Shift Linkage

With the engine in place and the firewall under construction I decided to take a closer look at the issue of the shift linkage. #3854 came with very few parts. As far as the shifter was concerned there was next to nothing there. When I priced out all the parts I needed it came up to over $1,200 for what I needed to be able to change gears on the ZF. That was a price I hadn't anticipated.

So I did a little digging. I came across lots of chat on various boards about replacing the shaft system with a cable mechanism. Here's the link to the system some used to convert their Panteras.

http://www.malinmotors.com/products/p_cableKit/p_cableKit.html

Most of the chatter was positive, but like most big modifications it went about 50/50 pro vs con. Plus this system is just about as costly to purchase as it would have been to locate and purchase original or near original parts for the Pantera.

Then I found a discussion on replacing the u-joints and was lead to this link.
http://www.flamingriver.com/index.php/products/c0005/s0004/FR1761
Apparently Flint River makes some very good u-joints at a good price. The ones linked to above were about $80 each, give or take depending where you got them.

The joints linked to above were the correct size and have the 36 splines that were part of the Pantera shift linkage design.  Problem for me was that the original shafts for the Pantera are all way too expensive, in my humble opinion. My brain started thinking, "Is there some way to use Flint River u-joints and make my own shafts?

Of course I don't have the tooling or expertise to make shafts with 36 splines on them. But what if I got creative and eliminated the splines all together? I did a bunch of research on the u-joints and found that I can purchase a 3/4" diameter u-joint from Flint River for a reasonable $67 each. With that knowledge I went to my local metal shop and found a 10' length of 3/4" dia, 0.120 wall steel pipe for a mind blowing $15! Surely I could make this shift linkage myself.

I decided to take the plunge and order the u-joints. Here's what I got. I found P/N FR2630 at SummitRacing.com for $65 a piece. These are 3/4" x 3/4" forged needle bearing steering u-joints made by Flaming River. They come in a flat black finish. Here's a picture of one of them.

They are weldable and have a threaded hole for mounting to whatever shaft you want to use. They are smooth (no splines) so you have to do something to hold them to the shaft. Once I received the order from Summit Racing I couldn't wait to get going.

The first problem I decided to tackle was how to attach the smooth bore of the u-joint above to the 14mm, 36 spline shaft coming from the shifter box inside the car. Here's the cool part about using tubing for the shaft - the inside bore of the 3/4" dia, 0.120 wall shaft is only about 0.015 smaller than the 36 spline shaft that I want to attach to the u-joint above. I decided to cut a short, 1.5" length of my tubing and do a little rework to make the tubing fit over the shifter shaft. Then the u-joint would slip over the tubing. Here's a picture showing it all laid out the way I want it to go.

The piece on the left is the shifter shaft from the shift box inside the car. See the splines on the shaft? The silver piece in the middle is a short piece of the 3/4" dia tubing I'm using as my shift shafts. This piece will act as a sleeve to allow the 3/4" dia u-joint on the right to slip up over the splines on the original shifter piece on the left. You can see the hole in the side of the u-joint in the picture above. This is a threaded hole where a lock bolt can go in to hold the u-joint in place.

Now, what to do about the fact that the tubing diameter is some 0.15" smaller than the splined shaft from the Pantera? Since I couldn't find a drill bit the right size to open the tubing up I decided to grind down the splines. Definitely a point of no return decision but why not go for it?

After a little grinding the tubing fit over the shaft from the Pantera with a good tight snug fit. I then did a little clean up grinding of the outside diameter of the tubing to take a few thousands off so that the u-joint would fit over the tubing easily as well. Without grinding the OD of the tubing the fit would have been more of a press fit scenario. I wanted to be able to easily remove the u-joint if something went awry later on.

I then decided exactly where I wanted the u-joint to sit with regards to the shaft from the Pantera and made a mark in the middle of the mounting hole on the u-joint. I drilled a 5/16 hold through the tubing, through the shaft from the Pantera and made a hole on the opposite side of the u-joint (in a separate drilling process) to allow a bolt to be fed through the assembly and be bottomed out in the threaded hole that came in the Flint River u-joint.

