Again, thanks for everyone's help here. For those keeping score at home I swapped the known good starter I have from a 75 1.8L I'm going to start working on with the one in my 1.7L. Fired right up. I'm pretty sure it was a bad solenoid. Only challenge I had was the 1.7L upper starter bolt seemed to be put in backwards at one point. In the engine bay it was the head of a bolt, not a nut, which made removal and installation a little more of an adventure than it otherwise would have been.
Now I'm sure I've solved all problems on this 42 year old car and nothing will go wrong for another 20 years or so. Or not.
