I have a 1993 Ford F250 with the 5.8L in it, the starter locked up on me last night and the parts store wants 150 bucks for a new one, but however for a 1988 5.8L starter they only want 50 bucks....can I use the starter from the 88? I know I might have to change the drive gear

 

The '93 has a gear reduction starter, whereas the '88 has the standard old Ford direct driver starter. You can use the '88 on your truck but you will have to rewire it because the gear reduction starter has a solenoid on it, whereas the '88 used the fender mounted solenoid.

 

Are sure the 88 will bolt up?
The nose on the 93 is offset and the 88 is center line.
I could be wrong on this as I am just going by diagrams.

 

All I know is on a Ford the starter bolts to the transmission and you can put a '93 trans on an '88 and vice-versa.

 

You could try a salvage yard for the proper gear reduction starter

 

Manual transmission? DB Electrical - FORD TRUCK 4.9L 5.0L 5.8L STARTER M/T 92 93 94 95 96 97 3223 SFD0012

I just installed one similar to this, and really like it.
Because the old style starter didn't work at all with my new style flywheel

 

Thanks for all the help guys! I ended up just tearing the old one apart cleaning the living snot out of it, regreasing all the moving parts and slapped it back onto the truck and lo and behold I hit the key and the truck fired right up! Proceeded to start it 10 times with no problems so I guess its good for now