It wasn't as bad as I was expecting. The darkness wasn't much of a factor since I couldn't see my hands, my tools, or the nuts and bolts that I was removing/replacing...
As this is the first starter I replaced on any vehicle I don't know if this is common or not, but the bottom mounting is not with a bolt. There is a stud into the trans with a nut (19mm??) holding the starter on. If I would have had to line up a nut into that bottom hole, I think it would have taken an extra 10 minutes and a whole lot more swearing...
I did have to remove the air intake, as I could not see of any other way to physically get the detached starter out of that hole that it lives in.
I think it took me about 30 minutes total.
Thank god for the $10 junkyard starter sitting in my basement
Now it's time to try rebuild the one I pulled out... Has anyone done that yet??