Meindl Mk IV Build - Graduation

[PeteMeindl]

We've been working on the electrical for the dash and making some good progress, although we have some questions for you guys, as expected. In general, we think we've been able to follow along in the manual and we've been learning a lot. Here are a couple pictures.

Front of the dash:


Back of the dash:


It's fun to see the dash come together and see how it'll actually look in the finished product!
Any help on the following would be greatly appreciated! Sorry these are so elementary...
Questions:
1) On the indicator lights (such as for the high beams and the turn signal indicators), which of the wires is the ground - the long or the short? Here's a picture:

2) For the hazard lights, what wire do we use to light up the hazard light on the dash? And do we just connect that one wire to the hazard switch? Here's a picture:

3) It seems like the dash harness has left front turn and right front turn wires. Should we splice these into the other turn signal wires that connect to the turn signal switch?
4) Similar to 3, there's a 'speed clock mem' wire in the dash harness that I think may not go anywhere. Is that right that we don't use it?

Thanks a lot! Hope everyone's been enjoying some good spring weather. Today in Connecticut would've been the first really good day to take the Mk IV out!

[BadAsp427]

Looking nice.... I can easily answer your first question about the lights... there is no Pos/Neg, either will do both. On my build, I used jumper wires between the turn signal switch and the hazard switch to get the power where it needed to go... CLICK HERE for the page I have on my build and in one of the photos you can see the two switches on the left side of the photo. You have a different turn signal switch than I do so not sure if my system would work for yours. Bottom line, I just followed the wiring on the schematic for the wiring harness and you should be able to follow how to hook them up. I know this is not a text book explanation, but it makes sense once you follow the schematic. The Speed/clock/mem wire is your always hot wire to keep your clock running even when the key is off. It will also keep your radio memory sets (if you have one) and on the GPS spedo it will allow for a fast boot up and satellite connection. Hope this is at least a little help.

[edwardb]

Looks like you're using the standard kit switches, e.g. dash mounted toggle for turn signals, hazards, and low/high beam headlights. That makes it easy. Well, easy to say. Just follow the Ron Francis dash wiring schematic exactly and it will work. Specific responses to your questions:

1. BadAsp427 is right. The kit supplied incandescent indicator lights will work with +12V and ground on either lead. No worries there. If they were LED, that wouldn't be the case.

2. You're not quite understanding the circuit. There isn't a separate indicator for the hazards. There are two turn signal indicators. One for each direction which will flash along with the turn signals on each side. When the hazard switch is turned on, both turn signal indicators will flash along with the lights on all four corners. Same as every DD I've ever owned or seen.

3. Again, wire it just like it shows. You're right. The front and rear turn signals are different colors for each side. But they are joined at the turn signal switch.

4. Don't see a clock in your dash, so you don't need it for that. Also with those Autometer gauges no GPS, so don't need it for that either. Looks like you don't need it. Make sure it's capped since it's always powered. You can't pull the fuse since there are other things on that circuit you need, e.g. headlight switch and courtesy lights (if you're using them).

[PeteMeindl]

Looking nice.... I can easily answer your first question about the lights... there is no Pos/Neg, either will do both. On my build, I used jumper wires between the turn signal switch and the hazard switch to get the power where it needed to go... CLICK HERE for the page I have on my build and in one of the photos you can see the two switches on the left side of the photo. You have a different turn signal switch than I do so not sure if my system would work for yours. Bottom line, I just followed the wiring on the schematic for the wiring harness and you should be able to follow how to hook them up. I know this is not a text book explanation, but it makes sense once you follow the schematic. The Speed/clock/mem wire is your always hot wire to keep your clock running even when the key is off. It will also keep your radio memory sets (if you have one) and on the GPS spedo it will allow for a fast boot up and satellite connection. Hope this is at least a little help.

Thank you, Carl! That all makes sense and is very helpful!

[PeteMeindl]

Looks like you're using the standard kit switches, e.g. dash mounted toggle for turn signals, hazards, and low/high beam headlights. That makes it easy. Well, easy to say. Just follow the Ron Francis dash wiring schematic exactly and it will work. Specific responses to your questions:

1. BadAsp427 is right. The kit supplied incandescent indicator lights will work with +12V and ground on either lead. No worries there. If they were LED, that wouldn't be the case.

