Folks, sorry for the delay in updating you. Life got busy, was driving a Passat while the 850 sat in the garage until I had the time to deal with it. The fact that it has been freezing a.. cold out lately didn't help either..:)

The car now starts with the first turn of the key and runs great (as it always has). Turns out there were two separate problems:

1. The no start was due to lawnmower syndrome. At first, I didn't think lawnmower syndrome was a possibility. As I read lots of old posts, I came to realize that when I moved the car into the garage I shut it off after just driving a few feet with engine cold. Classic setup for lawnmower syndrome. So I went out and cranked that puppy for 2 or 3 minutes and she almost started. Went back the next day and she turned over with the first crank! All that cranking rebuilt the compression I had lost from the lawnmower syndrome.

2. The hard start was due to a failing starter. After curing the lawnmower syndrome, I did some more research and discovered it was probably the starter. When cold the car would start on the first or second crank. After driving 10 or 15 minutes she became very difficult to restart. Sometimes I'd have to wait a few minutes then she would restart. What was happening was when the starter was warm the starter drive pinion would not engage the flywheel. Really not surprising for a 19 year old starter with 232k on it...:)

Thanks to all who helped me with this problem! Oh, and thanks to dg for reminding today to repost with my results.

Jim

95 855 GLT 232k