Ran into some snags with the starter today. the one i had was a plane jane oem ford starter. it was struggling to turn the motor over with a fully charged battery. i drove to the other side of town to figspeed to pick up a new high torque starter....turns out it wouldnt work...the starter gear would come out, but not fully connect with the flexplate. so i did some calling around to ralph and paul cane (high flow dynamics) and went with a factory early 90's ford f-350 starter....which is fords oem high torque starter for an automatic tranny....which should work with the flexplate.
of course, i ran out of time and had to scoot off to work (with no sleep)....ill get it put in tomorrow morning. if it doesnt work, im screwed.