Here's a few shots of the steps described above. This first picture shows the splines ground down to allow tubing to fit over the shaft.

This shot shows you the hole I drilled through the tubing through the original splined Pantera shaft.

Here's a picture showing the hole I drilled in the other side of the u-joint to allow the retaining bolt to go through the entire assembly. You have to be careful not to drill out the threads that came in the u-joint. What I did to drill this hole was to put the entire assembly together then use an under sized drill bit to go through the threaded hole on the u-joint through the tubing and splined shaft and let it hit the other side of the u-joint (where I want the hole seen below to be). I then tapped the drill bit with a hammer to make a mark where I wanted the hole to be. On the drill press I used a very small bit to drill a pilot hole passing through the threaded hole. With the pilot hole through the other side I turned the u-joint over and drilled it out to the 5/16" final size.

Finally, here's what it looks like assembled.

Of course I won't be using a carriage bolt to hold the assembly together - this was all I had at the moment. I was amazed at how secure the connection was with this method. Best yet I can still take it all apart when I need to.

Next I needed to determine the exact length of rod I need to go from the Ujoint coming from the shifter box above to the next Ujoint towards the back of the engine. To make this determination accurately I needed to fab up the support piece that mounts on the frame on the left side of the engine. To make this piece I found the following parts in my junk pile.

I need some threaded rod to mount the support to the Pantera frame. I used a 1/2" bolt and welded it to the ring above to come up with the following.

I then drilled out a dimple in the green poly bushing to allow the thumb screw to help hold it in place. It is a pretty tight fit so I don't think it is going to go anywhere. I did have to do a little honing out of the ID of the poly bushing to make it slide fit on the 3/4 shaft that will pass through it. Here's a shot of the assembly going together.

Here's the finished rod support.

With the support made, I cut a piece of 1/4" steel plate and drilled out a clearance hole for the 1/2" bolt of the upright to fit through. I also drilled out a hole to mount the plate on the frame of the Pantera. It had to be shifted about two inches toward the center of the engine to give the proper clearance for the shaft to fit under the Coyote engine. You can see the final assembly shot a little ways down this post.

With the support in place I could insert a longer than needed section of 3/4 pipe from the back of the Ujoint in the shifter box, through the support so the rod would stick out past the bell housing. Once I took a careful look at the angles that would result from this point back to the shifter mechanism on the ZF transaxel, I marked how long I wanted the rod and attached the Ujoint to it. Here's a shot of this end of the rod assembly.

Again, the mounting bolt was just something I had laying around. Notice the amount that I cut off the bell housing to make room for the shift linkage. Here's a shot showing how much was interfering with the linkage.

I then made the mounting piece that goes on the shaft protruding from the shift mechanism on the ZF. The shaft is a 5/8" dia. I took a piece of 5/8" ID tubing and worked on taking a small amount out of the ID to allow the tubing to fit snugly over the ZF shifting shaft. I drilled a hole in the tubing to match the hold on the shaft coming out of the shift mechanism.

Next I took a piece of threaded rod the same OD of the 5/8" tubine I worked on above and pressed it into one end of the tubing. I welded that in place. I then welded a nut that fit the threaded rod in place to give me something to grab onto to tighten up the adjustable portion of the shaft I made next. Here's a shot of the finished product. It was basically a matter of piecing together the necessary parts to take up the space from the back of the rod coming from the shift box to the piece I made to attach to the ZF.

Here's shots of the rest of the linkage all in place. Best part of this project is that it works! I am able to shift in all gears. I know that I'll have to make minor adjustments but that won't happen until the car is running.

Here's a good shot of the mounting plate and support piece for the long rod coming from the back of the shifter box in the passenger compartment.

Firewall Build

I decided that the firewall needed to be made in several pieces. I want there to be a steel main wall - closest to the engine. Then there will be come kind of sound and heat block sandwiched between an inner wall that might be made out of fiberglass. That's to be determined. Today it was time to tackle the main wall.

