1996 e320 no crank!!

[Chemanic]

of course it's the wife's car,complaining of rough running,strange smell as she drives home. gets the car into the driveway notices some dashboard codes one being battery charge and the other esp or "e" something, not sure.stalls out and now it will not crank. new battery reads 12.58, fuel pump energizes all dash lights come up,no crank.crawl under car check power through neutral safety switch, gets power,pull out k40 relay solder joints appear ok.jump 12v to purple wire on driver's side as suggested in previous post on this topic and all i got was the fuel pump to energize.the tried and true method of banging on the starter failed as did the screwdriver across the starter terminals. i am opting that the starter is dead however since that seems to be the obvious,it's got to be something else. this brings me to the point

can someone describe the removal procedure for this particular starter, it looks awfull tight up there, with the starter on the bench i can start the isolation process
thanks