a friend of mine has a late 90's s-10, has a new starter and battery, he still has an intermittent problem when starting, the starter seems to quit turning for a second or 2 then starts turning again. happened with old starter & bat. anyone ever run into this problem? (we're thinking maybe battery cables)???

yep, funky cables, bad connections can cause problems. the relay dropping out or a flashing security light?
clean up the connections, do a voltage drop check on the cables, swap out the starter relay w\another one in the box.

Take a 12 volt test light and pull the small wire fron the starter solenoid. See if you get 12v each time you try to start it. You could have a bad ignition switch. If you always get voltage check voltage at the starter you need at least 11 volt at the starter.