Back in the dealership we use to call the first really cold morning of the winter "Battery day" because of all the cars that have almost done batteries would fail at the same time. There are also a lot of old cheap jumper cables out there. They build up resistance from sitting for years and they make people think they have bad starters.

No way I can say for sure its your battery but if I played the odds its a pretty good bet. Starters and battery cables tend to fail hot not cold but sometimes a failing battery with low voltage will draw more amps and cause the starter to over heat making it both starter and battery. Or if you crank a starter too long you can over heat it. If you crank for 30 seconds you should allow a 5 minute cool down time.

 

Sounds like youd better just take it to be fixed. Sounds like you are in over your head. You could have a million things causing it not to start. The battery is weak because you tired it out. And if your cracking and cracking and cracking, and it isn't starting...as long as the gear is coming out, its most likely, not the starter. Sounds like you may have an intermittent spark or fuel problem. Good luck, but really, unless you know what a bad starter sounds like, I certainly wouldn't just start yanking parts on a maybe that you know nothing about. I'tll end up costing you time, money and aggravation.

 

The easiest thing you could right now after cleaning all connections and checking grounds and all other connections, as Craby said, is take it to your local Advance Auto Parts or Autozone and have them run a full system check. 99% of the time, these things will pinpoint exactly what's causing the problem. Saves a lot of headaches, time, and money.