2. You're not quite understanding the circuit. There isn't a separate indicator for the hazards. There are two turn signal indicators. One for each direction which will flash along with the turn signals on each side. When the hazard switch is turned on, both turn signal indicators will flash along with the lights on all four corners. Same as every DD I've ever owned or seen.

3. Again, wire it just like it shows. You're right. The front and rear turn signals are different colors for each side. But they are joined at the turn signal switch.

4. Don't see a clock in your dash, so you don't need it for that. Also with those Autometer gauges no GPS, so don't need it for that either. Looks like you don't need it. Make sure it's capped since it's always powered. You can't pull the fuse since there are other things on that circuit you need, e.g. headlight switch and courtesy lights (if you're using them).

That's great - very clear. Thank you, Paul! I think I understand what we need to do now. I certainly don't know what we'd do without all your great help!

[PeteMeindl]

Thanks to BadAsp and Paul, I think we figured out the wiring on the dash. We connected up the indicator lights and worked through the schematics to hook up the hazard lights as well. We used some epoxy to connect some of the switches to the back of the dash just to hopefully keep them from swiveling around. Here's how things look on the backside (front still looks the same as before):


Then we mounted the fuel pressure regulator on the firewall. There are three holes in the mounting bracket but we could only figure how to rivet 2 of them into the firewall since to do the third would require removing the regulator from the bracket to get the bracket on but then once the bracket is mounted, it wasn't clear that we would have enough room to remount the regulator on the bracket. But even with 2 rivets, it feels quite solid so i think we are ok. Here a picture:


Then we moved on to attach some of the aluminum panels in the trunk. Here are a couple shots of this:




We still have loose ends on the electrical wiring to work out - I'll post some questions on this later. But after that, i'm wondering if it's almost time to put the engine in. Any thoughts on that, guys? Do you see things we need to do before popping the coyote in? It'll certainly be an exciting day in our household when we attempt this!

Thanks!

[doddmoore]

I start working on the dash pretty soon. Maybe as early as next week. I'll be following this pretty close since I have the stock gauges as well.

[PeteMeindl]

We tried to set up our brake balance today to get at least an acceptable starting point. I think we shouldn't worry about this too much before we go kart but still wanted to see if you guys had any comments or advice. Here's a link to a video showing us depressing the brake:

https://youtu.be/U9Sy8o13rHM

We tried to balance it out such that each cylinder depressed about equally. It seemed ok - however the initial positioning looks a little off-kilter. Here's a picture:


Love to hear your advice - especially on something as important as brakes! Thanks, guys!

[PeteMeindl]

Morale is high here as we had a great weekend where we decided to try to put the engine in the car - i think we were somewhat successful! First thing we had to do was build our engine hoist which was pretty easy and straightforward. Then we hoisted up the engine out of the FFR engine stand and slowly, slowly, slowly moved it up and over our engine bay. Here's a shot of the process:


It took the help of all four of us, pushing the transmission down and guiding the engine past the steering shaft, around the brake reserviors (which we had to uninstall - and are temporarily outside the frame) and into the mount slots but we eventually got the engine home - triumph! We were excited!

We then set about adding the water temp sensor and the oil pressure sensor to the coyote. As we've seen in some forums comments, the size of the water temp sensor adapter doesn't fit with the coyote. But we found another adapter within our parts that did work. So we got the sensors installed and then went on to try to bolt on the headers. Uh-oh - we couldn't get the headers on with the engine all the way settled into the engine mounts... It was just too tight on the driver's side. So we rehoisted the engine up about 6 or so inches and we had enough room to install the headers. We then lowered the engine back home. We added the transmission mount as well.

We are very excited - it feels good to have this progress! Here are some pictures. Installing headers:


The engine now in:






Let us know if you see anything we should've done or should've done differently! Thanks, guys!

[initiator]

Looking good! I actually had the shorty headers installed outside the car - made it a little tighter but still installed with not real issues. Sure looks nice with the mill in place, right?

