Danny Boy's Mk4 Build - Putting the project on hold for a while...

[facultyofmusic]

Hiya! Had to quarantine for a week due to covid exposure, but everyone turned out fine! I swear the worst part of it all was not being near by garage for a whole week! Now that I'm back, time for some updates!

In an earlier post I wrote about the wilwood parking brake caliper interference issue. I resolved the issue by taking an angle grinder to the caliper and grinding an almost spherical curve to the calipers so they would fit the inside curve of the wheel well. It turned out very nice!
Attachment 160569 Attachment 160570 Attachment 160571

The calipers sit at 12 o'clock of the rotor, you can't even see the ground surfaces unless you squat down and really try!
Attachment 160572 Attachment 160573

The full thread where I documented the issue is here.

Something I forgot to mention in the previous update was that I measured the amount of available space in the transmission tunnel with the T56 Magnum + Gen 3 Coyote setup and documented in this thread. For anyone following my build for a similar setup, check out that thread to get a good sense for how much space (how much crap you can stuff) into the trans tunnel.

[facultyofmusic]

Hard to tell everything from the photos ... does the notch / gear portion stick up above the tunnel? That's pretty obvious and I'm sure you've paid attention to that. You'll have a sharper turn for the cables down by the frame cross bar. If you plan to keep the cables above the frame (and I would suggest you do that mod), just make sure the pulleys are solidly mounted for that reason. Other than that the position you selected seems like a good alternative from what I can tell.

Yes the ratchet gear sticks just a little above the frame tube. When the parking brake is completely disengaged it sits flush with the handle so it's okay.
20220116_180341.jpg

There are parking brake cable mounting locations on the passenger side of the transmission tunnel near the rear diff. I plugged the parking brake cables into the two mounting holes and it almost lines up with the parking brake location. I'm a little worried that the slight angle between the cable-to-sleeve to sleeve-to-mount will damage the parking brake cables over time.
20220116_180330.jpg 20220116_180345.jpg

Do y'all think it's going to be a real concern?

[John Ibele]

I see the setup and the angle change, but hard to know the impact on cable life without any direct experience. I'd probably do a real world test of pulling the cable through under load, and making a judgement call based on level of friction encountered. Kinda seat-of-the-pants approach, but there you go

If that doesn't seem like a sound approach you can use pulleys to redirect the cables, as others have done, me included. There are setups simpler than mine, and something like one of those versions (Fixit's example) could work well for you. Seems like in that area you wouldn't need a bracket to provide the right clearance and redirect for the cables, but something more like what Fixit did. You'd need to decide whether that approach solves the problem.

For that approach you'd need two pulleys, the bolt that goes through them, and either a tapped hole in one side of the frame (it's probably stout enough to handle the minor angle change), or a through hole and a nut on the PS end of the bolt. You want something like McMaster PN 3434T24, so you can tighten the bolt against the stationary part of the pulley and still have the pulley turn freely. The nut would show on the PS trans tunnel, but not much, I think. Seems like it would be hidden by the PS seat. A spacer (hollow aluminum rod) on the bolt between pulley and frame would help to move the pulleys toward the center of the car, if needed.

[460.465USMC]

In an earlier post I wrote about the wilwood parking brake caliper interference issue. I resolved the issue by taking an angle grinder to the caliper and grinding an almost spherical curve to the calipers so they would fit the inside curve of the wheel well. It turned out very nice!

The calipers sit at 12 o'clock of the rotor, you can't even see the ground surfaces unless you squat down and really try!

The full thread where I documented the issue is here.

Hi Danny,

I had the same issue with my Wilwood e-brake calipers. If only I had ordered the 18" wheels instead of 17"! Doh! Anyway, sounds like I resolved (hopefully) my clearance issue with a similar angle grinder approach. It was painful to take the grinder to those shiny red calipers. But, they cleaned up okay caliper paint. And, like you said virtually impossible to see with the wheel in place. Glad you were able to resolve your clearance issue!

[facultyofmusic]

For that approach you'd need two pulleys, the bolt that goes through them, and either a tapped hole in one side of the frame (it's probably stout enough to handle the minor angle change), or a through hole and a nut on the PS end of the bolt. You want something like McMaster PN 3434T24, so you can tighten the bolt against the stationary part of the pulley and still have the pulley turn freely. The nut would show on the PS trans tunnel, but not much, I think. Seems like it would be hidden by the PS seat. A spacer (hollow aluminum rod) on the bolt between pulley and frame would help to move the pulleys toward the center of the car, if needed.

Right. That approach does look the most reasonable of the bunch. I don't think I'll mind the bolt going through the trans tunnel member, I think if I use a button head bolt it will be virtually undetectable once the carpeting is on. Another approach is to put the pullies on the metco drive shaft safety loop. That has the added benefit of being easily removable!

[facultyofmusic]

I had the same issue with my Wilwood e-brake calipers. If only I had ordered the 18" wheels instead of 17"! Doh!

