Arthur - I followed your advice --------

"If you look over at the brake booster, right at the brake fluid tank cap level, just to the left on a wall, you will see a plug connector screwed to that wall with 3 wires .. this is plug X/27 and the V/WT wire is the feed wire to the starter solinoid. {71 - I pulled this plut to see the violet/white wire - which is in the center of the lower three wires. Put a test light to this connector (to the harness) and turned the key. It DOES light every time}

"If you hook a 12v test lamp to that wire [ back probe it], and that lamp lights every time you turn the key, you know all the electronics for starter are in tack and operational, but the starter itself, or solinoid, are at fault..
There is a NSS relay in the dash, but if this lamp lights , we know that is OK [ and you are lucky on that] One last simple test before pulling the starter.
Next time it does it and you know you have power to X/27, grab some battery jumper cables and hook one end to the bat - [ neg] and the other end to the engine somewhere good [ metal] and retry.. this assures a good ground from bat to eng/starter..prob not the problem, but so easy to do, that it's a worth while try"

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OK - not the neutral safety switch, the NSS relay in the dash. So it's either a faulty starter solenoid, starter brushes or a bad ground. That simplifies things for sure. So - the choices are finding starter brushes, ordering them and replacing them. Or call Phil and get a starter on order - think they are $179. Just hate to spend the money on a starter when I think this one has operated so flawlessly - other than the electrical NO CRANK.

One thing Arthur - don't know if this is a issue - but when I traced the violet/white wire from the plug where it is screwed into the first firewall (just to the side of the master cylinder cap) - and traced it down to where it runs next to the oil filter cannister - the violet/white wire plastic IS CRACKED and some of this wire is exposed. I remember when I first got the car earlier this year, when doing an oil filter change, the plastic "sleeved insulator" that fits loosely around this loom disintigrated in my hands. Probably because of engine heat. I just wrapped the exposed portion of this wire the best I could with electrical tape - but it was all intact. Need to better insulate this for sure.