I see this offten when luck turns bad and want to give up , Don,t . just take a few steps back and look things over and hit the problem . I have been there quit a few times in my life , knowing these cars (pinto ) they will run forever with some care and fixing problems before they get too big ,, a starter problem is no diffrent than the starters on the airfraft I work on , (Cessna aircraft use the same kind of alternator the pinto has ) and we have to find why your starter failed , guy come to me and ask why his $1000 buck stater died , my reply is I dont know and put on a new $1000 buck starter and then find out why it failed , the engine is very hard to start and he just keeps on cranking untel it does , I saw in past post you had carb problems and a small fire , one is you car hard to start to begin with , two , are the cables to the starter are the org ones that came with the car ? same for the battery cables , got a good battery , great . just work on the starter and cables , once you get that fixed your half way there, if the car is hard ti crank got to look at the carb , was it damaged from the fire or replaced after ? the back fire when cranking might also point to ign problem , bad cap and rotor from age , cheep to replace , and when you do try to start the car again do not crank more than 10 seconds at a time , a min rest between starts , after the third try give 30 mins cool time , the location of the starter is fine , they last for years , best if you buy one from napa with a lifetime warnity ,and last , do not scrap the car , waste to do so , too many have been sent to the yards when they can be saved , hope this helps you in some way , later Blaine