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just in case anyone out there tries to replace their starter drive and gets the snap ring and thrust collar off by following the information here:
http://www.largiader.com/tech/valeo/ (I got that from a FAQ or thread here)

heed the warning on that page: "Reassembly is difficult at this point!"

that page continues on to say
"After putting the retainer and the snap ring back on the shaft, you will need to push down HARD on the retainer and simultaneously squeeze the snap ring under it."

that may sound straightforward but in execution its a freaking nightmare.

maybe if someone made tiny gear puller type contraption that would hook under the edges of the thrust collar (retainer) and use the top of the shaft to screw down on to pull the retainer up over the snap ring that would work.

first of all, there's not much room between the thrust collar(retainer) and the starter drive gear. There is no way I could find to '"push down HARD" - there's just no way to get access to fit something around the shaft cylinder that would provide a way to 'push down'. plus, the snap ring fits in the shaft groove and the retainer is only just a little bigger than the shaft so all the edges you have to grab onto are about 1/16" to 1/8".

so, here's what I did. I'd wish I'd taken pictures.

With one pair of vise grips I clamped down HARD on the bottom of the retainer and the top of the shaft - note that the snap ring opening was opposite of where I made this clamp - that's probably important. This pulls the 'back' of the retainer (opposite of where the ring space is) up onto the back of the ring and holds everything nice and tight.

Then with another pair of vise grips, I clamped down hard on the bottom of the retainer and the top of the snap ring right at one edge of the snap ring space. Keep in mind that the snap ring allows probably 1/16" at most to grab onto so the vise grips will slip off a few times until you get this right. Then when I finally was able to squeeze both the retainer and snap ring, I heard a nice little click when the ring seated into the retainer. Then just make sure that the snap ring is fully seated into the retainer by using the first clamping method (bottom of retainer, top of shaft) around the circumference (this does not take a hard squeeze now) and you should be all set.

now someone can tell me that there's a $2.00 tool that will do this.

anyway, if you ever find yourself in a situation where your starter drive (pinion gear, whatever you want to call it), is as messed up as mine was (pictures are on this forum) and has to be replaced, I highly recommend just buying the replacement starter.

Yeah, I wondered how much you spent on the part vs. the whole starter motor. Boneyard sells the motors for $100-150, I believe. Seems like the trouble with installing the pinion may not be worth the difference in price. Thank you for sharing the learned wisdom.

euromotorelectics has the Valeo starter for 189.00 and the Enduralast for 119.00, but the starter drive itself is only 49.00 so there is a big difference but you really need some patience.

Interestingly, based on the pictures on their website, the Enduralast seems to use the older version of the starter drive (see my other post) whereas the Valeo uses the upgraded one which is the same version you get buy just buying the starter drive.

I was sorting through my tools today and found something that might have been helpful - it a c-clamp or u-clamp, I guess, that has three screws so I possibly could have used that with a little modification - maybe

In cleaning my Valeo starter I decided to remove the bendix gear assembly from the shaft for cleaning, using the removal procedure and fortunately, a good measure of common sense. Knowing how the snapring retains the unit, I began hitting the retainer bushing as described. What occurred was it would not move unless I used what I considered would be a part destruction force. Stopped right there. Used WD-40 as a cleaner, sliding the bendix back-n-forth while a paper towel repeatedly cleaned up the grimy mess. Shop air blow dry, then a multi application painted on film of Moly grease to the spiral spline and shaft was worked in. It worked really nice by hand. The end case bushing at the shaft end also got the clean-n-grease treatment.

After reinstalling the starter, the first spin start was so smooth and much quieter! It sounded like a new starter! What a difference a cleaning and re-greasing makes.

.

Advance Auto sells an inexpensive (~3bux) 2-prong gear puller that is perfect for this job.
It's made by AmPro, and after reading all the innernet stuff on how a gear puller would definitely help re-assembly, I'm glad I bought one.......