I used sheets of 13 gauge sheet steel to make the base of the inner wall. Since the heater hose will protrude a little bit into the passenger compartment I decided to make the main wall in a way as to let the hose end up where it needs to be. First I tackled the easy part of the main wall - the pieces that surround the center part of the Coyote engine.

I used the roll cage as a guide for the shape of the wall itself. I cut one piece of sheet steel to fit and used a mirror image to make the other side. I left open the center third of the firewall for a later time. This will be the part that allows for the radiator hose to poke forward and will be the section of the firewall that will be removable for access to the front of the engine.

I found a really great piece of scrap metal at the metal yard that made mounting the sheet steel so much easier to the roll cage. I used a piece of metal that was made to make track for sliding glass doors. I was able to weld this metal onto the bottom of the roll cage to give me a mounting point for the sheet steel. Then I placed a few of 1/8 x 1" metal braces. Here's a shot of the bracing in place.

Here's a closeup shot of the mounting system I put on the roll cage.

  I then laid up the sheet steel against the mounting points to see what it looks like. Here's a shot of the wall almost in place.

You can see the opening I left. This will be covered with the same 13ga sheet steel that will be made to allow the radiator hose to stick into the passenger compartment just a bit. That part of the build will come later.

I haven't decided how I'm going to attach the sheet steel to the mounting points as of yet. I'll cover that next when I decide what will work best. I'm thinking that I want to be able to remove the entire wall when needed. So, I'm sure I'll use some kind of multiple thread based fastener. More on that later.

Next I worked to close up the corners at the base of the firewall. I decided to attach the same 13 gauge sheet steel cut to size at the base of the firewall and bend a 90 lip to give the flat firewall another mounting point for the firewall. Here's what it looks like.

Then there is the big hole where the radiator hose will protrude into the passenger compartment. I want this piece to be able to be removed to give access into the engine space. I started by bending a piece of 13 gauge sheet steel to give me the basic shape needed to cover the radiator hose. I left plenty of room in the bend to allow me to work with the hose as it bends down towards the connection for the front radiator. Here's a shot of the first piece of sheet steel I worked with for this project.

Once I had the basic shape it was just a matter of getting it all to blend in. It took 4 more pieces of metal on each side to close up the hole. I cut and bent one piece at a time. When I had the piece just right I then made a mirror copy to close up the other side. Here's a step by step progression of how it was made.

Each piece was tacked. I welded the entire piece up. It kind of looks a bit like the Iron-man mask right now. After a little grinding and shaping it will look pretty amazing.

It took a while to get back on this project but here we go. I decided it was time to start working on the inner fire wall. Problem was I just didn't like how far I allowed the piece above to protrude into the passenger compartment. I did a bunch of measurements and found that I could cut it way down. Here's a shot of the part shown above as it looks now.

You can see that I have cut a hole into the outer firewall to allow the shifter linkage to operate freely. I will secure the grommet at some future point. I really like how the new engine cover looks now. It pokes a lot less into the passenger compartment. Now it was time to turn my attention to the inner firewall.

I decided to use a piece of 3/16 plywood as the base for my inner firewall. I figured that I wanted something easy to work with and light weight for this part of the car. Since I would be bonding carpet to this part of the firewall I decided that I wouldn't need such a rigid structure as was needed for the outer wall.

I made a template out of cardboard to allow me to make my cuts for the left and right side of the firewall. Once transferred onto the plywood it was an easy matter of cutting until it fit tightly into place. I then worked to cut out the center section where the outer firewall protrudes into the passenger compartment. After a few cuts I had it just right. Since I plan to add a layer of fiber glass to the passenger side of the inner firewall I knew I would be able to shape something to fit around the protrusion of the outer firewall.

To get the shape right I resorted to using duct tape to allow me to lay down the fiberglass onto the plywood where the outer wall sticks past the inner one. I used a piece of plywood to give me an air gap between the inner wall and the outer wall on the protrusion. With the wood in place I simply added strips of duct tape until the general shape was what I wanted it to be. Here' a couple pictures showing the inner wall ready for glass.