[PeteMeindl]

Looking good! I actually had the shorty headers installed outside the car - made it a little tighter but still installed with not real issues. Sure looks nice with the mill in place, right?

Yeah! It does look good with the engine in there - really feels like a big step forward!

[Fixit]

Great Progress... Isn't it cool to go through that "It ain't gonna fit... no way... too big... Holy Crap! It's in there!"

[PeteMeindl]

Great Progress... Isn't it cool to go through that "It ain't gonna fit... no way... too big... Holy Crap! It's in there!"

Ha! Yeah, you're exactly right! Thanks, John.

[PeteMeindl]

Hi guys. This weekend, we are trying to connect the rigid fuel lines to the fuel regulator using the flexible fuel lines supplied with the kit. These flexible lines seem to fit well going into the regulator, but they don't seem to fit the rigid fuel lines at all - on the fuel intake line, the flexible line is too large and on the one for the fuel return, the flex line is too small. Has anyone else run into this issue? Did you go buy different fittings for the rigid lines? Here's a look at what we're doing. Here are the fittings on the rigid lines:


Here are the fittings on the flex lines we're trying to fit to the rigid lines.

We are unscrewing and taking off the ends of the fittings on the flex lines as well as that little plastic ring.

Any help on what to do to connect those flexible lines to the rigid lines would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, guys!

[GTBradley]

Hey Pete, great to see you got it in there! It’ll be running in no time. It’s nice to have a fellow Coyote builder at nearly the same stage. I started mine last weekend and let me tell ya, car nutz come out of the woodwork when they hear it! It’s the best part. Neighbors rarely talk around here, but if the weather is good and there’s a project like this?...Well, it’s just a lot of fun. I’m even contemplating starting a car gathering at the pool for our neighborhood.

[PeteMeindl]

We tried installing our driveshaft but the transmission was too far down for the driveshaft to spin unimpeded. This seems to be a common problem and we found an easy fix via a set of spacers from summit racing. We installed them to lift the transmission up a bit. The arrow below points to the spacer.


Then we were able to install the driveshaft:

[initiator]

Hi Pete - I think most folks use 1.5" of lift at the TKO600 supports. I used 1/4" thick Aluminum from Home Depot and made a stack of 6. Haven't had the chance to see how well that aligns with the differential yet, but that's the lift I've seen others use for Coyote/TKO600/3-link.

How much lift did your Summit spacers give?

[PeteMeindl]

Hi Pete - I think most folks use 1.5" of lift at the TKO600 supports. I used 1/4" thick Aluminum from Home Depot and made a stack of 6. Haven't had the chance to see how well that aligns with the differential yet, but that's the lift I've seen others use for Coyote/TKO600/3-link.

How much lift did your Summit spacers give?

Hi Initiator,
Happy memorial day weekend! The summit spacers don't give as much lift as your 6 aluminum spacers - they give the transmission about 3/4 of an inch of lift. It seems to be enough clearance for us as far as i can tell so far. You're solution sounds like a good one as well. Here's a link to the summit ones in case anyone is interested:
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/i...-tko/overview/

[edwardb]

Hi Initiator,
Happy memorial day weekend! The summit spacers don't give as much lift as your 6 aluminum spacers - they give the transmission about 3/4 of an inch of lift. It seems to be enough clearance for us as far as i can tell so far. You're solution sounds like a good one as well. Here's a link to the summit ones in case anyone is interested:
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/i...-tko/overview/

That should be about right. I've found 3/4-inch is the right amount for the TKO. Both solid axle and IRS.

[initiator]

That should be about right. I've found 3/4-inch is the right amount for the TKO. Both solid axle and IRS.

Gack! Teach me to rely on memory at this age. Sorry, Pete - sure didn't mean to mislead you. I'll have to go back and check my sources, but the proof is in the driveline alignment (and u-joint angles).

EDIT - My mistake was that I used 1/8" Aluminum instead of 1/4". Six of these makes 0.75" height, which matches the experience of others. Sorry about that.

[PeteMeindl]

Gack! Teach me to rely on memory at this age. Sorry, Pete - sure didn't mean to mislead you. I'll have to go back and check my sources, but the proof is in the driveline alignment (and u-joint angles).

