I finally took my truck to a diesel mechanic, and he felt the starter was going out....ordered a heavy duty starter and she has been starting all the time, but its finally warm in Wisconsin so maybe it still will not start in the winter......won't know for a little while!!! good luck.........
Ouch, that was expensive. What was going out in the starter were the brushes. A $13 kit off ebay cured the starter on a friend's 1009. Took me all of an hour to pull, disassemble and overhaul. The brushes were chipped on the corners, glazed and heat damaged. Heat causes the resistance to increase in the commutator, causing lower turnover speed which makes the engine harder to start.
This kit also has bushings, a 1/4 NPT pipe tap can be used to remove the nose bushing. The tail bushing comes out easily. Grease the bushings, clean the commutator and rest of the starter guts while you are at it. No need to replace brush holders if the original ones are not damaged, the Bakelite doesn't decompose unless exposed to oil.