Haha, I wish I had known too! How did you find out about the clearance issue? I only found out after noticing a large nasty scrape on the inner wheel well I hope future builders read our build threads and avoid this pitfall :P

[facultyofmusic]

At the caliper end of the parking brake cable is a cable-end (I think it's called something else but I don't remember the name) that doesn't fit the wilwood calipers. The FFR provided one is mace shaped, like this:
20220120_213916.jpg

Whereas the wilwood caliper needs one that's hammer head shaped, like this:
raybestos-brakes-brake-parts-bc97383-64_600.png

I have purchased some cable-ends that should secure onto the wire at a length that I cut, but upon receiving the item I realized the cable hole is much smaller in diameter than the cable itself. I could enlarge the hole with a drill and thread the parking cable through, but at that point I really question its structural integrity. I don't want my cable-ends to give one day when my car is parked on a slope somewhere.

Wilwood does sell a parking brake cable kit like this one, but it seems such a waste to just throw away a good set of cables just because the cable-ends are incorrect.

I've read on some other build threads that I can buy a cable end and take it to a guy with some industrial strength hydraulic machine to press it on, but I don't really have one of those around the neighbourhood. Any suggestions?

[edwardb]

At the caliper end of the parking brake cable is a cable-end (I think it's called something else but I don't remember the name) that doesn't fit the wilwood calipers. The FFR provided one is mace shaped, like this:
20220120_213916.jpg

Whereas the wilwood caliper needs one that's hammer head shaped, like this:
raybestos-brakes-brake-parts-bc97383-64_600.png

I have purchased some cable-ends that should secure onto the wire at a length that I cut, but upon receiving the item I realized the cable hole is much smaller in diameter than the cable itself. I could enlarge the hole with a drill and thread the parking cable through, but at that point I really question its structural integrity. I don't want my cable-ends to give one day when my car is parked on a slope somewhere.

Wilwood does sell a parking brake cable kit like this one, but it seems such a waste to just throw away a good set of cables just because the cable-ends are incorrect.

I've read on some other build threads that I can buy a cable end and take it to a guy with some industrial strength hydraulic machine to press it on, but I don't really have one of those around the neighborhood. Any suggestions?

Check your build manual. There's a section under E-Brake Cables -> Wilwood E-Brake Adapter that describes and pictures the adapter that should have come with your kit and allows the cables you have to be attached to the Wilwood caliper. No additional parts or cable modifications required. The adapter is a right angle metal piece that bolts to the arm on the caliper and has a slot for the cable end to be captured. You can see it in the background of this picture from my 20th Anniversary build. Sorry it's a little blurry. Cropped from a larger picture. I also painted it black. The part you should have received is plain steel. Important to install now because it affects the length of your e-brake cables and connections back at the handle.

[facultyofmusic]

Check your build manual. There's a section under E-Brake Cables -> Wilwood E-Brake Adapter that describes and pictures the adapter that should have come with your kit and allows the cables you have to be attached to the Wilwood caliper. No additional parts or cable modifications required. The adapter is a right angle metal piece that bolts to the arm on the caliper and has a slot for the cable end to be captured. You can see it in the background of this picture from my 20th Anniversary build. Sorry it's a little blurry. Cropped from a larger picture. I also painted it black. The part you should have received is plain steel. Important to install now because it affects the length of your e-brake cables and connections back at the handle.

My mistake here Paul, as I forgot to mention another reason as to why I'd like to add a new cable stop. Since I relocated the parking brakes to a location closer to the cable sleeve mount location, I have a lot of extra slack coming out from the other side. Here's a picture of how much extra cable I have with the brake-handle end tight:
20220121_123529.jpg

I'll need to cut the cable down to size anyways right?

[460.465USMC]

Haha, I wish I had known too! How did you find out about the clearance issue? I only found out after noticing a large nasty scrape on the inner wheel well I hope future builders read our build threads and avoid this pitfall :P

Yep! Same here. Was pretty excited to get my wheels and tires and make it to the "roller" milestone, so rotated the rear wheels a bit. Didn't notice the scrape at first. Not sure if I'm going to do much with it, other than keep a close eye on clearance once I'm at go-kart stage. Here's what mine looked like:

Wilwood E-brake Clearance Issue

[edwardb]

My mistake here Paul, as I forgot to mention another reason as to why I'd like to add a new cable stop. Since I relocated the parking brakes to a location closer to the cable sleeve mount location, I have a lot of extra slack coming out from the other side. Here's a picture of how much extra cable I have with the brake-handle end tight:
20220121_123529.jpg

I'll need to cut the cable down to size anyways right?

Yeah, OK you'll need to shorten that cable because you relocated the handle. Forgot about that earlier in your thread. But the kit still provides a way to attach to the Wilwood e-brake caliper once you shorten it. Should be a way to crimp a similar lug on the shortened cable. Or change to a different cable that's the right length out of the box.