Ha! You weren't misleading at all! I always appreciate your thoughts and advice!

[PeteMeindl]

This weekend we made some progress on the radiator, both attaching the top part of the radiator to the chassis, as well as hooking up some of the hoses between the engine and the radiator. Man, it took all of my strength to get those steel tubes into the rubber hoses! Whew! I wasn't sure if we were going to get them to fit... but i think it worked out in the end.

Here's the hose going to the upper opening on the radiator:


And 2 shots of the lower hose. The lower hose is just touching the steering shaft which concerns me. You can see in the picture, we put some cardboard in between the hose and the shaft and we're hoping that this pressure bends the hose a little bit over time. I could try to force it to curve more sharply too, if this doesn't work.

[PeteMeindl]

We've been working a lot on all the plumbing of the engine - hoses and wiring things up. I think it's going pretty well. Here's a view of the engine with some of the new hoses we've added.


Here's the alternator with a couple wires attached:


And here's the computer after we installed it:


Please let me know if you see any issues - thanks, guys!

[PeteMeindl]

One thing we noticed recently was that the clutch cable mount on the front of the drivers footbox has come a little loose. In fact, the pressure of the bending cable actually cracked the head off of the screw we used to attached the clutch cable to the footbox. Here's a picture where you can see the mount being pulled a little bit away from the footbox wall:


I think what we'll do is get a stronger bolt and use that instead of the screw we had in there before. Unfortunately, the mount itself isn't too big so we won't be able to get something that much bigger and stronger. We could try a stronger material for the hardware too.

Does this seem like a good solution? Feel free to suggest any better ideas - thanks!

[GTBradley]

Hey Pete, good progress. I don’t know if this will help, but I wonder what your clutch cable route is? I ran mine under the engine mount and it seems to be free of undo pressure. I also put that mount screw at the top on the foot box.



If you can see in this picture, the first arrow is the route of the cable and the second arrow is where I tapped a bolt and mounted a cable guide to the frame. The cable then continues under the engine mount and has a straight line to the bell housing.

[GTBradley]

This weekend we made some progress on the radiator, both attaching the top part of the radiator to the chassis, as well as hooking up some of the hoses between the engine and the radiator. Man, it took all of my strength to get those steel tubes into the rubber hoses! Whew! I wasn't sure if we were going to get them to fit... but i think it worked out in the end.

Here's the hose going to the upper opening on the radiator:


And 2 shots of the lower hose. The lower hose is just touching the steering shaft which concerns me. You can see in the picture, we put some cardboard in between the hose and the shaft and we're hoping that this pressure bends the hose a little bit over time. I could try to force it to curve more sharply too, if this doesn't work.

Bend it away from the steering shaft, I did. I also tapped a bolt into the cross member and added a snug-fit vibration dampening loop clamp from McMaster, part number 3177T59. It holds the radiator hose where I want it and keeps from moving around.

[GTBradley]

Pete, a word of caution. I’ve read that these stainless radiator hoses can come lose and blow off. Some go so far as to modify things to make sure it doesn’t happen. I have about two miles on the odometer now and a bunch of warm ups at idle. I checked the hose clamps after a bit of running it up to temp and sure enough, the clamps were needing to be retightened.

[D02G]

Pete, a word of caution. I’ve read that these stainless radiator hoses can come lose and blow off. Some go so far as to modify things to make sure it doesn’t happen. I have about two miles on the odometer now and a bunch of warm ups at idle. I checked the hose clamps after a bit of running it up to temp and sure enough, the clamps were needing to be retightened.

What hoses did you use. Do you have part numbers?

[initiator]

I've seen folks install rivets around the radius of the metal hose to give the rubber hose and clamp something to grab onto.

[GTBradley]

What hoses did you use. Do you have part numbers?

My full-kit parts list only says "3/8" coolant hose cut 5ft" part number 16575. I'm sure that's the stainless hose I used, but it doesn't say it in the part name.

