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EGR are pretty common to go out on this truck.
I have an 88 351 that had pretty much what you are describing but it turned out the problem was carbon buildup on the throttle body. I went through lots of stuff before I took it to the shop. Its pretty easy to have a look. and clean it out.
Also I had a leaky seal betweent eh egr and the EGR position sensor. Its just a simple o-ring. You can hook up a vacuum pump to the back of the EGR to test it.