Removing the right front suspension was going great until I ran into a stuck lower ball joint. Could not get a clean "hit" on the top of the ball joint due to the way it is positioned. No matter what I tried I could not get it out. Fortunately a quick call to RCR got me to Butch who told me to position a small ball jack in between the upper and lower control arms and put them under pressure. Then a small tap on the lower control arm would free it. Following his advice I was able to free it - sure helps to know what you are doing! I'm ordering new ball joints as replacements since my "efforts" pretty much mangled the threads and top of the ball joint.
With that adventure behind me the removal of the right front suspension proceeded without incident.
Next up was removing the rack and pinion. At first I was a little stumped on how to get it off. However with help from Bryanf on this forum the solution was actually very easy. For others that might run into this here's how it is done.
First pull off the rubber boot covering the driver's side tie rod which reveals this:
Placing an open-ended wrench on it and unscrewing it will remove the tie rod from the shaft. There is an identical one on the passenger's side. Removing that one shortens the assembly enough so that after the 6 support bolts and spacers are removed it can easily be taken out of the chassis.
Next up will be the prep work on the fuel tanks. I had to shave a little off of the openings cut by RCR to make sure it was easy to push the tanks in and take them out. Once I install the fuel sender, vent and fuel pick up I might have to shave some more off just to make sure it will easily clear that opening. To secure the fuel tank once installed I'm leaning toward the rubber squares used by Chuck and Ryan in their build - in fact I had already ordered the exact material they used from McMaster-Carr several months ago in preparation.
I returned my fuel senders to Centroid Products to be shortened to 5.5" (tank depth is 6") and recalibrated to read 240/33 ohms to match the default settings on my Speedhut fuel gauges instead of 100/0. Hopefully I will get them back soon as I need them to continue the fuel tank install process.
Bryanf's build log contained the measurements for the fuel tanks and I verified that my tanks match his measurements exactly. Just another verification of the tolerances Fran and his crew achieve with their aluminum expertise.
Using those measurements I'm now considering how to cut an opening to provide access to the sender, vent and fuel pickup (with a suitable screw on cover). There's not a lot of room back there but having gone through what is necessary to remove the fuel tank (i.e. complete removal of the front suspension) I really don't want to have to do that should there be an issue with the fuel sender or a leak either from the fuel pickup or the vent. Adding to that difficulty would be having at least some fuel in the tank and making it heaver.
At this point I am considering two small round openings (over the vent and fuel pick up) and one large round opening to match the outside dimensions of the fuel sender.
This will take a lot of measurements (and re-measurements) to figure out - especially since there is no way to actually SEE through the aluminum and know exactly where those openings are in the fuel tank.
X ray vision would be really helpful right about now!