Hey Steve,

I should have mentioned earlier, checking for voltage drop/resistance was the first thing I've done... hell, at least I'm not THAT much of a dumbass, and I actually do know of a couple of things to be done with a multimeter... (grin)

I had actually replaced the leads to the starter last winter, so all that is in good shape... And when cranking, the battery voltage only dips to about 10.5 or so, not too bad... But thanks again for the reminder about the ground, I think the continuity of that is OK, but I haven't run a check yet... Stoopid of me to have overlooked this, if there's one thing I should have remembered from my rudimentary electrical troubleshooting over the years, is that it's almost ALWAYS the freakin' GROUND... (grin)

Really appreciate the advice, but as I've already said, this really isn't THAT big a deal... I'd just like to see it spinning a bit faster, and lighting up a bit quicker, but I've been living with it as is for awhile, no big deal...

Oddly, and perhaps not coincidentally, since I've been fiddling with it lately, I've developed a problem with the glow plugs, as well... The relay from the ignition switch is working and sending juice to the end of the wire that connects to the glow plugs... However, when I hook it up, the voltage doesn't seem to be passing thru. I've tried cleaning up all the connections, but to no avail, so I'm gonna replace the wire and connection, and pull the glow plugs to test each one separately. That's something I've never done, pulling them requires removing the high pressure fuel lines on my engine, a minor PITA... As previously mentioned, my engine has always needed a pretty heavy dose of preheating, so if one of those has gone offline, that certainly could be contributing at least to my perception of the problem...

Thanks again guys, great advice, much appreciated...

best regards,

Jon