[cornerstone]

Happy to report some progress. I got the drop down battery box mounted under the bed behind the cab on the passenger side frame with a custom made bracket. Also installed a 200 amp circuit breaker directly next to the battery box connected to the positive 2 awg. cable and routed it to the front drivers side of the engine compartment. That's where my computer will reside for the L83. I'm pretty much copying TA-C10's design with a couple minor changes. I also dug up my original truck wire harness and gave it a good cleaning and inspection. Happy to report my Uncle Loyd took excellent care of his wiring and only one splice was made over all the years. I plan to take off all the factory tape and separate all the wiring that won't be used in the new set up, then re-tape and loom everything into different sections.

While I was rolling around on my creeper under the truck I was reminded of another issue that needs to be addressed, and that would be to add clearance around the driveshaft. You'll notice in the pics the driveshaft has rub marks on it where it has rubbed the back lowest part of the cab. It is also that close to the top of the driveshaft loop in the CPP lowering center crossmember as well. I may even have to change the pinion angle. In addition, I don't like the way the engine cover is so close to what used to be the wiring channel on the now smooth firewall so I wanna do something about that too. I got to thinking that it may be the custom motor mounts I made are causing both of these problems. It's possible I placed the engine too high in the bay which would cause both of the 2 issues previously mentioned.