94 Escort 1.9 manual. Ignition system failure

Ok, I'm not used to Fords, my last car I restored was a 92 300zx. It was totalled 2 months ago and my buddy threw me his old Ford. Here's my story.
I've got a 94 escort LX 1.9L *Standard Trans. When I first got the car I was like, wow, it's pretty beat up, but ran okay. I looked at everything, Fluids, relays and cleaned the battery terminals up. I get ODB lights such as "Check Engine" and "Fuel Cutout", but those have been on when the car was running fine. Also it used to cut out when the A/C was on, but cleaning all the terminals fixed that. I noticed that the Lock cylinder was a bit sticky or that my key was a little odd shaped, but it still turned the cylinder, everything in the car had power; the only problem was the ignition (START) did not kick in. I dissasembled the steering column and took apart the ignition switch. In that switch I noticed that one of the prongs was melted a little lower than normal, it seemed to be made that way from the factory, but I wasnt too sure.

My friend told me that I had to leave the key in the run position and press down the clutch pedal ALL THE WAY DOWN, to start the starter, (activating the clutch saftey switch). Now when I got the car, I didn't need the key to start the starter. ANYONE could just jump in the driver side and press down the clutch pedal, and my starter would activate, except the car would not RUN without the key. Wierd? (Maybe short circuit? Or blown relay?) Well after much fidgiting and cleaning, I made the fatal mistake of removing a fuse I thought didnt work WHILE THE CAR WAS RUNNING. It was the "Fuel Inj 30amp" FUSABLE LINK in the engine compartment. Since then my car wouldnt start, I replaced all of the fusable links, checked all fuses, and replaced the shorted out starter.

I've checked the voltage on plenty of things.
The Battery (when car is off) [ + & - ] gives me 8v
The clutch saftey switch seems to be working properly, when depressed gives 0.00 OHMs (complete contact)
I also tested the [+ & -] to the Starter, it read 8v. But when the key was turned to the START position and the clutch was depressed, it read 1.8v

This problem is really kickin my ass; I thought I checked almost all the relays, and when the key is turned to the run position, they all click. The only problem is the 2 relay switches on the passenger side firewall in the engine compartment, i've been lookin for replacements for those 2 but havent seem to found what they actually are yet. I took them to the ford dealership and they hooked me up with different ones, like they even knew what they were talking about. *Sarcastic Their answer was "Yeah this must be it, we sell alot of them"

I tried to test the starter by hooking up a wire & fuse from the [+] battery to the starter, and the negative, bypassing the solenoid switch. The starter gear shoots up once and does not turn (maybe low voltage?). It does it every time I make the connection. But is that normal?

****There is also a relay switch in the same fuse box as the "Fuel Inj 30amp".I looked at the wiring diagram in the service manual of where the ignition wires go, and it appears it might lead to this relay called "Cooling Fan" [H270 dc12v20a]

any ideas?

I thank you for your time and support!
-Alex McL.