starter problem

[67jason]

what i got:
67 bug with 1600 single port. generator and voltage regulator are apprx one year old. both in good shape with tight, clean connections. battery is of unknown age, but has functioned well. Ground strap on tranny is less then one year old. generator light on speedo does work with key in the on position. all exterior lights, flashers and dome lights work well and are bright. gen light on speedo does not come on in any manner while im driving the car. car can be push started with no problem.

the problem:
turn the key on and the starter will engage slowly or not at all, acts like a dead battery, clicks or turns very very slow.

what i have done so far:
double checked and tightend all connections on battery, generator and voltage regulator...all are clean and tight. i also put the battery on a trickle charger for a couple of hours. topped off the batery with water. no change in the starting or lack thereof of the car.

I was not able to crawl under the car today. my jack is busted and my fat ass wont fit well enough under the bug to see anything useful. attempted to borrow jack from friend, but was unable to get it to my place today.

my question is this, is it likely that my starter and/or solonoid are toast? starter is of unknown age, but has functioned well up until last thursday when this started to happen. the bug has sat unused for the last 4 months or so.
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67 bug x3
67 ghia
64 bug

[Bruce]

Could be a severly worn out starter bushing. If that end of the starter is allowed to tilt over, the armature rubs on the stator of the motor, slowing it down.
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[Mr. Loaf]

Since your battery is of unknown age I would pull it and take it to your local FLAPS for a load test. It may have sat for too long and when you added water to it you created more of a problem by diluting the battery acid more. They won't charge you to test your battery.
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[the-jerm]

I have to second the starter bushing. Mine had the same prob. Found the bushing in pieces.[/quote]

[Eric&Barb]

Hi 67jason,
Could also be the front starter bushing going bad. Check all connections again for tightness. While doing so check voltage at battery posts with a multimeter. Work your way up to the front and back to the starter checking each connection. Battery when fully charged should be about 12.6 volts (6.3 volts for 6 volt system), and by the time the voltage passes through all the wiring and back to the solinoid it should have .3 or less voltage drop. Could even be your regulator is not putting out high enough volts. Thusly not charging the battery properly. We have gotten voltage drop in the wiring down to .1 volt drop in our VWs. Have found voltage drop problems with the early type of headlight switch, see type2.com library for the repair article for these. Plus all the brass clips in the pre-1968 fuse boxes are just loosely clipped into each slot. Soldering each bunch of these clips to each other helps a lot to reduce voltage drop in the fuse box.
On one trip we had frequent starting problems. Turned out a battery/starter cable had loosened slightly!!
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