Went flying today. Go to crank the engine for start, nothing. Turn the
key, got like a jiggle of the prop. Turn all electrical things off,
figuring the battery drained, and then started just the alt and bat, same
thing, jiggle of the prop. Tried once more, and got the prop to turn and
fired right up.

Just had the durn starter replaced in July with a new one.

I don't think it was the battery, as nothing moved when I turned the key,
just a strange noise, no clicking like it would sound with a dead
battery. When I fired up the master and alternator, I heard a noise
sounding like something was draining the battery, yet the meter was
stable in the middle, not indicating any discharge.

Last week, when I cranked it, it struggled on the first turn of the prop,
but it started, so I had attributed it to maybe my battery being low, it
being very cold by MS standards, but after today, watching the electrical
amnmeter, the load was fine once the engine was running.

Am I having a bad run of starters, or should I be looking elsewhere for a
problem?

Grant you, I try to fly two times a week, but I would think I would have
gotten more starts out of this starter then 6 months worth.

Plane normally starts with one or two turns of the prop, so it's not like
the starter is running for any period of time or been abused.

Allen