I have searched the forum quite a bit without a direct answer to my question. Maybe somebody can break it down to my simple level... The car: '74 Maverick, 302, C4 (today its 2-barrel'd and lazy, but one day it will wake up) What I want: Daily driver that is safe and fun. I want precise handling and a smooth ride, but I really dont want to spend the money or time to do an exotic custom front end. What the car needs: Total rebuild of the front end. Ball joints, bushings, bearings, tie rods, everything. My primary questions: Should I just rebuild the stock front end with quality components and upgrade the sway bars? or replace the control arms to something more modern? or...? Is there a suspension supplier that I can just call and say "I need a rebuild kit" or something like that? I plan to leave the rear leafs for now, and not sure of there condition yet, but if the price was reasonable, I could probably get that out of the way while I was at it. Any help would be appreciated, Brandon
I keep hearing of PST but never used. I went full Aftermarket Mustang II front end. But doing a search I found this...go down to post #11 http://mmb.maverick.to/threads/pst-super-front-end-kits.2090/
I recently rebuilt the front end of my 72 Comet. I replaced the tie rods, idler arm, sway bar bushings and ball joints. Not difficult or expensive. Made the car steer just like brand new.
The first thing I would suggest is front disc brakes if the car has drum brakes. www.DiscBrakeSwap.com
I was disappointed with the parts I got from Laurel Mountain, wouldn't touch their stuff again... Lower ball joint pins are too tall, needed shims to line the castle nut onto the cotter pin holes... I didn't like the lower arms anyway as the stabilizer link required shims to locate the bushing in the arm, didn't fit till they were cut down a little(orig arms have a stamped opening)... Also I've pulled out the spring mounts as they rattled from the first time I drove it(appear to be offshore junk)... Moog RK8123 appear to be same(or at least very similar) as original Ford LCA, while their K8123(drop the R) is the same junk I got from Laurel Mountain...
Craig: I get to save a a couple buck there...it's got disc front drum rear. Should I replce the control arms while I'm at it or just new bushings and ball joints? If so, why? Old ones maybe stretched so I'd gain piece of mind, or does newer ones have better dementions? Thanks for the inputs.
after all the "new parts" it will still handle like a 41 year old car...JMO I spent all the time and money to rebuild mine only to drop it all out and replace it with a RC-107 kit.
Before you go nuts....might want to take the car to a front end shop and have them check out everything. It is very possible some of the stuff is not worn out.
Yeah, that'd probably be smart. It's a bone stock car, almost like an old granny's car. I know all the typicals are gone because the previous owners did 0 maintenance. I just don't want to spend $500-1000 on a stock rebuild when I could spend $800-1100 on an easy upgrade. I am more than mechanically inclined, and son is pretty good help too, so we feel we can tackle most anything. I really don't want to start cutting and welding though. A bolt on upgrade would be fine, or a standard rebuild with a couple of tweaks for improvements. Like 71gold puts it... If I'm gonna be in there, I'd rather it didn't handle like a 40 year old car when I was done...(it already does that).
I can have my front end "checked" for $20 (5 minute job). Some places will even do it for FREE. Once they tell you what you need...do the work yourself.
At 38 to 46 years old and assuming they've been driven more than 30-40K mi, in most instances everything should be replaced... At the least the sealed components should be replaced(components without grease fittings), boots that sealed in the grease have no doubt fallen apart years ago... My Comet had just shy of 66K mi but had been driven on dusty/sandy country roads, all the joints were loaded with grit and long since worn out...
