hello everyone my name is victor and im a mavoholic.. my first experience with a maverick was 13 years ago when i bought my first car at the age of 16. i bought it from a auto salvager in my home town for $250 it was a 70 plain jane maverick with a 250 l6. when i bought it it needed a new water pump, the brakes were almost locked up, it needed a hood, the front roll pan was almost ripped off because the salvager was lazy and decided to pull it with a chain hooked to the bottom of it after i already payed for it.. but anyway i immediately started working on it. after about 650 dollars later i got a visit from the local police department knocking on my door. when i answered they served me a citation to court, well after a while i found out that when i got the title put in my name that they ran the vin on the car and come to find out i actually bought a car that was stolen in 1975. well needless to say i was on fire, 900 dollars working odd jobs at 16 was not easy and my maverick was taken away from me, in that moment i decided that i was going to track the original owner and let him know his car was found and after a lot of work i found him in the town next to mine and ive actually run into him before at a junkyard. he ended up having to pay 700 dollars in impound fees and 90 dollars in taxes to get his car back but when he got it he cried so i wasn't about to ask him if i could have it or buy it. ive wanted another maverick since then but had to settle with many different pieces of crap and now at the age of 29 i finally found one. its a 71 grabber maverick with a 200 l6 for 1,300 dollars. it needs brake work done, more then likely a master cylinder replacement, a water pump and some tweaking to the engine,my major issue with the car is that while it sat with a leaky battery it ate through i guess is a crossmember that holds two rods that come from the suspension, the battery post and part of the inner fender. it has a clean title as far as i know. im excited as hell and cant wait to cruise in this car.. dose anyone else have any bad luck with these cars like that?
Awesome story. Congratulations on getting another Maverick. That's real nice that the owner's car is stolen and he has to pay $790 to get it back. That's just plain extortion. By the way, it also "needs" a V-8.
from Virginia Beach, The answer to your question is yes. Almost everyone here has had the battery tray rotted out.
Just went back and read the post again. The cross member you're talking about sounds like the one that the strut rods attach to. You'll need to go to the parts wanted section and see if any one has one or a local junk yard with a Mav/comet in it.
i know right damn government will suck you dry.. i wish i could do a v8 swap but its not in the budget and with my current heart problems i cant do much, im thinking of just putting a new distributor, carburetor, and ignition and getting good gas milage for now. its got over 450, 000 miles on it now but it idles smooth and i dont know if it will need a rebuild or not, so far i have rebuilt the carburetor and just checked everything over, so far all of the problems are as listed.. needs a new brake master cylinder, water pump, belt, drum brake rebuild, gas tank is full of black dust, two 1 by 4 inch rust hole in the floor pan along the seams, who ever last worked on it caused the cilinoid hot wire to ground out on the fender shorting out the wipers, turning signals, gauge cluster lights, brake lights and one head light, it needs a new turning signal switch as well as the combo switch for the air conditioning but thats no worry cuz the ac pump has been ripped off and all thats left is the rubber hoses, the battery will be moved to the trunck and the crossmember that hold the rods from the suspention will need to be fixed or replaced, the driver side of the bench seat almost sinks to the floor when you sit in it, there is a residue on the windshield that acetone wont even get off and wiper blades, plus all tires and im not sure if the original wheels still hold air but considering it was made in 1971 and used as a farm car its hole life that isnt too bad..
