Couldn't have said it better myself, and he used all the words correctly.. good job JD.
Anyways check your wiring is unbroken and all connections are clean and snug before pulling the starter off. Once its off, you can check it with jumper cables to see if its really toasted.. The small wire spade/tab connector on the earlier models has a bad habit of getting dirty and loose resulting in the starter not working.
My starter is original with 15.5 years and 193,000 miles on it. I have repaired it once due to a loose brush wire and fixed the spade/tab connection another time. Actually this was all at the same time in the winter of course on a rainy day in the office parking lot. I pulled it, found the loose wire, said "Aha!", took it home and fixed it, took it back to the office, reinstalled the starter and ... nothing .. scratched my head some more, wiggled wires, tested it with jumper cables, and finally narrowed down the problem to the spade/tab wire.
It has worked perfectly since then. That was maybe 5 years ago.
