The Nissan Path

I have a '95 SE Pathfinder with over 216k miles and I'm at the point where I want to dive even deeper into fixing my beauty on my own. So lately I have had issues starting her. Usually it seems to take a few times for the starter to engage and on a past weekend trip, the starter wouldn't turn over at all. The battery was checked and it wasn't the problem. So my gut is telling me that it is the starter and that I should replace it. However, could this be a starter relay issue or starter solenoid issue? I got the engine to start on the first try after tapping the end of the starter with a socket wrench. So is my gut right or could there be a less expensive issue at hand?

Responses are humbly requested.

if it works after tapping it that sounds like the brushes but doesn't rule out the solenoid. You could pull it and rebuild it by putting in new brushes. I went the easy way out and just got the lifetime warranty O'Reilly reman starter

Thanks WheatBread. I called a few places yesterday and plan to take the starter down to get it tested. Do to time (and lack of proper tools) I plan to go the reman starter route as well.