Hey I have an idea! Let's wait until one of the coldest days of the year to fix the problem that's been a minor issue for over a year! And do it in the dark the evening before you have to take the car to work in the morning! And hung over from a Christmas party the night before too!
Over the past week the starter has been getting worse until Sunday when it wouldn't engage no matter how many turns of the key I tried. I was hoping to get it fixed on Saturday or earlier in the day Sunday but we got busy with Christmas stuff so I had no luck finding any time.
So Sunday evening around 6pm in the cold and dark I started to remove the starter from the car. It only took 30 minutes or so to get it removed from the car and into the warm house to dismantle the solenoid.
Luckily it can be removed from the top of the engine so I didn't even have to crawl in the snow.
As suspected one of the contacts was worn to the point that it was almost completely gone.
Another 30 minutes or so out in the cold and it was back in the car.
While I had it apart again I did a better job of wiring in the relay, with an actual relay receptacle and better connections with solder and heat shrink tubing instead of electrical tape. But no pictures because dark and frostbite.
So hopefully the problem is fixed for good now.