[facultyofmusic]

I sat in the driver side on the bare aluminum panel and engaged the parking brake over and over again while thinking about other parts of the build. Somewhere along that moment I realized that pulling the parking brake was actually not that comfortable. The handle on my daily driver (a subaru) is on the driver side in such a way that it lined up with my right arm when I engage it; it's much more comfortable. Keeping this in mind, I relocated the parking brake handle to the driver side of the transmission tunnel to see how well it works. I really liked the results:
driverside_ebrake.jpg

I was worried that mounting it too far forward may cause it to hit the dashboard. Turns out there's just the right amount of space for my thumb to press the button as it swings up and down:
gap_from_dashboard.jpg gap_with_thumb.jpg

With the brake fully disengaged, the handle portion has a ~1/8" gap.
mounting_point.jpg

I'm seriously loving this setup. Not just for it's ease of use, but also because now I can set up the brake cables in a way that doesn't require a roller. All I have to do is buy one of those wilwood universal parking cable kits and install the cable mount at a location that's inline with the cable's pull direction; no rollers required! Another potential benefit is that the drive train is tilted towards the passenger side, giving the driver side more room around the drive shaft area.

[facultyofmusic]

[post slot reserved for future e-brake documentation]

[facultyofmusic]

Spent some time on a lazy Sunday tidying up the garage, installed a new peg board, and put up a new shelf. With only one car-slot worth of space in the garage, I gotta make every cubic feet count! I received the fuel pump harness in the mail earlier this week and now I can finally finish the fuel system main loop.

I used the fuel resistant crimp shrink-wrap recommended by EdwardB. I bought 10 because they don’t sell less than 10 at a time (LOL) so if anyone wants a pair, give me a shout and I’ll send one to you in the mail (Note: I’ll note in the bracket if I still have them. Right now I have 6 left. I’ll edit this post as that number changes).

I didn’t have a heat gun for the shrink wrap, so I took a blow torch to the wraps from a distance. The first one I did was… a little aggressive on my end. Some of the heat-shrink charred into a dark brown colour and I immediately backed off and did the rest with more patience. Luckily it wasn’t too bad.
fuel_pump00001.jpg fuel_pump00002.jpg fuel_pump00003.jpg fuel_pump00004.jpg

I installed the fuel pump back into the tank and locked the seal ring in place. The tank is finished for now!

A note on the LOCTITE thread-sealants I used on the NPT fittings I used to connect my Trickflow fuel filter: I left the thread sealant to cure over a week because every time I went to check on it the sealant was still liquidy. After a while I thought something doesn’t seem right so I read more carefully on how these sealants work. Turns out they cure in the absence of oxygen, so the bit of sealant left open in air isn't supposed to cure. Silly me.
thread_sealant.jpg

My Metco driveshaft safety-loop arrived in the mail earlier this week. Next I plan to work on installing the safety loop as well as the transmission mount.

[edwardb]

For $20 - $30 you can get a real heat gun (Harbor Freight, Amazon, etc.) which I'd highly recommend. Or more if you want to go fancier. I have a DeWalt that I've been using for some time. You have wiring ahead of you yet. A torch (or whatever) isn't the best choice. You're making good progress though. Enjoying following along.

[Fman]

Nice work! I remember installing my Aeromotive fuel pump and thinking what could possibly go wrong having electrical wires in my fuel tank?

[facultyofmusic]

For $20 - $30 you can get a real heat gun (Harbor Freight, Amazon, etc.) which I'd highly recommend. Or more if you want to go fancier. I have a DeWalt that I've been using for some time. You have wiring ahead of you yet. A torch (or whatever) isn't the best choice. You're making good progress though. Enjoying following along.

Yeah I've definitely learned my lesson here. Gonna swing by harbourfreight and get a heat gun.

[facultyofmusic]

Today I spent time aligning my transmission and installing the Metco driveshaft safety loop. The install is straightforward, but I there's good information to be published here, so here we go.

The T56 Magnum transmission likes to swing its tail towards the passenger side, so much that the body of the transmission will contact the trans tunnel frame member when raised to correct mounting height:
transmission_no_gap.jpg

Not shown in the picture is that the tail of the transmission is ALSO too far towards the passenger side for the rear diff as well, so it's not just that the trans is too big. It's misaligned. To solve this, I mounting the transmission as far towards the driver side as possible. This gives a good amount of room from the trans tunnel:
transmission_mounting00002.jpg transmission_mounting00003.jpg

For mount height, I tried putting the "A-frame" both on top and below the frame mounting tab. When placed above the tab the transmission sits very high. When placed below it's still high, but it looks much better.
transmission_mounting00001.jpg

The body of the transmission BARELY makes contact with the A-frame and is easily cleared via a thin washer between the transmission and the A-frame.

