I used to work on a lot of American cars back in the day and one of the strange phenomena was that you used to get a lazy starter and also a lot of mechanical noise when turning over and this was due to a bent armature which over time used to get worse - never seen it on anything ever since though

If there are any manufacturer details and also any other numbers you may be able to research on eBay, bear in mind that the compressors would have been made for many models of vehicle so chances are it would be the same one fitted to another make and model of car

I can understand the fear of CVT failure but each car is different as to how they have been driven or maintained. Personally I would change the fluid regardless and as long as you use a garage that is 'au fait' with CVT transmissions and knows how to interpret the fluid that has been drained (e.g. colour, smell, residue, metal filings, etc) then you shouldn't have an issue with it

Crikey, that is such a shame that you ended up losing the car over time, I have had the same thing with a Rover 200 LE 'BRM' which I should never had parted with and would love to have that back. However, I'm sorry to say, we don't have possession of any vehicle data so cannot assist in your search - but keep looking as there may be something come up in the future - try Car and Classic https://www.carandclassic.com as they have all sorts on their site

Well the first thing I would be checking if you have found what you have so far that isn't right - either someone bodged things in the first place hence stripped wires, short circuits, poor earths, etc - I would be very tempted to keep looking for anything else that isn't as it should be. Most imports were required to have an immobiliser fitted in the UK for insurance purposes. If there is one in there I would put money on that being the issue as they used to go faulty all the time - remove it and see if that makes a difference