Wareaglescott's Coyote build thread - INDEX ADDED TO POST #1

[wareaglescott]

My tires were delivered today so I got them mounted on the wheels. I love how they look. Cant wait to see them on the car.


I finished the fuel and return lines and mounted the fuel regulator. I went with the kit lines. Turned out fine. I am not thrilled with using the rubber fuel hoses. This could be a potential upgrade soon after the car is complete. I did fabricate a bracket for the fuel regulator so it sits about an inch of the firewall. This will allow the coyote harness to come behind it. Thanks for that tip EdwardB! The regulator came with a bracket. I basically just duplicated the shape but made it come out an extra inch. Here are a couple pictures:


In this one you can see how it sits away from the firewall:


Now for the frustrating part of the day! A couple weeks ago I realized my steering tie rod end was not taking grease and the grease fitting was stripped so I could not replace it. FFR sent me a new one. So I decided to take 5 minutes and change it out. I never torqued down the nut or anything. I figured I would take the nut off, push the bolt end back through, unscrew the rod end and replace it with the new one. I could not get the rod end to disengage from the steering piece it was going through. Tried beating it out with no luck. Tried unhooking the upper control arm so I could move the assembly around in a few axis to loosen it. No luck there. Ultimately I cut the bolt part sticking through from the bottom with a hacksaw (the part was going in the trash anyways). Figured then I would be able to beat the remaining piece out. Still no luck. I cant for the life of me understand how the bolt part is so firmly planted in there. Now I have resorted to drilling it out. That is going extremely slow. I gave up after working on it for 2 hours. Figured it is best to walk away and come back another day. Here is what I currently have. As you can see it is maybe 75% drilled out and still will not budge.



Questions:
Is this normal for these to be so wedged in?
I am concerned the other side might be like that as well. I centered the rack up when installing but still assumed these would need further adjustment when it comes time to align everything. Obviously you have to take this part out to rotate the rod end to lengthen/shorten it. Have people had problems with this?
Any suggestions for how to get this thing out?

Thanks

[Jeff Kleiner]

... Obviously you have to take this part out to rotate the rod end to lengthen/shorten it....

No Scott, you do not take the outer tie rod ends loose from the steering arms when adjusting toe. You will loosen the jamb nut and turn the shaft that runs between the inner and outer tie rods. As for the easy way to disengage the tapered shaft from the steering arm---a couple of solid whacks with a hammer to the end of the steering arm in the horizontal axis (perpendicular to the tapered shaft) will usually cause it to fall right out.

Good luck,
Jeff