The Metco driveshaft safety loop install was also quite straightforward. However, since the T56 mounts rather high, the loop needs to be raised up as well. I achieved this by using washers placed under the loop. Shown in the picture is an assortment of washers I could find around the garage; I have correctly sized ones on the way and will swap them out:
safety_loop_washers.jpg

The end result looks pretty good, with everything aligned and the loop clearing the driveshaft should I install it. Unfortunately I had some trouble installing the driveshaft. Even after lowering the transmission as much as possible, I did not have enough space to maneuver the gear shaft into its respective socket on the transmission. Looks like I'll have to install it on-the-fly when I drop in the engine again at a later date.
20220122_143056.jpg 20220122_182929.jpg

[Fman]

Does the T-56 have a rubber doughnut to remove? On the TKO600 you can take a pair of needle nose pliers and it pulls out which made it much easier for me to install my driveshaft. It is a tight fit, I would be surprised if you could install the drive shaft with the Metco hoop installed. I had to drop my transmission as far downward possible to create enough space/correct angle for the splines to align and push into the transmission.

[JohnK]

Hey Daniel. Nice work! Your build is really coming along. The only comment I'd make is to not get too hung up on the position of the engine/trans at this moment. Ultimately, where they end up will be dictated solely by driveline pinion angle when you get to that point. How things look at this moment may be a bit deceiving. Ask me how I know.

[facultyofmusic]

Does the T-56 have a rubber doughnut to remove? On the TKO600 you can take a pair of needle nose pliers and it pulls out which made it much easier for me to install my driveshaft. It is a tight fit, I would be surprised if you could install the drive shaft with the Metco hoop installed. I had to drop my transmission as far downward possible to create enough space/correct angle for the splines to align and push into the transmission.

There IS a black rubber seal looking thing at the tail of the transmission:
trans_tail_rubber_seal00001.jpg

However it really doesn't look like it should be removed. I can also slide the drive shaft in just fine with it in place:
trans_tail_rubber_seal00002.jpg

[facultyofmusic]

Hey Daniel. Nice work! Your build is really coming along. The only comment I'd make is to not get too hung up on the position of the engine/trans at this moment. Ultimately, where they end up will be dictated solely by driveline pinion angle when you get to that point. How things look at this moment may be a bit deceiving. Ask me how I know.

Ahh, thanks for this tip. I actually had no idea what pinion angle is and I just looked it up, now it makes total sense. Actually kinda kool how one wouldn't want the drive shaft to lay completely straight (because then the U joints wouldn't "work" and lubricate itself). Neat!

[Fman]

There IS a black rubber seal looking thing at the tail of the transmission:
trans_tail_rubber_seal00001.jpg

However it really doesn't look like it should be removed. I can also slide the drive shaft in just fine with it in place:
trans_tail_rubber_seal00002.jpg

Yea do not touch that rubber seal the doughnut would be inside that seal. Like I mentioned it was a PIA to install that drive shaft, it takes some choice words and maneuvering of the transmission downward to give you the straightest shot possible to get the splines to align and push in.

This is the seal I was referring to...

[facultyofmusic]

Continuing my electrical adventures from post #77 and #78, it's time to work on the driver side of the firewall. This includes both the chassis harness as well as parts of the coyote harness.

The firewall aluminum sheet is quite sharp. I used electrical tape to soften the edge so it won't cut into the harness if it does make contact. I then used zip-ties to hold the chassis-harness's thick trunk up and away from the steering shaft.
electrical_tape.jpg steering_column.jpg chassis_harness_path.jpg

The coyote install instructions says to join the blue, orange ignition/start wires as well as the green fuel pump wires from the RF harness to the Ford provided 6-way pigtail connector. I soldered the wires together and wrapped it in a nice harness tube for organization.
6-way_pigtail.jpg

I routed the pedal and clutch switch end of the coyote harness through the middle hole of my firewall and extended it towards to footbox and then put the harness through a U shaped path around the top of the pedal box in such a way that the accelerator pedal and clutch switch wires branch off from the harness at just the right locations:
coyote_harness_path.jpg

One disadvantage of this setup is that the OBD2 port now lives next to the driver's left leg. If I need to tune and collect data from the car I'll have to run a cable from there to the passenger seat where I presumably will place my laptop which collects tuning data. I'm sure the cables will be long enough though. Another thing I want to do is splice the MIL light towards the dash so I have a more obvious "HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM" indicator. Maybe I'll even put a buzzer on it too.

With this setup the foot-box portion of the harness routing should be complete. I still need to re-route the chassis-rear-harness to the passenger side of the trans tunnel to make room for the new parking brake handle location. I'll need to pull my engine out again for that, so it will wait. My Vintage gauges have not yet arrived from FFR, so I'll leave the dash wiring for later when that arrives too.

It looks quite cramped behind the dashboard, but at least now I know where everything goes :P
cramped_wiring.jpg

[edwardb]

I agree with putting the MIL (Multifunction Indicator Light, MIL light is a bit redundant) up where it's in your line of sight. I wouldn't mess with a buzzer. Aside from the fact you probably wouldn't hear it with the car running, once everything is sorted, tuned, etc. the MIL will rarely be lit. That's a good thing. The Gen 3 setup in my Coupe hasn't lit for two driving seasons. Probably should say that out loud... I've put a code reader on the ODB2 port a couple times just to be sure. All good.

