[Malgyver]

Hi all,

Here’s the next update. This works out to be about 4 weeks from delivery. Although I’m happy with the progress, I feel like parts delays have kept from getting more accomplished by now.

Woke up this past Sunday morning sick, after having a cold since Thursday night, and decided to Covid test. Positive! Finally lost that virginity. It hasn’t been so bad. So I decided I would push the limits of building on my cobra and about 3 days later, here’s the progress.

• Completed the CVF Racing serpentine belt kit. This was mostly straightforward, though I wasn’t sure about the appearance of the chrome alternator. I decided to just mount it, and would look at refinishing it with black wrinkle down the line. Had the typical bolt length issues with a stainless 12 pt. kit that came from eBay.

• Major issue with the engine/trans combo. Long story short, the trans shaft just seemed too long by about 1/8”, and the assembly would bind when the bellhousing bolts were tightened up. After pulling the trans off, it was obvious that the pilot bearing had been indented by the trans input shaft. So either the trans shaft was too long, the bellhousing was not the right depth, or the pilot bearing was wrong. Background: I found a steel SFI bellhousing from Summit for about $200 less than the QuickTime unit, and I believe it’s a knock-off of the old Lakewood unit, but there was little info about it, and I just assumed it would work like all the other offered bellhousings. In the end, I destroyed out the first pilot bearing, and reinstalled one that I modified and machined a little bit to provide a little extra clearance.

• Finally received the John’s differential. The carrier was rusty, which was a disappointment, so I put Daisy to work with wire wheels and brushes, tape and a spray can, and she did a great job, just as she did on the black wrinkle water pump paint job! Of course, there were no nuts provided to secure the carrier to the housing!

• Rear axle installation was not as per the manual, but much easier. There was no “gluing” of a plate with silicone, just place the backing plate, axle shaft, tap into place, and bolt the bearing retainer plate to backing plate and axle flange.

• The seemingly short bellhousing also caused a 1/4” misalignment of the poly trans mount, requiring lengthening the holes to get things to line up. And of course, no bolts from the mount to trans. I think they are ½-13 1 inch.

• Installed the E-brake cables. Read about others flipping the brake backing plates for better cable routing, but will just mount them as instructed. The cables seem to work smoothly even with tight-ish curves. Had to cut the cable housings and cable for the optimum fit. Grinder and a small round file worked great here. Used rivet nuts on the top of the X brace member to attach the cable mount, a good clean installation.

• Finished up bending and attaching the fuel tank straps, all straightforward.

• Had a hell of a time getting the fuel tank sender in, what with the baffles close-in to the space that the float needs to move. In the end, some “adjusting” with the grinder on the shaft of the sender allowed everything to fall into place.

• Rear Wildwood brakes went on easily. Mounted the wheels and ditched all the wood blocks and jack stands! Took out tons of boxes and bags from all the hardware and whatnot.

• Somewhat in disbelief at the size of this car, knowing the power of the motor. Uhmmmm….