Now it was time to lay a couple layers of fiberglass over where the protrusion is. Here's what it looked like when that step was completed.

Once it dried I took the inner firewall out of the car and removed the tape and wood from the back of the fiberglass. Once removed I was surprised how flimsy this patch felt. I was hoping that as I glassed the rest of the firewall that it would stiffen up, and that's exactly what it did.

The next step was to lay down two layers over the entire length of the inner firewall. It took a lot of resin to cover this thing but the result was well worth the material needed. Finally I decided to add some bondo to smooth out the entire assembly. The result was really nice. Here's a finished shot of the smoothed inner firewall.

Next I will figure out how to mount the inner firewall to the car. I plan to use some sound deadening material in between the inner and outer wall. That will be installed at a later date. I think the mounting will be pretty straight forward. I want to use some kind of channel along the bottom of the fire wall to hold it in place and use some kind of quick on/off kind of fastener along the sides and top. I want to be able to remove the inner wall with little trouble. More to come on how I choose to fasten it all in place.

OK I figured out how to mount the inner firewall to the car. I used a couple pieces of angled steel I had laying around and mounted it to the bottom of the car to give me channel where the inner firewall could be locked into place. Here's a couple shots of the channel I made.

The channel is just wide enough to allow the inner firewall to slide into it. At the top of the firewall will be 4-6 screws holding the inner firewall to the outer structure. This should hold everything solidly in place while making it easy to remove the assembly when I need to get to the front of the engine. Here's a shot of how the inner firewall looks in place.

As with most things that are made by hand, there is always another way. I decided to take a second look at how to make my firewall easier to take in and out of the car. Since front end of the engine will need to be accessed for maintenance, something had to be done. The way I attached the fire wall just wasn't easy enough for me to take in and out. So, time for some rework.

I took apart all the panels and tacked up a bunch of tabs to all the bracing attached to the roll cage. The tabs were then drilled and a 1/4-20 nut-cert was used to make installation of the panels so much easier. The two big side panels have 5 bolts each holding them in place. The small panel at the bottom, I left with nut/bolt connectors. It is easy enough to remove this panel after the large ones are out of the way.

After getting the large side panels to install easily, I took a second look at the piece I made to cover the front of the engine that protrudes into the passenger cabin. It was way too heavy and just didn't fit right. I decided to scrap it and start over. The panel I made fits much better. welded up 4 tabs with 1/4-20 nut certs to hold this panel in place. I can now remove the entire internal firewall in just a few minutes. So much better now.

The inner firewall is still usable. All I did with this was to determine where I wanted to attach external to the internal fire wall and to add spacers to allow the internal firewall to sit just were I want it when screwed down.

Finally, I purchased some fire resistant caulk and sealed up all the cracks and openings around the firewall panels. I purchased sound and heat barrier from Amazon. Here's the material I used.

uxcell 394mil 16.36sqft Car Noise Sound Deadener Deadening Insulation Mat Waterproof and Moistureproof 60" x 40"

This stuff is really easy to work with. Just cut it to size, remove the backing and stick it to the surface. It really stays in place. I'm even thinking with a little heat from the engine and it will stick even better.

The last thing I did was to take care of the air gap at the top of the roll cage. There was a very small gap between the top of the roll cage and the roof. To close this up, I used a can of "RightStuff". That's the material used to seal up gaps in home construction. It comes out in a super sticky form that expands to fill gaps.

I allowed the material to cure for 24 hours and came back with a knife to trip the excess. When it was the general shape I wanted, I added two layers of fiberglass on top. Now the roll cage is basically bonded to the roof. I will bondo and sand this area to give it a more finished look. With a little paint it should look really good.

Now, I think the fire wall is about complete. Still a little finish work required and carpet to be placed on the inner firewall. For now the pictures below show how it looks both with the inner wall in place and removed.

Here's a shot of with the inner wall removed. Notice the sound deadening material and how well the new center panel fits. The new design makes disassembly of the inner wall so much easier. 