[facultyofmusic]

I'm going over some of the bigger-wires between the harness and engine power hungry components. The RF harness has a long wire that goes to the starter and another one that goes to the alternator. IIUC because I'm using the coyote motor, the RF harness doesn't need to control the alternator or the starter; meaning I can just directly connect the battery to the starter and alternator instead of the RF harness, is this correct?

Another way to describe it is instead of this:

battery -> RF -> starter + alternator

I can do

battery -> RF, starter, alternator

Another question: In the same bundle as the alternator red wire is a brown alternator-ign wire. I don't see this mentioned anywhere for the coyote setup. Have I missed it in the instructions somewhere?

[edwardb]

I'm going over some of the bigger-wires between the harness and engine power hungry components. The RF harness has a long wire that goes to the starter and another one that goes to the alternator. IIUC because I'm using the coyote motor, the RF harness doesn't need to control the alternator or the starter; meaning I can just directly connect the battery to the starter and alternator instead of the RF harness, is this correct?

Another way to describe it is instead of this:

battery -> RF -> starter + alternator

I can do

battery -> RF, starter, alternator

Another question: In the same bundle as the alternator red wire is a brown alternator-ign wire. I don't see this mentioned anywhere for the coyote setup. Have I missed it in the instructions somewhere?

Waited for someone else to answer. Don't want to hog all the questions. But here you go FWIW... The RF harness schematic does show several large wires to the "starter solenoid." Some guys drag those wires all the way to the actual starter. But IMO they're often not long enough and frankly doesn't look great. My opinion is that's a throwback to when a firewall mounted starter solenoid was commonplace. And for that it makes sense. But now that starters with integral solenoids are the norm, a firewall mounted solenoid isn't necessary. Personally, I put those RF power wires on binding post, or bus bar, or master disconnect (lots of options) somewhere else and provide battery power to there. For the actual starter solenoid, all you need is a direct cable from the battery on the large post and the start wire from the Coyote harness on the small post. For the alternator, no you don't need the RF brown alternator wire. That's for a different version alternator. You can remove it from the harness completely. You do need a large power cable to the post on the alternator. Some think the one in the RF harness is a little small (8 gauge as I recall) but it works. 4 gauge is probably better. The Coyote harness only includes the control cable which plugs into the connector on the Ford Performance M-8600-M50BALT alternator, which I assume you're using. It's what's recommended for the Coyote. There are lots of ways to wire the power and Coyote installation on these builds. My 20th Anniversary Roadster build thread has a lot of detail on how I did mine. A number of builders have done something similar. Straightforward are works. My Coupe is wired nearly the same, but I didn't explain it quite as much.

[facultyofmusic]

Waited for someone else to answer. Don't want to hog all the questions. But here you go FWIW... The RF harness schematic does show several large wires to the "starter solenoid." Some guys drag those wires all the way to the actual starter. But IMO they're often not long enough and frankly doesn't look great. My opinion is that's a throwback to when a firewall mounted starter solenoid was commonplace. And for that it makes sense. But now that starters with integral solenoids are the norm, a firewall mounted solenoid isn't necessary. Personally, I put those RF power wires on binding post, or bus bar, or master disconnect (lots of options) somewhere else and provide battery power to there. For the actual starter solenoid, all you need is a direct cable from the battery on the large post and the start wire from the Coyote harness on the small post. For the alternator, no you don't need the RF brown alternator wire. That's for a different version alternator. You can remove it from the harness completely. You do need a large power cable to the post on the alternator. Some think the one in the RF harness is a little small (8 gauge as I recall) but it works. 4 gauge is probably better. The Coyote harness only includes the control cable which plugs into the connector on the Ford Performance M-8600-M50BALT alternator, which I assume you're using. It's what's recommended for the Coyote. There are lots of ways to wire the power and Coyote installation on these builds. My 20th Anniversary Roadster build thread has a lot of detail on how I did mine. A number of builders have done something similar. Straightforward are works. My Coupe is wired nearly the same, but I didn't explain it quite as much.

Thank you Paul, your explanation is exactly as I have analyzed after going through the wiring diagram. The alternator part I wasn't sure because the manual said to not use the brown wire if I have a "one-wire alternator" and I didn't know what a one-wire alternator is. The manual also didn't specify what to do with the brown wire, so I'm glad I got confirmation on it.

I'm going to power the RF harness from the switched post on the battery cut off switch, and run a 4 gauge wire from the battery straight to the alternator. Since I have the breeze battery box mounting at the front of the car anyway, this setup is much cleaner. I don't think I need to run the alternator through battery cut off since it's such an integral part of the engine.

[Nigel Allen]

It is definitely a good idea to run the alternator output through the battery isolator as well. The Coyote has the alternator mounted down low and out of the way, but just imagine if you're working underneath and swing a spanner and accidentally short it to the positive terminal. I can recall at least three cases where this has happened and completely burnt out the wiring loom as the alternator is usually not fused.

