with some help of a good friend, my starting issue is finally resolved!

And it means I've joined the "bought a remanufactured POS starter" club.

My friend Dylan brought over 2 extra starters he has, and we bench tested them, cleaned one of them up and installed it in my car. Even though it's not exactly one for my model (instead of having a threaded bracket, it's mounted with nuts and bolts), and it's from his old Amazon, lo and behold, the old gal fired up and ran like a champ!!!

So now i get to take my old (well, new) starter back and return it. And if they complain, I'll politely tell them that it's pretty telling that a 46 year old starter worked fine and dandy, and their remanufactured starter was a POS!

Thanks all for the help (and putting up with my repeating my questions 100 times)!

WOOO!!!!!