Im looking for a front suspension kit for a 74 maverick that im putting in a 72 manual set up in, but i want to put a better front suspension set up but at the same time I want to keep it a manual set up, does anyone have of any kits or anything that could help me out?
What is your budget? tcp is a great company I heard. I plan purchasing their suspension kit 2k though
My budget is.... well im not sure what my budget is, i just take as it comes and buy one thing at a time, so technically there is no budget since there is no time frame this is 5 years into it. haaa
the items in the front suspension that i feel are the worse to best in their effect are these. the spring perches. switch to roller perches. shocks. get double adjustable shocks. strut rod bushings. get a strut rod that uses some sort of spherical bearing as a pivot. upper control arm bushings. they move forward an back as they go up and down. get some sort of solid bushing like delrin or aluminum or a spherical bearing. lower control arm bushing. replace with spherical bearing. sway bar. get a stiffer one the idea is to eliminate binding and suspension moving in unintended directions. a low profile tire wheel combination greatly helps. spring rates have a great effect but can be offset with the double adjustable shocks. a rear suspension is necessary to address. at the least double adjustable shocks. stiffer leaf spring bushings and shackles or switching to sliders. then the addition of a watts link or a mumford link to give positive rear axle location. also you need to make chassis stiff. top rangers belly bar, export brace and, monte carlo bars are great. sub frame connectors and a roll cage will make the car extremely responsive and predictable.
Well i already have frame connectors and im putting a cage in the car. the car is going to be a drag car, i have a 9in housing out of a 56 ranchero (i think its the one with the odd sized bearings) I do not know a whole lot about spring rate, any tips or part number on some of these parts, and currently I do not have any sway bars, which would be the best? I planed on getting the export brace and monte bar, I did not know about the belly bar. also sort of off topic, I have a 65 4speed top loader close ratio trans out of a 289 stang and it did not come with a trans mount, will the trans mount the same way as the c4 trans? I have a million more questions but ill leave it at that for now. haaa
My top loader four speed went in using the cross member from the automatic. I just bought a new mount for it. Bruce
for drag race you dont need a front sway bar. a rear one is helpfull. you can use one of the maverick specific ones for basic gains or a drag race adjustable one to get real adjustability. the rest of the front end suggestions will help rear caltracs bars with caltacs split monleaf springs and their adjustable shocks will give you a great rear drag suspension. usually you want the lightest spring weight you can get for the front. some drag shocks for the front are a good idea. i think caltracs is offering some that will fit a maverick. im not aware of any odd size bearings for a 9". the early 9" had a bigger pinion seal.
Thomas, instead of going with the TCP Full Coilover Conversion I would recommend doing the bolt-on Econo Coilover conversion. It works better for drag race style cars than the full length version. Let us know if you have any questions.
Carl, I am looking at going with the entire coil over kit. The car will be extensively used as a touring car. Do you see any reason that it couldn't be used with a Unisteer R&P? I am expecting a night and day difference in handling as it can't be any worse than it is now.
Hi Ed, The Unisteer rack works with stock components and for this reason it will work just fine with any of our front suspension systems. The FCOC kit works great for everything from daily driving to full-on road racing. If you're the kind of guy who really likes to maximize performance and is willing to spend a small amount of extra time tuning then I would bump up to the double adjustable shock. The QuickSet-2 is only $200 more and takes you from 16 damper settings to 256!
If you don`t want to pay for cal-tracs rear leaves then get a set of 3 leafs from a 6cyl mav,they are soft & work good.