The worst case resulted in personal injury where a mechanic working on a six cylinder diesel rested a full can of penetrant on the manifold. Unfortunately it touched against the output terminal of the alternator and even though the engine wasn't running the full battery voltage passed through the can piercing it and the resulting arcing ignited the contents. Fortunately due to a high level of PPE (underground mining) the mechanic only received burns to small parts of his body despite burning liquid spraying on his overalls and gloves.

Thanks for taking the time to document your build, I am enjoying following along.

[facultyofmusic]

It is definitely a good idea to run the alternator output through the battery isolator as well. The Coyote has the alternator mounted down low and out of the way, but just imagine if you're working underneath and swing a spanner and accidentally short it to the positive terminal. I can recall at least three cases where this has happened and completely burnt out the wiring loom as the alternator is usually not fused.

The worst case resulted in personal injury where a mechanic working on a six cylinder diesel rested a full can of penetrant on the manifold. Unfortunately it touched against the output terminal of the alternator and even though the engine wasn't running the full battery voltage passed through the can piercing it and the resulting arcing ignited the contents. Fortunately due to a high level of PPE (underground mining) the mechanic only received burns to small parts of his body despite burning liquid spraying on his overalls and gloves.

Thanks for taking the time to document your build, I am enjoying following along.

Yikes! That's quite the story! Looks like I'll run the alternator through the battery isolator after all. I can't think of a reason why I'd do major work on the car without first disconnecting the battery, but accidents do happen and more safety is always better! Thanks for the tip Nigel. The RF alternator harness should be just long enough to go from the battery cut-off post to the alternator. Wouldn't be that hard either.

[facultyofmusic]

Now that I have all the measurements and clearances checked, I can remove the engine and start working on the trans tunnel mounted components! The extra amount of space I had with the engine inside the car was AMAZING and I'm going to miss it, but the faster I get to finishing up the engine bay the earlier I can drop it back in for good!

Here are the list of work items I need to do before dropping it back in permanently:

• Install the parking brake handle
• Route the new parking brake cable
• Install the accelerator pedal (requires coyote install kit. Currently backordered)
• Add head insulation to the portions of engine bay aluminum that will sit close to the headers and exhaust pipes.
• Finish routing engine-bay power harnesses that go under the engine.
• Plan, route, and install hydraulic clutch lines. I'm debating between using one long stainless steel braided line vs using the leftover brake lines I have.
• Fill the transmission with fluid? I get the impression that I should do this before installing the transmission.
• Go over the coyote install manual and make sure everything's on the engine up to installation stage.

If anyone can think of anything to add to that list please do say so. :P

The biggest hurdle when installing the engine was the shifter getting caught on the frame, so I decided to remove it this time beforehand. To do this, I unbolted the transmission A-frame and dropped the transmission as low as I could. I then unbolted the 6 bolts that hold down the red shifter cover, took a dead blow hammer to the side of the red plate and voilà! Came right off.
shifter_removal00001.jpg shifter_removal00002.jpg shifter_removal00003.jpg shifter_removal00004.jpg
I covered the opening up with masking tape to ensure random things don't fall in accidentally.

I also took pictures of the amount of space between the exhaust ports and the firewall to get a sense of what I'm working with when I need to install the header. It's real tight.
header_space00001.jpg header_space00002.jpg

Last time while organizing the surprisingly small amount of boxes I have left I found the steering wheel so I decided to install it. Pretty neat! The gauges will be swapped out for black vintage style gauges from FFR.
dash_and_steering_wheel00002.jpg dash_and_steering_wheel00003.jpg

I'm going to uninstall the alternator as well seeing how easy it is to remove before pulling out the engine. The engine should be back out in the next update. Excited!

[facultyofmusic]

Taking the engine back out was a BREEZE after taking off the shifter, alternator, and oil filter. There were so many less potential points of contact that by buddy and I did it in less than 30mins. Woo!

Now I know we were JUST talking about alternator wiring but... hear me out:
I FREAKING LOVE TOGGLE SWITCHES.

I bought this ignition control panel full of toggle switches from Summit Racing and all I could think about was where to put it on the car. So I guess that's what we're doing until my brain is willing to think about something else.
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I like the look of the road-configuration cobra dashboard, so I want to keep it as is. I want to keep the switches and button more frequently used close by on the dashboard and the default FFR configuration already does a great job of that. There are, however, many "hidden" toggle switches and buttons on the bottom of the dashboard. I'm not a big fan of those. With this extra control panel I will relocate a buttons and switches such that they are either on the dashboard or on the panel. The panel will hold switches that don't need to be used frequently while driving.

