Continuing to Move Forward

I had previously fitted all the braided stainless fuel lines right through out the car including the return lines into the fuel tank. As the lines into the tank are quite exposed, an aluminium skid plate was made to provide protection for the lines and tank against spraging up on kerbing or speed humps etc. The last thing I would want is to rip the lines out of the tank, not that it would happen but a skid plate is a handy precaution in any case.

To keep things relative cool and to have fresh air flowing around the cock pit, I fitted

fresh air vents that fit above the foot well and have a slide arrangement for opening and closing the vent. These were very easy to fit but a problem is pending as the alignment between the holes for the 70mm fresh air hose in the chassis and the vent holes misalign by 20mm or more. I can see how to rectify this but will require a little bit of surgery to the vent hole. My die grinder and an aluminium cut rotary bit will fix this.(pic to come)

With the Coyote engine, I brought in the complete Ford Racing wiring harness and ECU which also had a drive by wire accelerator pedal and electronics. This is where I come to the point of my incompetence, I know nothing about electronics or electrical issues for that matter. Changing the battery in a smoke alarm tests my electrical knowledge. Anyway, I have this plastic accelerator pedal that I have been looking at for a long time wondering how to fit it. I have seen the LS Chev stuff using a series of push rods and bell cranks and wondered how to make this work in my situation. It's funny that having seen the Chev set up and trying to work around this system that I couldn't see what was before me. This was one of those situations where I had a mid night epiphany and the solution fell into place...why use push rods and bell cranks to fit the unit where it shouldn't be, why not just bolt it to the fire wall and modify the pedal to hide behind the Tilton pedal I wanted to use...so I did. I cut the pedal off the Ford unit and made a crank to operate from the Tilton pedal to the Ford Racing pedal.

Once the Ford pedal was cut down, I did a trial fit and decided to cut the bosses from the back of the mount to allow more clearance.

When I had established the correct location for the pedal, I set about making a pedal extension and push rod to connect the Tilton pedal to the Ford pedal. I have made provision to include bronze self lubricating bushes to avoid friction between the metal on metal push rod clevises and extension. The pedal extension had to veer back toward the fire wall to almost a vertical position to give the required clearance and to allow the correct amount of movement to ensure that the Ford pedal maintained full operation and also tweeked to maintain vertical alignment with the Tilton pedal.

Once I was satisfied that the pedal would work ok, I drilled all the holes and bolted every thing together. A real bonus was the Tilton pedal had a series of 5 holes which allowed adjustment for my push rod so the optimum arc was achieved with out much drama, almost as if they new someone would do this.

Once fully installed, the Ford drive by wire mechanism is well hidden and can't be seen unless someone wants to make a point of finding it.

Well, that's all for tonight. I really enjoy solving all the little issues associated with building hot rods and speciality cars. In the next episode I have a real conundrum,the starter motor doesn't come anywhere close to fitting.

Cheers

Russell