Neil Blackwell wrote thusly:

<Wally, the 84 Westy (150K) has a draggy starter
                           <snip>
am I destined for a new starter?>

Maybe, but before I bought one I'd try removing the old one, taking it appart
and checking the condition of the brushes - especially the solder joints on
the brushes.
My '87's starter had been dragging ever since I bought it 9 years and 72,000
miles ago.
I finally got disgusted enough that I pulled the beast off (hey, you've got to
remove it to replace it anyways - right?) opened it up and found that one of
the "hot" brushes had come unsoldered from it's cable.
I took the field and the brush plate to a local starter/alternator repair shop
where they replaced my aluminum field windings (it seems that this is common
with 'remanufactured' starters) with copper ones, replaced all 4 of the
brushes and charged me $10.00!
I was really sceptical because of the low price until I relubed and assembled
the starter and then installed it.
Never in the life of my Vanagon has it started so easily!!

From my experience, 80% of starter problems are either brush problems (cheaply
fixed) or stickey solenoids (really cheaply fixed by thouroughly cleaning the
plunger and housing).
This may not be your case but I'd sure check before buying a new one.

Sam Bateman
'87 Vanagon GL