1975 Maverick - Ldo

leeinphx submitted a new car to the Garage :

1975 Maverick - Ldo

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Bumper tuck done, took 2" out by re-drilling the base plates. Trimmed the fascia to match. While it was off, shimmed out one side since it had taken a bit of a hit. This big bumper will come off eventually when i do the small bumper conversion. Got seat belts back from re-webbing and those will go in this weekend.

 

http://mmb.maverick.to/threads/maverick-dash-pad-repair-kit.116590/#post-1126845

 

leeinphx updated 1975 Maverick - Ldo

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Bought a bumper from another Mav guy here in town and replaced the bent up bumper with a nice straight one. Looks good with the tuck so will stay this way for a while.

 

Haven't been diligent in keeping this up to date. Will post pics when I get them downloaded.

Status as of December 2019:

Stripped the engine bay wiring out to fit in the replacement engine. Will need to figure out what I want to do for lights and signals, but may make up a new wiring harness for these things as the old harness is pretty stiff. It also has a lot of the electronic ignition wring in it that won't work on the new motor so would have cluttered up the engine bay more than necessary.

The 5.0l EFI engine from the '92 Cougar donor has been installed. Reversed the lower frame brackets so the engine was moved forward as much as possible. The AC pump was hitting the left shock tower. As it is, still had to cut a big hole in it to accommodate the fitting and hoses. Got a great solution from Nostalgic air for the fitting. They modified one of their standard parts to fit the modern compressor and gave me a 90 degree angle up. Still have to have hoses made up. Will put a substantial brace under the shock tower to beef up where the hole was cut before putting this on the road.

Finally got the unisteer rack and pinion system delivered. Was a pretty easy install. Since the dash was apart to modify the column for the connections, will also take out the AC/Heater box in the coming weeks to replace the heater core so I don't have to deal with that later on. No doubt will find some duct hoses and other parts that need replaced while I'm in there so not sure that will be back in before first start on the 5.0. Clearance for the long tube headers was no issue due to the unisteer system. Will have a pressure hose made up to match the fittings so that I can use the factory PS pump on the donor motor.

Bought a painless harness to get the engine running, that install is up next. Discovered I had not saved all the parts I needed as the barometric sensor was tossed when I pulled the factory harness off the donor. (That or I simply lost it). If I had stripped the factory harness and tried to use it, would not have had that input to the computer. Still not quite sure where the computer will go, but probably in place of the box for the seat belt controller that keeps our cars from starting. Still have quite a bit of wiring to do to the fuel pump and starter system.

Took out the C4 and installed the AOD. The big fat body of the AOD conflicted with the long tube headers, so those have been taken back off and will be donated to my F100 project. Bought some shorty headers so I can route the exhaust out of the way. Will likely use the cable style floor shifter from the donor so that will get swapped in next as well. With the engine forward, was able to put the cross member in, but just bolted to the back of the frame mounting location. Not sure that will remain long term and get braced up, but will be ok for first start. Used a '98 explorer trans mount as that moved the bolt location forward onto the cross member. Did require drilling new holes as the bolt pattern is wider.

Took out the fuel tank and drilled the vent so that can be used as a return. Installed an in-line fuel pump behind the axle and routed fuel line to the engine using most of the donor fuel line including the filter. Tank looks really clean and rust free... thank you Arizona weather.

Next update will be with pics and hopefully after first start to see how that goes.

 

The 5.0l conversion is nearing first start. Installed the engine bay portion of the painless harness. Had to buy a new distributor that had the Thin Film Ignition Module built in ('91-93 Mustang). The painless harness doesn't support the later version with the remote TFI ('94-95 Mustang) which is what I got with the donor vehicle ('92 Cougar XR-7). The Cougar/Thunderbird line got the upgrades several years before the mustang,

Spent days trying to locate a reasonably price ECM. Turns out the later generation should work, just have to re-pin the ECM for about 8 elements so going with the later Mustang ECM. Practiced moving pins on my old harness and now feel comfortable modifying the $400 painless harness.

The harness had plenty of extra wire, so now looking at mounting locations. It may actually reach under the driver's seat, so that is the first choice right now. Unfortunately the relay and fuse panels have to go with it. Not sure there is room for all that under the seat.

Relocated the battery to the trunk. As soon as I get some cleanup done, I'll post pictures of that. Have the fuel pump relay and power all back there. Just need to route the trigger wire for the relay.

While trying to identify a key-on and solenoid trigger wires under the dash, discovered that the ignition switch was bad. This would explain why the PO installed a dash push button for the solenoid start wire. Got replacement ordered, but can't finalize the wiring until I know what wires do what. Took out the seat belt module and there should be a key on power there I can use. This is an early '75 that had the '74 seat belt interlock system.

 

You have done a LOT of work to that car! I hope you get rewarded with a test drive sooner than later.

 

WoW, you're gettin with it.

Lots of Turbo 2.3 T-Bird guys have converted the dist mounted module to remote. Of course they're using the orig TFI dist and remote wiring the module. Remote modules first appeared on T-Bird in '88 with the 3.8 v6, the Fox chassis 5.0 or 2.3T Birds never had a remote module.

BTW you probably should have a grey module, modules for OBD II are black and have dwell controlled by PCM. Those work on earlier system but tend to over heat.

 

The Painless harness was wired for the TFI integrated in the distributor, so bought one of those to avoid having issues getting going. The '92 cougar donor had the later iteration with the remote TFI. I have that if there is ever an issue, I can wire it up, kept that part of the wiring harness so I have the connectors.

I did want to use the later ECM since that is what I had on hand from the donor, so moved a few pins and it fired right up with it.

 

I certainly hope so. Have to put the lights and some of the interior back together, and fab a montecarlo bar since neither of the shock tower braces will go back on, then time for a drive before I get the rest done. The computer and all the Painless stuff is sitting in the passenger seat right now, but it can go along for a ride right there!

 

Been a quite a while since I put an update in my garage. Been working pretty hard on it the last couple months. here are a couple pics of the current state of affairs on the car.

 

What guages are you using, they look good ! How much trouble?

 

They are New Vintage USA (NVU)~ Performance Series 2 Gauges. At the top of the thread, there is a link to my garage where I put the text of the update. There is also a link to the tech article that I wrote up on how I installed them.