The starter motor on my 73 is very sluggish but every once in a while I'll get it turn quick and then almost dead as though the battery flat. I have just put a brand new BOSCH battery on her. I have the clamps tight. The garage is at near freezing temperature here, maybe that does not help. Before I look at buying another starter motor....any suggestions of what to check or hit with a hammer!!!

....Clean all the major corrosion areas(grounds.look for the green or white powder)??
if it hasn't been done?

Get your voltmeter (if you don't have one, buy one) and put it on the big lug on the starter and see what voltage you get. You should get about 12V when starting.

pull & clean the ground strap connections on the tranny and battery to body ground. Then do what Spoke said.

with drums. wire brush all electrical connections. a dab of dielectric grease on each connection should should last a long time before another wire brushing is due.

When I reinstalled my motor I hooked everything up but I forgot the LARGE Power wire to the battery from the starter. I had a smaller one but missed the Large one. The starter couldn't get enough through the smaller wire to crank hard. When I put the larger one on it fired right up!!

My car is doing same thing .i put new + ground and - ground .change starter and still do same thing.

New + ground? That's not good. Only some old Brit-cars are positive ground--if you connect the + wire on a 914 to ground I would expect sparks and possibly fire. Or at least a fuse popped.

What did you do to it?

--DD

I have had the starter motor apart on my 914...

Although, after cleaning and checking brushes, the starter turns...the shaft doesn't pop out.....

Any idea what needs to be checked?

The motor seems to spin really well. I cant see any obstructions. That metal plate inside the sloenoid isnt moving up to meet the contacts. I have tested both on the car (with all connections, and off the car..).

Can you get new solenoids? Can they be fixed?

Good question. They were all available to Bosch distributors years ago, but I don't know about now. Get the starter part number and find one who'll spend some time in the books for you.