Starter freezes during cold weather

Hello--

Been having a periodic problem with my starter during stints of damp weather, followed by cold (<32F). Sometimes it will spin and the Bendix won't catch, and then works fine after a couple tries, and yesterday it did nothing and I had to pour some hot water down onto it and then it worked fine.

My question--obviously I need to pull the starter--was this a common issue with the 2.2's, and if so what was the cause? I've run into a number of devices on the car with problems relating to poor grounding, like the rear hatch solenoid and wiper motor, so I have to wonder if either the starter solenoid coil is not making good contact to GND somewhere, or possibly the casing of the starter needs to be cleaned up--. Starter relay on the strut tower is working fine. Thoughts?

I have had that issue on a few parts store remans. Naturally, since it's always well above freezing in the store, they work fine on the test bench, so no warranty replacement. It's definitely worth going through the electrical connections first, that may cure the issue until warmer weather. Then look for a reputable local rebuilder to rebuild a core rather than the parts store remans. If you need a core, I think I have a couple later style Bosch starters kicking around, although they'd definitely need gone through.

Check your fusible links.