never mind, got it out.
now why the hell would i have to use a crowbar to get the starter out? it's like it was jammed in the hole or something.
Here's what the whole mess looked like. The channel in the block looks like garbage, so do the exposed raw areas on the starter body (very few which can corrode there, fortunately). What seemed strange were the two holes molded in to the block which appear to be drainage for the channel. They look like they drain in to the flywheel (?) area. WTF? The flywheel (?) and starter gear are pretty rusty on the surface.
This is a picture of my "SST". For something that's supposed to be nuts 'n' bolts and a few press items, I find a crowbar unfortunately has a place in the toolbox. I could dislodge the starter by hand but needed the extra leverage to move it back away from the block and gear...it would not rotate as mentioned in the FSM and other instructions here. Anyone know why not? Also, the drain holes are easier to see in this pic.
That plastic wire guard is a pain in the as5. On my truck, there's a round section with an obnoxious flat clip that I had to pry open with a screwdriver--it's not a clip like the injectors or spark plug wiring. The round section is at the forward end. Once the round cover is off and out the way (I pried it all the way backwards), the open end of a 12mm wrench barely fits in there to loosen the nut. Once it's off, again with the prying to get the plastic junk away from the stud on the starter. !@#$ tupperware.
OK, off to install the new one...should be a lot easier than taking it all apart, I hope...first task is to find that nut! Hopefully it didn't fall down the drain holes
...
-Sean
*edit* The nut was lodged in between the headers, down near the collector
. Never would've found it just by looking.