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The drive train is centered in the chassis. I had Currie make the rearend housing so that the pinion comes out in the middle of the two frame rails.
The problem lies with the location of the front sway bar tube in the front suspension. It creates a fitment issue with the front of the oil pan sump. I think I have the measurements of the Moroso oil pan so I will do another comparison with what I have. I also have a new OEM Ford replacement pan which I will compare to the pan already on the engine.
The lack of progress updates has been a combination of several factors, the biggest of which was a 2 week cruise vacation in Alaska. The wife and I did as much as possible and managed to see a whole bunch of different things including landing on a glacier next to Mt. Denali. The weather was great and, other than being sick for the last few days of the trip, it was great!
While I was gone, the guys at the hotrod shop made a little bit of progress on the floor of the cab. The transmission tunnel has been fabricated and mocked up on the floor. It runs all the way to the back wall of the cab.
The plan is to weld all of the new sheetmetal into the cab, creating a solid floor.
At this point, it looks like we will be going with a Lokar electronic floor shifter. It figures to be mounted to a bracket that will be welded to the top of the trans tunnel in a convenient location.
The weather up near the big mountain changes by the minute. Flying in those canyons around the mountain was pretty intense for me. We started our trip in Fairbanks and worked our way down to the ship which sailed from Whittier, south of Anchorage. Five days in three different resorts and then seven nights on the ship. We disembarked in Vancouver, BC. From whales to grizzly bears, we saw a whole bunch of different wildlife.
G-force: I wish I knew you were an Alaska expert before I went up there. All in all , it was a memorable trip.
I ordered a "Lokar Automatic Electronic Sport Mode" floor shifter (ESS66R80FM) today. They assured me that the shifter will work with the 6R80 transmission. It is shipping out from the factory in Tennessee. I'll post some more photos when it gets here.
We got off the ship in Vancouver, BC and headed by bus to Seattle. The plan was to ride the Amtrak Coast Starlight home. Eight hours before we were scheduled to leave, Amtrak cancelled our entire train and left us stranded. We finally managed to get a flight from Seattle to San Luis Obispo. Booking the air fare a the last moment cost us a ridiculous amount of money.
Work has started on modifying the clutch/brake pedal assembly to make room for the Coyote engine. Using the original stock location put the booster too close to the left side camshaft cover. Before doing anything, we considered several alternatives. Nothing really looked like it would do the job without causing other problems. It's the domino effect at work once again. Resolve one issue only to create another more difficult issue. As you can see, stuffing a Coyote in my '58 with the new Roadster Shop front suspension has created a whole bunch of issues.
In the end, we decided to go with one of our original ideals that involved modifying the existing pedal assembly. As the picture shows, the stock Ford pedal bracket was used and the the brake pedal arm was modified to transfer the pedal motion to the clutch pedal. The master cylinder/ brake booster will be connected to the modified clutch pedal arm. I did not want to simply convert the clutch pedal to the brake pedal because this would put the steering column directly in between the accelerator and the brake pedal. The pedal assembly will be gusseted and strengthened prior to powder coating. One additional benefit of going with the stock bracket involves being able to bolt the existing firewall, steering column and dashboard stiffeners right back into the cab.
Needless to say, the space between the brake pedal pad and the accelerator pedal is small. The old, original pedal pad is a little too wide so I am considering a few options for a new one. We are also looking at alternatives for the mounting of the "Drive by Wire" accelerator assembly. The return spring mount will also have to be figured out as well, but I am hoping the stock setup will work.
Waiting for parts to arrive can be a drag. Such has been the case for the last week or two. Sometimes it just seems to take longer than it really does.
I took delivery of two of the three items on order. Although the Lokar shifter is still being manufactured, the driveshaft and steering column both showed up over the weekend. The column is a basic ididit 28" tilt model with black powdercoating. It will replace the Chinese crapper that was used to mock up the steering. The driveshaft was manufactured by Inland Empire Driveline in Corona, California.
My application required a slip joint and a flange yoke on the transmission end and a conventional U-joint mount to couple up to the pinion yoke on the 9" center section. I wanted the tube to be aluminum with a 3.50" diameter. Finding a company that could make what I wanted turned out to be a little bit of a challenge. I wound up speaking to several driveshaft companies all over the country prior to placing my order. The company I chose had no problem making what you see in the pictures and they were very easy to deal with. I had my driveshaft in one week.
The flange yoke is a forged aluminum model made by Sonnax Industries (T3-2-1859A). This yoke is stronger than either a Spicer or OEM Ford cast iron version. I had the flange yoke drop shipped to Inland Driveline and they incorporated it in my build. The pictures show the driveshaft mocked up in the truck. Since the frame was originally built for the 351/AOD engine combination, the driveshaft now comes a little too close to the bottom of a couple of the crossmembers. It's the old domino effect once again.
I have had great luck with Inland Empire as well. They shortened a two piece for me when I did an engine/trans swap on my 67 F250. There were a couple of shops much closer, but I saved money by going them based on re-work buddies had at the local shops.
I agree. IEDLS are one of very few shops authorized by Spicer. I ordered on Monday and they had to wait until Wednesday to get the aluminum flange yoke I wanted to run. The shaft was shipped on Friday and it arrived today. I have used Dynotech Engineering in the past, but they seem to be having some internal problems at the moment. They also seemed hesitant to build what I wanted. I toyed with the idea of going with a CV joint on the transmission end of the driveshaft but I just couldn't get the travel I felt I needed to make it work. The Driveshaft Shop in NC was too pricey for me.
I hope the one I got won't shake or vibrate when I get the truck out on the road.
08-16-2018, 06:16 PM
