[Gator67]

Still making progress, though a couple snags along the way.

First, I noticed that at full turn, the front wheels rub the upper control arms. So need to install r&p steering limiters. I don't think this should be a big deal. Picked some up at a Ford dealer. Just need to remove the inner tie rod boot clamp, pull the boot back a bit, snap the limiters in place, and re-clamp the boot. I bought some cv joint boot clamps and a tool, which I need to figure out how to use. I'm surprised that DSE did not pre-install limiters given that they specify wheel sizes and offsets. At the very least, should mention the possibility of running into this issue in the install manual. Could have done some major damage to my Forgelines if I drove the car without limiters.

The second issue is more of a challenge. After bleeding the hydraulic clutch system I realized that the clutch doesn't seem to release until the pedal is pretty close to the floor, and even then I'm not sure it's releasing fully. The car isn't running yet, but on a lift with the car in gear and clutch pushed in, I can turn the rear tires by hand, but there seems to be more interference than I expected. I followed the instructions I received to set up the height of release bearing, but apparently I missed that the calculations needed to be done with the bearing recessed into the body of the release bearing assembly. I didn't even realize that the bearing compressed like that at all, and it wasn't shown in any of the install videos I watched. I'm on the edge of being OK, so may wait to see how the clutch engages and transmission shifts with the car running. As the clutch wears, the fingers will get closer to the bearing, so it will get better over time. I'd like to address this now so that the clutch releases with less pedal travel, but given that the engine is pushed back 1.5", removing the transmission will be much more work than normal...not sure how much I will have to remove in order to tilt everything down far enough to access and remove the transmission to bellhousing bolts. Also, I'd like to wait until I start up the engine in the car to make sure there are no other issues (e.g., leaks, oil pan interference) which would require pulling the engine to fix.

One step forward, two steps back.