I know the shock tower notching is a worn out subject, but I had an idea the other night that I have not seen brought up. I want to cut the top off of the tower, cut a couple inches off the outboard side, and relocate the shock mounting point and spring seat further out, allowing a deeper notch and more clearance for headers and plug changes. The shock and spring would now stand nearly vertical. I don't know if that would cause any geometry problems, but I don't think so, other than it would change the effective spring rate, I believe. Also, my car is drag strip only, so I'm not overly concerned if it would cause some cornering weirdness. Any input, pro or con, is welcomed.
it's an old-school pro-stock trick and I plan on doing the same to mine as well. there are some older pictures floating around in the drag style buildups around here. Check out the project section and something should turn up for you to compare to. there are some pic's in here. http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=92723&page=3
Here is a closer picture of Dyno Dons SOHC motor in a Maverick and if you look close you can see how it was pie cut and moved towards the outside. For a drag car going straight...........hopefully...............moving the spring out at the top should pose no problem as long as you've got enough caster in the front end...............running a straight axle car at Bonneville we have used close to 18 degrees to keep it straight at close to 200mph. I've got 7degrees in mine.
I`m not sure but would`nt it be easier to just go w/ a strut set up & be done w/ it.Most of the nicer,faster cars,go this route & you would have more front end adjustments especially w/ upper & lower tube A arms.
not sure about "easier" since you need to remove even more metal in the process of converting to one(at least for the MII anyways). With the old school techniques.. you also have most all your parts right there to be trimmed and reused. MII/strut kits aren't the cheapest alternative.. but they would certianly improve on this old architecture and allow far more adjustment. Which IMO, isn't necessarily needed on a straight line car like this one. Put the tallest spring in there that can handle the load while maintaining the prefered installed height and stick a drag shock in there to go have fun. Unfortunately.. these old rear suspensions are far more involved to get more serious power down when you start going well under 11 seconds with smaller tires.
I'm going to cut the towers only to keep the old Pro Stock spirit alive. I want mine to look like 1970 Pro Stock tech. You have to remove around 2.5 to 3" of metal from the towers which moves the upper a-frame out the same amount. Now you have to move the lower a-frame out or extend it, then deal with bump steer, relocated upper spring pocket, steering arm lengths, wheel track widened to the fender line and more. It's by far, not a perfect answer but it is how they did it back then. These cars only had to drive straight for a quarter mile, who knows what scrub radius, Ackerman and bump steer issues they had. Not the ideal street setup by any means. If I were building a car for street use, cruising or hard core drag racing, it would be done totally different. Either the Fat Man strut or a MII of some type would be the only considerations. I wouldn't even think about retaining the stock Maverick suspension in any form. Get rid of the towers completely, rack and pinion, disc brakes and modern suspension geometry in one package. Just my thoughts, SPark
I tend to agree with Gary and IM14, if this were a anything other than a straight line car I'd agree with the MII style setup, but doing most of the work yourself I think you can save $2k/3k and put that money elsewhere in the car..................remember you are only going 1/8th to 1/4 mile at a time and you are going to be going straight...........hopefully!
If you want to see a specific picture let me know. We have limited picture room on this forum so when I post new pictures sometimes I have to erase the older ones.
