Update:
replaced the battery/starter/alt wiring harness. I take back everything I thought or said about Ford using too-small of a wire gauge, the thing was difficult enough to route and bend the wires where they were supposed to go. Executive summary - my salt-mobile harness was in OK shape at 131K miles, except for the top part=- both battery terminals and those top connections...in case you are on the fence about replacing yours. Attached pic is the bastard of the whole job, the harness is attached to the back of the engine block on the pass side by this metal bracket. KEEPS the harness off the pass side exhaust and burning the whole car down. Don't zip-tie/say F it. The stud is a tough one to get to, too tight for a long socket, stud is too long to seat a std 13MM socket.
If you replace this harness, take VERY careful note of where the harness goes over/under various lines , it wont fit well otherwise.
The good news, get a socket on there U-joints its not on there that tight, break it loose and you can spin it off by fingers. Other bad news for me--my forearm is too fat to get up in there, had to take off RF tire and pull forward the inner fender liner, take off one upper retaining bolt/fender washer, and you can jam your arm in there. Minus a little O+ fluid.
Next task - grind down and repaint (Rustoleum) cross over tube, was kinda flaky but got down to solid metal OK. scariest parts are the tube near the temp sensors, but they look solid. I can't pay $350-400 for an OEM replacement right now. I used emory cloth and a sander. This came out OK.
What is WAY too crusty is the heater hose return tube, I ordered one from RA -it is the wrong tube. This tube along the pass side engine is MM specific.... So the plan is to get 3 ft of 5/8" heater hose and bypass the metal tube, this car is NOT a resto. see last pic, looks like a metal coolant line from the Titanic.
BSCM and the new DDM came today...woo hoo!