[Stonestreet]

Conclusion:

After trying everything under the sun to chase down the intermittent no start issue, I brought the car up to Auto Select Repair in Newmarket and had Franz see what he could find. We went over the list of actions I took and he decided after a while that the only thing it could be is the starter itself. He made sure it wasn't the ignition switch before moving to starter. He checked all grounds, removed the battery and cleaned every connection relevant to the problem. When he went to disconnect the starter, he noticed that the solenoid cap was not fixed to the body anymore. It had the slightest bit of play. Franz figured that as things heat up, the moisture around the cap could steam and get into the guts of the solenoid. After almost an hour of trying to get it off, it finally came. It was almost fused in place from corrosion. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it, but believe me, it was pretty nasty. It has been almost 3 weeks since installing the new starter (refurb bosch) and I have not had a single instance of the issue. Ran car in the rain, washed the car, etc.

Seems it was the starter all along.

Franz is a super cool guy, he let me hang out in the shop all day while he worked on it. He put me to work a little bit trying to get the headlight ring off as the gasket was sort of hanging on to the fender a bit too hard. Finally got it while he was testing the ignition switch. Dim headlight was due to a cooked harness. Easy fix.

Anyway, just wanted to provide a summary to close the thread and also to thank everyone for all the help with the issue. It's much appreciated and provided me with a great opportunity to learn a lot about this little piggy of mine.

So cheers,

Marc

EDIT: I was confused why jumping 12V to engine side of 1st point in 14 pin connector would crank engine and then reconnecting the harness would sometimes fix the issue (when not pouring rain) and Franz's best guess was that the full 12V direct to the solenoid might have been enough to dry the connection long enough to carry current through the circuit. Sounds reasonable to me.