Hi all, Uncle thanks for your help last night having a look at my sulking starter. Before attempting to strip the starter down and clean it up I popped into my local motor factors (begins with B.....). They have a recon unit for a 75-80 escort in stock. It's only £70 so my thoughts are it's not worth trying to refurb the old one. As it's an exchange I'll take the old one in and make sure it looks the same. Is there anything else to watch out for or just make sure it physically looks the same?

OK so the starter did not fit. Slightly too long and thick But at least this made me have a go at stripping the old one. Old starter looks like new inside apart from no sign of any grease on the bearings. All greased first try.......ahhh much better, seems to spin faster. So let the car get hot, try again......exactly like before very slow turning over. Battery tested OK so maybe a higher CCA rated could help but it seems the starter does not have the power to turn over a hot engine.....

Hi donut , next test will have to be to get engine and starter hot and bothered again but before starting hot
try connecting jump battery straight to earth point on engine and red to red on battery then go for a start .
Try and have every thing to hand so when you get back so you can do it fairly quickly, best of luck

Cheers Uncle, OK I still have the old banner from last year to hand. I'll give it a couple of days on the 'optimate' to get it to a fair state and then try again with a boost....

OK so tried the boost test. Got the car nice and hot , tried to start. um fine....at the third or forth attempt , good it won't start (very slow turning over). Connected an old battery from the tin top (in parallel old but charged over night on the optimate) and..... turns over and starts. Ok so disconnect the second battery ,try again, ok still start on the old battery..... Repeat again, no start, boost good, then this time no start, boost good etc. Then on the third attempt even with the second battery connected no start. Leave to stand for 15 mins, turns over very slow on just the old battery then spins up and starts.....Me confused. I think maybe both the battery and starter are OK but when hot together just don't have the grunt needed. Guess the ultimate solution would be a high cranking power battery plus a starter with more torque. It seems like for most occasions just the extra power from the battery would do the trick. Any other sugestions........

Hi Steve after all that Boasting !! It sounds like more amps might be the answer ,it might be worth having
a word with dik Dixon he had a source of high torque starters ?