As for the location of this panel I'm drawing inspiration from the Mk4 Supra stock interior (yes yes I know JDM fanboy blah blah). The Mk4 Supra isn't my favourite car. It doesn't have my favourite engine in any car, nor my favourite exterior design of any car. It does, however, have my favourite interior layout due to its "driver centric" layout. It looks like a cockpit and everything is in service of the driver. Everything's close by: The hand brake is next to the shifter on the drive side (which I already did), and everything else is on a panel that surrounds the driver's hand reachable space. I aim to do something similar. Here's a picture of the Mk4's interior vs a rough sketch of what I have in mind:
2565382633_22ab8a9500_o.jpg 20220129_150211.jpg

In the rough sketch there is a red perimeter around the driver's seat. That's the "driver reachable area". Ideally, everything the driver needs to touch is located within that perimeter. Immediately to the right of the driver's leg is the parking brake and the emergency battery cut-off switch. Note that the battery cut-off switch isn't where it currently is; it needs to be moved. To the right of the battery cut-off switch will be the control panel mentioned above. That's what we're working on today: Relocating the cut-off switch and installing the control panel.

I started by relocating the battery cut-off switch towards the driver side. This part is easy, just shift everything to the driver-side both front and back of the firewall. I had to relocate the fuse mounting bracket a little, but that was no hassle at all.
battery_cutoff_relocated00001.jpg battery_cutoff_relocated00002.jpg battery_cutoff_relocated00003.jpg

There's a hole where the cut-off switch used to be but that's ok. I'll cut out a piece of aluminum to cover it up.

[facultyofmusic]

To get a sense of what the control panel placement looks like, I make a prototype using cardboard. The idea here is to have the control panel be angled upwards at the same angle as the dashboard itself, but recessed into the firewall. From the side it should have a zig zag profile (similar to the national flag of Nepal if you know what that looks like).
cardboard_mockup00001.jpg cardboard_mockup00002.jpg cardboard_mockup00003.jpg cardboard_mockup00004.jpg cardboard_mockup00005.jpg

I taped the prototype to its marked location in the sketch:
ignctrl_mockup00001.jpg ignctrl_mockup00002.jpg

The good:

• It's not hard to reach but also not in the way when I don't need it.
• The top of the prototype is at the same plane as the bottom of the dashboard space. This was intentional as I wanted easy routing between the control panel and the rest of the wires behind the dashboard.
• It looks pretty sweet.

The not yet good:

• It's a little too wide. The tans tunnel is a trapezoidal shape and narrows towards the rear of the car. The prototype is a square box. I'll modify it to conform to the profile of the trans tunnel on the passenger side of the box.
• It needs a big chunk of aluminum panel that I don't have. I'll see if I can break it down and piece it together.

The control panel is currently floating. I have not decided whether or not I want to fill the bottom. I could turn it into a small drawer, or leave the space there for a wireless phone charger where you slip your cellphone into that space and it starts charging automatically.

Stay tuned!

[egchewy79]

love the vision. keep it coming!

[WIS89]

Daniel-

I am CRAZY about the ideas you have about the "cockpit" style layout. And, the Supra is a great example of that. It's hard to do with so many right angles that already exist, as opposed to the Supra's rounded and curved contours. However, I really think you have some great ideas here, and they will look terrific. While not "traditional," I think it will be very appealing and useful to you -- the driver!

Keep the great ideas coming, and I look forward to your next update!

Regards,

Steve

[facultyofmusic]

With the ignition control panel prototype in place, I now have a good idea about what I want my harnesses to look like around the firewall region. The key cylinder will be discarded, and the wires that's currently on the key will route to the ignition control panel. In post #148 I talked about connecting the starter, alternator, and RF power feed to the switched post of the battery cut-off switch. Now it's time to turn these thoughts into action.

Side note: While giving my brain a breather from all the wiring I decided to add some heat insulation to the areas of the firewall that will sit close to the exhaust headers and exhaust pipes. I used some 3M VHB foam tape to secure the heat insulation material to the engine bay aluminum. I used 3M VHB tape because It's supposed to withstand high temperatures without giving out. Some of the panels aren't finalized yet; for those I used masking tape to temporarily secure it in place. The brake and fuel lines are still exposed. I plan to wrap them in heat insulation as well.
20220126_185506.jpg 20220126_225908.jpg 20220126_225929.jpg

Back to the main topic at hand: Wiring.

According the RF wiring diagram in the manual, the multiple thick red wires at the end of the alternator and starter harnesses are really just the same wires interconnected. I completely unsleeved the alternator and starter harnesses and found this is indeed the case.

The 3 red wires from the alternator harness is connected as follows:

• 1 goes to power the key cylinder BATT terminal, providing power to on-with-acc, on-with-ign, and starter relay components depending on key position.
• 1 goes to power the RF fuse panel, providing power to on-with-battery (or always on) components. In my build these components can be cut-off using the master battery cutoff switch.
• 1 goes to the alternator, connecting the alternator's positive terminal with the battery and rest of the harness.

