I'm gonna try this... my problem persisted even when I went to a different chassis... so this makes sense.I had this same issue. I tried 3 different starters as well as running 0 gauge power and ground wires to the starter, shimming it, and even hot wiring it. I eventually got a low mileage gear reduction nb starter and havent had any issues. I have 3 friends, one with a 240sx, one a supra, and one an rx7. ALL OF THEM DO THE SAME THING so its not just a miata probem. I think its just starters from that time are all so old lol. It got to the point where I was clicking the key 10-12 times in a row one minute and the next it would go 1st try. I realized that when I changed starters, the issue would go away for about a couple weeks each time and each starter I pulled out had a different issue, one was a the soleniod, one was the actual motor, and one never had the issue on my bench. But I got 2 nb gear reduction starters for cheap and both are still going strong for about 1 year now (both my miatas had this issue lol)