Here's a shot with the inner wall in place. Notice the four mounting screws. They will go on top of the carpet and will blend in to the black carpeting that I hope to use for finishing off the exterior.

Coyote Engine Modifications

In this post I plan to share the various engine modifications necessary to make the Coyote fit into the Pantera. This post will change from time to time as I find and fix those fiddly bits and pieces that make the Coyote marry up to the Pantera.

One thing to keep in mind when considering the F150 Coyote engine in the Pantera is the oil cooler. The F150 cooler sits in a way that makes it necessary to trim the spot welded lip on frame to make room for the filter and the cooler itself. No big deal but something to consider - see my post on Engine Mounting to see what was trimmed.

A bigger issue with the oil cooler is the fact it happens to completely block where the transaxle shifter linkage will run. This is a problem. I haven't worked to solve this issue yet but a quick search on line has resulted in the possibility of using a Boss 302 Engine cooler system (Summit Racing $140) to replace the F150 unit. I'm not 100% positive it will fit and/or completely clear the interference problem for the linkage but it seems to be an alternative that I'll try in the near future. I'll blog more on that issue in this post at a later date.

In the meantime, there are two issues with the cooling system that needed some attention the way I have the engine positioned in the Pantera. The hose assembly that runs from the thermostat housing what would be the upper radiator hose on the F150 turns in a way that it sticks out into the passenger compartment. The other issue with the cooling system is the fact that the heater hose assembly is pointed in a way that will make the hose come very close to my proposed firewall. It would be nice if the heater hose assembly could be turned a bit to make the hose hug the head much tighter. Here's a shot of what I'm dealing with.

I decided to take on the heater hose first. I removed the radiator hose assembly. The clips on the hose assembly make this an easy thing to do. The heater hose assembly is held on by a single 9mm bolt. The tube in the block has an o-ring on it to keep leaks from happening. I was careful to protect this o-ring with the changes I made. Here's a shot of the heater hose assembly removed.

The assembly will rotate with no problem in the hole on the block. Problem is that the mounting hole will now be in the wrong place and it interferes with the radiator hose assembly when the heater hose is rotated to where I want it to be. Here's a shot showing the problem.

I decided that by cutting down the mounting bracket and welding on a new tab with a mounting hole I can rotate the heater hose assembly to where I want it. Here's a shot of how much I remove from the heater hose assembly tab.

I cut a piece of same thickness metal and welded a 1.5 inch long tab to the side of the old mounting plate on the heater hose assembly. This let me rotate the assembly the amount I wanted and removed the interference issues with the radiator hose assembly. Problem solved. Here's a shot of it bolted up in the block.

The radiator hose issues is a bit more of an issue. As you can see from the photo above the housing for the thermostat has a special clip on hose connector that makes the fix on this one a bit of an issue. I need a hose assembly that will enable me to attach to the thermostat housing while turning the radiator hose port back towards the engine.

A quick search on Google found that both the F150 and Mustang GT have this same assembly. Totally expected since the radiators for both the truck and car are right in front of the engine. As you know on the Pantera that isn't the case.

I'll have to do a little research to see if there is anything I can put together to make the problem of the radiator hose protruding into the passenger compartment fixable or not. After a lot of research It looks like I'm going to have to incorporate a bubble in the firewall to allow the radiator hose to protrude into the passenger compartment.  Not a big deal, just some more fabrication. Check out this modification in the separate post called Firewall Build.

Now back to the oil cooler issue. As I stated earlier, the oil cooler on the F150 is very much in the way of where the shift linkage will eventually go. Here's a couple shots of where the F150 oil cooler is in the way.

In this shot my finger is pointing the basic direction where the shift linkage is suppose to go. You can see the cooler is right in the way.

After some extensive research, I decided to order two parts, the Boss 302 oil cooler (Ford Racing: M-6642-MB $140 from American Muscle). Here's a shot of this assembly.

