'85 300TD starert not turning

OK, my good old 300TD was having difficulty shutting down and I determined
that the vacuum system had a leak. In the process of trouble shooting this I
had to restart the car multiple times. One time the starter just failed to
turn - nothing at all, just a little click, like a relay closing, coming
from the area of the glove box. Multiple tries and nothing doing. The
battery and all connections checked good, and I could see that when turning
the key to the start position that there was no load being put on the
battery. After checking everything I could think of I gave up for a few
hours and then this time the car started right up! I decided that there must
be a thermal cut out on the starter, or something like that, and that life
was good. When I went to start the car this morning, nothing doing, just
that little click by the glove box, but no turning or sound from the starter
at all...

HELP!

Don

Several possibilities, in order of cost and difficulty:

Shift the transmission to D and back to N or P to test the neutral
safety switch. OK, that was a dream, on to the battery.

If the battery is > 4 years old it's suspect. My M-B battery failed
within one week of 4 years, so don't dismiss it or....

A new starter is needed. To determine that possibility, the other two
possibilities have already been eliminated, so hit the
starter motor with a 2 x 4 whenever it fails to turn - eventually that
won't work either but you'll know that the starter is the culprit!