[PeteMeindl]

Hey Pete, good progress. I don’t know if this will help, but I wonder what your clutch cable route is? I ran mine under the engine mount and it seems to be free of undo pressure. I also put that mount screw at the top on the foot box.



If you can see in this picture, the first arrow is the route of the cable and the second arrow is where I tapped a bolt and mounted a cable guide to the frame. The cable then continues under the engine mount and has a straight line to the bell housing.

Thanks a lot, GT! I think we have a similar routing but i didn't mount any sort of cable guide. And like you said, maybe mounting the screw on the top helps. The clutch cable had a natural bend to it and it seemed to have less pressure with the screw on the bottom for me but i'll check it out and see if making the change solves the problem.

Thank you for the good advice!

[PeteMeindl]

Pete, a word of caution. I’ve read that these stainless radiator hoses can come lose and blow off. Some go so far as to modify things to make sure it doesn’t happen. I have about two miles on the odometer now and a bunch of warm ups at idle. I checked the hose clamps after a bit of running it up to temp and sure enough, the clamps were needing to be retightened.

I'll remember to check those hose clamps after we get the engine running for a bit. I'll write it down too as i'm sure in the excitement of the first start (whenever that may be...), we are likely to forget things like checking the clamps!

[GTBradley]

I'll remember to check those hose clamps after we get the engine running for a bit. I'll write it down too as i'm sure in the excitement of the first start (whenever that may be...), we are likely to forget things like checking the clamps!

That’s the truth. I was so excited on first start I didn’t even realize that the oil pressure I thought was coming up was actually reading on the water temp gauge. I had my connections reversed on water/oil sensors at the engine.

[PeteMeindl]

Lately we've been continuing to work on the wiring. Here's a picture of some of the fan wiring we did today.



We do have a question on the tach wiring.
Question: In the coyote fitment manual p82, it talks about taking the purple tach line out of the sending unit harness (which runs along the top of the engine) to attach to the 4th cylinder. However, I don't have a purple tach line in the sending unit harness like they show in the manual. Instead, I have a purple tach line in the coil crank bundle pointed out by the red arrow below. It seems like this purple line should be going in the sending unit harness (shown in green). Should i just take this purple wire by itself and run it out onto the engine to connect with the cylinder?



Thank you so much, guys!

[edwardb]

We do have a question on the tach wiring.
Question: In the coyote fitment manual p82, it talks about taking the purple tach line out of the sending unit harness (which runs along the top of the engine) to attach to the 4th cylinder. However, I don't have a purple tach line in the sending unit harness like they show in the manual. Instead, I have a purple tach line in the coil crank bundle pointed out by the red arrow below. It seems like this purple line should be going in the sending unit harness (shown in green). Should i just take this purple wire by itself and run it out onto the engine to connect with the cylinder?

What you're seeing there is a difference between versions of the Ron Francis harness. Earlier versions did have the purple tach wire in the sending unit harness. The current version has the tach wire in a bundle along with the orange EFI, speed sensor, etc. Unfortunately looks like the Coyote installation instructions don't reflect the change. But not a big deal. Route the purple tach wire however it makes sense.

One other observation though. Based on your earlier pics and descriptions, you have Autometer gauges. Right? Although I personally haven't used Autometer gauges, I'm nearly certain you can't connect the Autometer tach directly to the coil over plug (COP) signal wire like many of us have done with the Speedhut gauges and the Coyote. The Speedhut tach can calibrate to the COP signal directly.

Autometer I believe requires a tach adapter like this. https://www.autometer.com/tach-adapter.html. Don't take my word for it. Do some further research and confirm. But pretty sure that's what you need to do.

[PeteMeindl]

What you're seeing there is a difference between versions of the Ron Francis harness. Earlier versions did have the purple tach wire in the sending unit harness. The current version has the tach wire in a bundle along with the orange EFI, speed sensor, etc. Unfortunately looks like the Coyote installation instructions don't reflect the change. But not a big deal. Route the purple tach wire however it makes sense.

One other observation though. Based on your earlier pics and descriptions, you have Autometer gauges. Right? Although I personally haven't used Autometer gauges, I'm nearly certain you can't connect the Autometer tach directly to the coil over plug (COP) signal wire like many of us have done with the Speedhut gauges and the Coyote. The Speedhut tach can calibrate to the COP signal directly.

