First thing I did was disconnected the neg battery post and put the truck up on stands and removed the front passenger wheel.
Open up the rubber flap that is located to the rear of the strut.
Go under and remove the large skid plate.
I then used 2 lights shining into the area. It's a tight space.
Remove the battery cable from the starter with a 3/8" drive ratchet, a 12mm socket and a 12" extension. Go in from the bottom.
There are 2 brackets holding a pair of brake lines visible from the wheel well.
Remove both of them . One bold is very easy to get to and the one on the inside of the frame...not so easy. I didn't have a shallow 12 mm socket and a ratchet wrench would work best from underneath the truck. On an automatic, the tranny filler tube gets in the way of the inside bolt making a ratchet very tight.
From underneath the truck have a 14 mm socket, a 3" extension, a universal joint , and a 12-14 " extension and put a breaker bar on that.
go in from the rear and get the 2 - 14 mm bolts that hold the starter on.
This is not easy but do-able. I would try to get the top bolt out first as it's the hardest to get at and with a little luck, after you crack it loose. you can reach up with your fingers and get it to turn while grasping just the 3" extension.
The starter should be free now with very tight wiggle room. Come back out from underneath and reach in the fender well hole where you loosened the brake line brackets and try to pull the starter out through the hole. It helps if you have someone else underneath to assist in the lifting and rotating of the starter. It came out bendix gear first and the battery contact stud about 2 o'clock position.
There are many good write-ups regarding replacing the contacts if you look.
Hope this helps. My gf learned a whole new vocabulary when I was doing it.
If I had access to a torch, I would have tried to remove the exhaust flange but I couldn't remove one of the bolts without twisting it off...which I didn't want to do.
