Mike and Lois,
Thanks for the ride! What a treat to get Belle out for a cruise.
I have a longtime friend in Prescott which from your video I gather is not too far from your area. I need to get out there one of these days.

 

Very nice! Looks like a great ride in beautiful country.

 

Thanks for the comments guys, we had a lot of fun!! Prescott is about 50 miles away and Belle has her first show there in about a month.

 

What a ride, what sound, what a build. Thanks for sharing

 

Nothing like the sound of a coyote screaming through the hills! Great video!!!

 

Ok, I was able to get the drive-by footage edited. Didn't get a lot I think Lois was having difficulty with the camera. Pretty good though. Enjoy.

 

A little update on Belle. She now has about 450 miles and we have the bugs worked out. We had a problem with the front brakes not releasing after a stop, turned out to be a bad CPP prop valve. after talking to Chuck in Prescott yesterday and several other friends it seems bad valves are becoming common. The engine had a stalling problem when coming to a stop. this has been documented on the net and I had installed a Ford speed dial to deal with the problem. It is polarity sensitive with no way to be sure what polarity you have. Switching the wiring got the unit working and now the Coyote runs perfect. Temps yesterday were up to 104 and Belle ran fine with the AC doing it's job I'm told as Lois was in the AC while I was riding in Orreo with all the windows down trying to stay cool. Here are a few photos to finish out the build.




I made and Lois covered a new glove box.





Lois recovered the upper side panels and armrests.





AC is charged and working. There is a small vent on each side under the dash and the speaker grill is also an outlet. Lois say's at 104 degrees it is not cold but is comfortable ( I wouldn't know).





Now that testing is done I installed the kick panels.





I had some clearance issues with the front tires. Not being able to get an answer from TCI about the correct ride height I finally spoke to RideTech. They were extremely helpful and now Belle rides about 5/8" higher.





I raised the rear a little also as I liked the stance.

Overall I have to say it was a very easy build. Friends that have helped were amazed at how easy the Coyote fits into the early F series. I am glad to have some time to get other jobs done and just let Lois enjoy her truck.

 

Belle looks great!

A job well done.

 

Beautiful!!!

 

Great pics, looking good, well done

 

Nice work. I have really enjoyed this thread and happy to see another manual gearbox in a truck ! Awesome stuff !

 

Spectacular build!

 

Rimrock,

First you attention to detail is to be admired. Reading your journal of the build inspires me to "redo" my own truck.
So I do have a question about the frame height of the truck once finished?
I am looking at two front IFS, TCI and HELIX for my 54. My concern here is that with the dropped axle installed now on the truck, my frame is 1.5-inches lower than my spindle. I really like the frame height today and would no be happy if the frame were raised by any amount.

Thanks,
MrBlue

 

For whats its worth I have the TCI, it is really nice quality and the customer support is really good. I have no experience with Helix but a lot of guys here say to stay away from it.

 

Thanks for the compliments. I would avoid Helix as I have heard nothing but bad about them. I just measured my 52 and the spindles are even with the bottom of the frame (4" below top of frame) This with the coil overs adjusted so the front is slightly higher than normal adjustment, 1" up. TCI will send 2" drop spindles for no charge, in my case that would have put the bottom of the bumper between 7-8" off the ground and I was worried about clearing speed bumps. Hope this helps