Autometer I believe requires a tach adapter like this. https://www.autometer.com/tach-adapter.html. Don't take my word for it. Do some further research and confirm. But pretty sure that's what you need to do.

Thanks a lot, Paul! Sounds good on just rerouting the tach wire. Also, thank you very much for pointing out the potential need for the tach adapter. Yup, I'm using the basic autometer gauges - I didn't know about the need for an adapter at all and I'm sure I wouldn't have figured that out on my own! Thanks for the link, too!

[PeteMeindl]

Hi guys, As most of you know, we're installing a coyote engine in our mk iv. We've got a question about how to connect the green fuel pump wire from the wiring harness to the fuse box right by the pedal box. In the coyote fitment manual (9/5/18) on p 75, it says to cut a wire on the fuse box and connect the green fuel pump wire to one of the cut wires. Here's a picture of the instructions.



Question: Which part of the now cut tan wire do i connect the green fuel pump wire to? I think it's the one that's more towards the top of the picture but i am not sure so i wanted to check with you guys. Thanks a lot for your help! Hope you're all enjoying the weekend.

[edwardb]

Question: Which part of the now cut tan wire do i connect the green fuel pump wire to? I think it's the one that's more towards the top of the picture but i am not sure so i wanted to check with you guys. Thanks a lot for your help! Hope you're all enjoying the weekend.

Using those instructions, you would cut the wire exactly where the red arrow is pointing. Then connect that loose end to the Coyote green fuel pump wire. As the instructions say, that will cause the Coyote PCM, via the green fuel pump wire, to energize the relay and run the fuel pump. But the actual power from the RF panel is what will be supplying the +12V to the fuel pump. That's via the larger wire coming from the RF fuse location. That means that both the Coyote PDB and the RF harness are providing power for your fuel pump setup, and both fuses are in play. I've scratched me head trying to figure out the advantage of wiring it this way, and to be honest can't come up with anything. Earlier versions of the instructions looked like the linked pic below. (I saved it because this question comes up frequently)

Here you can see they're saying to cut the main power wire from the fuse location and attach the Coyote fuel pump wire to the end going to the relay. This takes the RF fuel pump circuit completely out of play. In fact the RF fuel pump fuse can be removed. The relay and the fuel pump are now powered by the Coyote PDB, which has the necessary fuse, etc. I've wired both of my Coyote builds this way. In the end, either will work. I just prefer to have one place to look for a blown fuse and source of power.

[PeteMeindl]

Using those instructions, you would cut the wire exactly where the red arrow is pointing. Then connect that loose end to the Coyote green fuel pump wire. As the instructions say, that will cause the Coyote PCM, via the green fuel pump wire, to energize the relay and run the fuel pump. But the actual power from the RF panel is what will be supplying the +12V to the fuel pump. That's via the larger wire coming from the RF fuse location. That means that both the Coyote PDB and the RF harness are providing power for your fuel pump setup, and both fuses are in play. I've scratched me head trying to figure out the advantage of wiring it this way, and to be honest can't come up with anything. Earlier versions of the instructions looked like the linked pic below. (I saved it because this question comes up frequently)

Here you can see they're saying to cut the main power wire from the fuse location and attach the Coyote fuel pump wire to the end going to the relay. This takes the RF fuel pump circuit completely out of play. In fact the RF fuel pump fuse can be removed. The relay and the fuel pump are now powered by the Coyote PDB, which has the necessary fuse, etc. I've wired both of my Coyote builds this way. In the end, either will work. I just prefer to have one place to look for a blown fuse and source of power.

Thanks, Paul! That is really helpful. I owe you a lot! Thank you very much.

[PeteMeindl]

We put together the parking brake today. Things went pretty smoothly, in general. We had to dremel out the hole in the silver handle to get the button to fit inside of it but that was pretty easy to fix and things went together well after that. The parking brake handle does slightly rub the aluminum panel, unfortunately, but we've been reading about some your solutions to this as it sounds like this is often a problem. We're now working on connecting the cables to the rear brakes.