[crazypete]

I second bo408. The only reason it would "cut out" is if the side of the starter with the battery cable attachment point was contacting the frame at the time that you turned the key to start (and not while it's running. The starter only gets power when you turn the key to start). This would cause a huge surge and would flip the link coming off the starter solenoid opposite the starter cable. This feeds power to the rest of the car and everything inside the car would go dark, the computer and ignition system would lose power and the car would die.

I had a faulty link/switch (not sure what it's called) and you could slap the fender and the car would sponteneously die. Disconnect the battery and reconnect and everything was cool.

Next time it dies, just jump the wire around that little box inline with the fat yellow wire on the back terminal of the starter solenoid and see if it comes back to life. If so, replace that little sucker and no more problems.

I had a starter come loose at the top. It sounds like a minigun. If it comes loose in the bottom (which also happened to me) ....grind grind grind catch grind grind. Bad..very bad.

Just drill through the starter flange and the bellhousing to make a bigger bolt hole than the existing one. Then stick some serious boltage through there and double nut it. No way that's coming out! I actually stuck a smaller bolt through the existing hole and put and put a nut on that and it works better than the original bolt did.