The alternator has just one red wire. It comes from the last red wire mentioned in the list above. This wire is actually just one long wire arranged in a "V" fashion, where the bottom angle of the "V" is the RF harness main branching point. Since I'm connecting the alternator to the switched post of the battery cutoff switch, I don't need this harness. After I completely removed this wire from the harness I realized that it's quite literally the perfect wire to run from switched post to the alternator. The ring terminals are JUST the right size, and it's length is perfect for running from the post to the alternator. I sleeved this wire with one of the harness tube sleeves I tore off the RF harness and ran it from post to alternator location. Worked out super well. Here's a labeled picture of major harnesses (the alternator wire is on the right):
20220129_225116.jpg
(please also use the picture above when referencing major harness locations).

Here's a close up of the battery cut-off switch area:
20220129_223852.jpg
Here you can see the two posts of the battery cut off switch. The bottom post is always connected to the battery. The top post is only hot when the cut-off switch is in the "ON" position. The bottom post has just one component connected to it (aside from battery) and that's the coyote ECU memory power. It needs to be always on so the ECU doesn't forget what it learned. The top post has the starter, RF power, and alternator power connected to it; they all lose power as soon as the battery cut-off switch turns to OFF position.

How here's the fun picture, the inner firewall layout:
20220129_211615.jpg
Once again I've labeled all the major branches coming out of the fuse box. In this picture the key switch wires are still connected to the key; this will be changed soon as I get the ignition panel in place. The "2 red wires from the starter harness" is what connects to the top post at a 45 degree angle in the previous picture. If you look closely you can see how one of them powers the fusebox and the other powers the key cylinder.

And that's it! As of this moment I can finally and confidently say that I've tamed the harness. It's not tucked away all nice yet, but at least everything makes sense. I hope these labeled pictures are helpful to y'all.

[facultyofmusic]

The rear harness is quite straight forward. Regardless, let's document what mine looks like.

I routed my rear harness through the trans tunnel on the passenger side. I actually had it on the driver side initially, but moved it to the passenger side after moving my parking brake handle and pulley assembly to driver side.
20220201_215654.jpg

Passenger side of the trans tunnel has a big metal tab where the FFR provided parking brake cables are supposed to go. I curved the harness around it towards the passenger side.
20220201_215853.jpg

Through out my build I've been using these harness holders I saw from Paul (edwardb)'s build thread. I've attached a few of these along the harness route to keep it in place.
20220201_215859.jpg

The harness branches to several end points near the fuel tank. I used cable ties to secure these. I wanted to keep the fuel pump and fuel level sender harness close to the fuel tank. I swear to god I almost drilled a hole on my fuel tank for the little harness holders LOL (drink the beer AFTER working on the car, not before it). Before I did that I realized what a terrible idea that was and used strong 3M double sided tape to tape down the harness holder instead. Phew!!! Here's a picture of the rest of the harness and another labeled picture of how they are routed:
20220201_215918_annotated.jpg 20220201_215918.jpg

[John Ibele]

Wow, you're having lots of fun, from cockpit layout to wiring. Good for you. I know now how you got attached to your new location for the emergency brake .

One question about your wiring, since you labeled it in a photo ... do you need that gauge wire going to the ECU (are its power requirements that high)? Related question: is the mega-fuse in this location protecting anything, practically speaking?

I'm no expert and I haven't been wiring up a Coyote, so I could well be missing something. Including, obviously, the power requirements for the ECU. Wait for others to chime in, which they will if I'm off base.

[edwardb]

Wow, you're having lots of fun, from cockpit layout to wiring. Good for you. I know now how you got attached to your new location for the emergency brake .

One question about your wiring, since you labeled it in a photo ... the draw for the engine ECU should be extremely low, I would think, so you shouldn't need the beefy wire you have off the battery post for that purpose. Will work just fine, of course, but if it proves bulky I would think you could go with something much smaller.

The item that raises more concern for me is the location in your circuit of the 250A mega-fuse. If something's off electrically, your ECU is going to be toast long before that fuse blows. So, not sure that helps much in that location. More common would be to put the mega-fuse in between the alternator and your main bus bar, or less commonly between battery and the battery post. Again, not going to hurt anything and will work fine, but I'm not sure it's protecting anything.

If you wanted to protect the ECU rather than coming straight off the battery post, you could go first to an auto-resetting breaker in the location where you have the mega-fuse, with a much lower amp rating matched to the needs of the ECU. Just one alternative to getting what you need.

I'm no expert and I haven't been wiring up a Coyote, so I could well be missing something. Including, obviously, the power requirements for the ECU. Wait for others to chime in, which they will if I'm off base.

Your points regarding that 250amp megafuse, where it's locating in the wiring, and the gauge of the wires, are all legitimate questions except that's exactly how Ford Performance says to wire it. So I'd recommend doing it that way. Which is also what I've done on my two Coyote builds. No point in getting into a contest with them if something happens and you didn't wire it like they instructed.

I agree best practice is protection between the alternator and battery. There I use a second megafuse, sized to approximately match the alternator amp rating.

[John Ibele]

Got it, Paul, makes sense. I'd do and recommend the same thing in that case.