Steering Rack Arrived

The steering rack came in with the rest of the kit, but when I went to install it I noticed a flaw in the casting where the bushings are installed.

I sent this picture to Factory Five and they said they'd ship a whole new rack out to me.  Didn't have to return this one or anything.  A week or two later the new one arrived and I was able to get it installed.

Pedal Assembly

Next came the pedal assembly.  It's a Wilwood kit that factory five includes with the rest of kit.  Nothing too tricky with this pedal assembly kit.  The only issue I ran into was the clutch pedal hitting part of the frame when it was fully depressed.  I notched the pedal arm for clearance.  Really it probably wasn't necessary, but now I definitely don't have to worry about the pedal crashing into the frame.

Front Spindles and Brakes

By now the brakes and spindles had arrived so I was able to finish up the front assembly.  I had one torn dust boot (the blue things) so I decided to replace them all with some new ones from Energy Suspension.

I also realized that I had initially installed the steering arms on the wrong sides.  The hole should be smaller on the top than on the bottom.  Itorder to remove thos you have to remove the spindle from the lower control arm.  In order to get a socket on the lower ball joint nut you have to remove the upper ball joint from the spindle.  So I basically assembled the spindles to the control arms twice :).

Rear End Installed

We got the front end assembled as much as we could.  The front spindles were on back-order so I decided to skip ahead a bit and work on getting the rear end installed.  Before purchasing the kit I went to pick and pull and found a '92 Ford Thunderbird Super Coupe to get my rear end out of.  I took that to Reno Driveline and Gear and had them gut it and install new 3.31 gear and a Truetrac differential.  I used some ratchet straps and the floor jack to get it into place.  I replaced the rubber bushing from the Thunderbird with poly bushings.

With the rear end installed I went on to install rear lower control arms and coilovers.  I found that the some of  the spacers they supplied were a bit short.  To I ordered some steel tube from McMaster Carr and cut my own to fit snug.