It’s the small stuff that takes the time – 10 Hours

Having spent most of the weekend in the garage, it’s not until you add up all that was achieved that you realize were the time goes.

With the panels back from the powder coater the dash filler was permanently installed, along with the fuse panel support and the passenger foot box filler pieces.

Switching to wiring, the dash harness ground was drilled the powder coating removed before installing the lug and coating the assembly with dielectric grease, both to maximize the grounding conductivity but more importantly inhibiting rust.

The inertia switch was mounted to the left of the filler panel; beading was run around the dash filler to stop cable fraying.

Clutch neutral wires were extended to reach the neutral switch at the rear of the transmission; the speed sensor plug was also spliced into the wiring loom. The brake switch connection was also made.

Moving to the engine bay the O2 sensor connector was mounted to the chassis, the positive battery cable was run to the disconnect switch. The one wire alternator cable was also run to the same side of the disconnect switch via a mega fuse.

FAST EFI manual instructs running the positive and negative cables directly to the battery, thus terminal connections were made and the two wires installed in cable loom.

You may have noticed that all the wiring is specific to first engine start, over the next few days all engine wire will be completed (coil, starter), along with dash gauges, and ignition switch. Current plan is to at least crank the engine at Thanks Giving, with first engine start set for December 23rd, one year since the kit first arrived!

Which wire goes were! – 4 Hours

Started the wiring process in earnest today, the Optima 51 battery was mounted in the Breeze front battery box and the negative cable was run directly to the engine block. A good location for this is a starter mounting bolt.

All quality automotive vehicles have the negative connected directly to the engine, a ground cable is then run to the chassis (see October 10th post – Headers and Exhaust).

The solenoid was then mounted to the driver’s side of the transmission tunnel, those who are reading this and have yet to mounted the engine will find this easier pre engine installation. This location was chosen as it is next to the battery cut off switch (also installed today) and next to the drivers foot box cable opening (the clutch neutral circuit will be used on this build and will be connected to the S terminal to engage the starter).

Two solenoids will be used on this build; the starter motor also includes a solenoid (as is found on many 90’s Mustangs).

A positive cable was run from the battery post to the battery cut off switch, a 10 gauge wire was run from the alternator to a Mega fuse and then to the same terminal of the battery cut off switch. A single cable will then be run from the other side of the battery cut off switch to the large solenoid post.

The Ron Francis stock harness assumes a 3G alternator so with a bit of wiring diet activity the 10 gage cable (labeled Alternator FD) was removed along with Alternator IGN (brown) cable and 3G alternator connectors.



Finally a number of other panels were removed for powder coating this week (radiator shroud, dash filler, fuse mounting plate, and one under door panel).