Youre supposed to have the clutch depressed when you start it. Less load, it isnt trying to spin the driveshaft and such.

 

That was my original thought, but the first few times that I started it with the new starter, had a quicker start with the clutch out, now since I went and checked ant tightened the cables, quicker with the clutch in - maybe just some other worldly possession screwing with me - just trying to find a logical reason for the new starter not doing quite what it is supposed to do.

 

Im going to bet on the cables. They can look fine and still be a mess. Theres also two layers of covering, inside one on the cable can be cracked causing corrosion. Mine were like that.

For a nice improvement, get the IceShark cables. Theres a thread about them now.

 

For what it's worth, I once bought a rebuilt starter for my 951 and it had a similar problem right out of the box. It would kick back one out of three or four tries and stop spinning altogether. After hunting for other issues, I returned the starter and got a different one, and the problem went away.

Also, did you check the ground strap on the bellhousing?