Thanks for the ooffer Clive but yesterday morning i gave up and called a guy from the yellow pages who sussed it out in a flash.
turns out that in the past the insulting washers the clamp the glow plug rail to the block had been removed and replaced with metal ones. i made a washer from perspex and a notoriously hard starter started like never before in sub zero conditions with an almost flat battery on the first crank.
thanks to everyone for the advice, hope i can offer some back one day.