It has
  been starting fine (as long as there is sufficient battery power).

- stock battery/starter wiring has been replaced ~2-3 years ago with
  8 ga copper with crimped ends. (i intend to solder new ones soon; but
  its a pain to solder something so big)


So what the heck?! I'm fresh outta ideas unless my starter has somehow
died on me.

-Toby