This assembly fits onto the stock Mustang GT oil filter assembly that bolts onto the block. I found and ordered the Mustang GT oil filter assembly from Ford ($96 P/N BR3Z6881M). Bad news is that the Mustang GT oil filter neck will not bolt up to the F150 block - wrong bolt pattern. I found that out the hard way - special ordered the part and Ford won't take it back. Oh well, not that big of a deal.

Next I'm going to try using the Ford Racing 90 degree Oil Filter Adapter (Item No. 50449 American Muscle - $99). I will see if this adapter can fit onto the F150 oil filter assembly. After I received the part it looked very promising.

I first removed the oil filter then took off the oil filter cooler using a 1/2" allan wrench to unscrew the threaded shaft that holds on the oil filter. When the shaft is loosened the entire assembly comes off the adapter. Here's a shot of the entire assembly removed but laying in place.

With the original cooler removed I could now bolt up the 90 degree adapter. Problem is that the adapter needs a length of threaded shaft that normally holds on the oil filter to enable the 90 degree adapter to bolt into place. Unfortunately the shaft that holds the oil cooler on is too long all that is needed is the small piece of threaded shaft at the end of the long oil cooler shaft. Out comes the cut off wheel. Here's a shot of how I cut the shaft to use the small threaded piece to hold on the 90 degree adapter.

The piece on the left is what I will use to allow me to attach the 90 degree adapter. Once this was installed in the original oil filter neck on the Coyote engine I could then bold up the 90 degree adapter. Just so you know, this threaded piece is a metric sized 22x1.50 thread. This is important to know if you need to make this modification. Here's a shot of how it looks all assembled.

Notice no oil cooler. I intended to use the Boss 302 cooler mentioned above to fit on the end of the adapter. Guess what? The Boss 302 filter has a 22x1.50 oil filter thread. The thread on the 90 degree adapter is 3/4-16. Big problem. After doing a bunch of research it looks like I'm out of luck at making this adapter take an oil cooler. No big deal - I don't think this is going to be such a big deal in the long run.

I have to tell you, I really like where the oil filter ends up. Changing oil is going to be so much easier in that I can get to is in the space just under where you see the Fram has ended up. Also, this modification really opens up the area where the shift linkage will be located. Here's a shot with my hand showing how much space I was able to free up.

Bottom line with the oil cooler is that the filter needs to be relocated to make room for the shift linkage. I'm a little bummed that I couldn't get the Boss 302 cooler to work. I think the engine will run cool enough. If changes need to be made I will consider them in the future.

I finally got my hands on the engine wiring harness and computer. I installed the wiring harness and settled on mounting the computer on the fire wall behind the driver's seat. Here's a shot of the computer mounted in place.

Motor Mounts

Fortunately the Coyote engine came with a new set of mounts attached to the block. They are actually very close to where the mounts attached to the frame on the Pantera. My car didn't have any mounts on the frame but you could easily tell where they were suppose to be. Here's a shot showing the mounts on the engine and the area where I'm sure the frame mount use to be.

I started the project by making the mounting plate. I used 3/8" x 2" wide flat steel and drilled a large hole in the middle of each piece of metal. I then cut out the sides to form a slot and welded the two pieces to make a 3 3/4" x 4" flat plate with a slot for the motor mount bolt to stick through. Here's a shot of the flat plate.

The larger of the small holes on the right side is for a rivet that protrudes from the flat part of the mount on the engine. The smaller of the two holes is a mistake,... Oh I mean a weight savings device.

I then attached the plate to the engine. I then used some 1" x 2" rectangle stock for the uprights of the mount on the frame. I used a piece of 1/4" plate for the bottom of the mount. The following picture shows the how I tacked together the uprights.

I marked the three holes through the frame to transpose them on the 1/4" base plate. When I drilled the holes out I found one of them came up exactly under the upright shown in the picture above. I had to cut out a notch in the upright so that I could get to the nut that will hold the mount in place. The pictures below show the mount completed.

Here's the mount holding the engine in place. Big step forward now that the engine and transaxle are now firmly in place.