Has anyone welded in a stock Mustang II front end into their Maverick? I know there are all kinds of aftermarket Mustang II kits and dragracing front end kits. The frames are a slightly different width. I would like to hear from others who have done this. Thank Mark
I almost have mine done. Just a few more hours of fab work....just can't seem to get it all done. Stock 75 Mustang II suspension with a 429 engine. I've got a couple of pics in the technical forum. Do an advanced search there on "big block" and "Mustang II" using my name as the poster. Several members have contacted me for a technical atrticle. Just another thing to get around to. There are a couple of other guys here that have done it as well. Cleaver
I looked at your pictures in the technical forum. Nice work! It looks like you kept the cross member the same width. How did the struts fit up? I was surprised to see the ride height, were it is. I guess you cut a huge chunk out of the stock frame rails to get the MII cross member to mount in. Any tips or pictures would be appreciated. I’m planning to to this to mine in about a month. Thanks Mark
I did mine that way as well (stock '74 Bobcat front crossmember). Yes you have to cut the frame rails. Do a search.....I posted a bunch of pictures.
I have done it as well I have some pics here and over on fordmaverick.com My pc crashed so I don't have pics to readily post mine was from a 78 bobcat........
Mavman, Were you able to use the Maverick strut arm connection points on the frame to hook up to Mustang II strut arms? Thanks mark
I didn't use the strut rods. I think it might have worked, but I went with strut rod eliminators and tubular upper & lower A-Arms. Much easier that way.
I kind of looked at using the Maverick strut arms and it looked like the rotation center was too far inboard compared to the Mustang II. Like mavman said it might work but I think you would have to split the strut arm crossmenber and add to the middle and remove from the ends to get the bushings to line up better. Don't know for sure. I ended up with a hybrid. I modified the Mustang II struts and re-used the Maverick lower control arm bushing, eccentric bolt and adjustment plates. This is actually a pretty common modification used by street rodders. I feel pretty good about it but like I said I still have a few hours of fab work to do. I had decided I was going to build my own headers so this wasn't a big deal. I think the tubular arms and strut rod eliminators mavman used or a front mounted strut arm like you are talking about would open up the possibilities to using off-the-shelf headers. Just an observation. Cleaver
I wanted to hook up the struts on mine and use the stock suspension. I found these (Ebay # 8038096361), which might work. By the way, did you make your headers yet? I wonder if, HOK-6224HKR hookers would work? I can’t wait to get some other projects done and then I’m going to hack off the &%!@!shock towers off my Maverick. Later MarkW
Oops, I didn't see the picture you attached. Looks like you got your headers. Also, the part on ebay may be what you already did you yours. MarkW
Yep, that e-bay auction is exactly what I did to mine. That is a good deal if it is a pair of arms. I really can't tell if it is or not - I have $15 for new bushings and $25 to my machinist for turning down the bushing supports. + about 10 hours of time. Like I said - the mounts will be inboard of the frame rails and they are kind of in the way for where the headers want to be. My headers are done with the exception of finish weld around the collector and painting. 1-7/8 primary 36" long with 19" x3-1/2" collector. They pretty much fill up the space that was open. Cleaver
How are you going to address the ackerman angle since the mustang II and Pinto both have shorter wheel bases than the Maverick. I know it's not a ton of difference, but every little bit helps handling. Unless these are just straight line machines, then never mind. I'm not sure if R&C or Heidt make different spindles for different applications either. Maybe it's not a big enough difference to worry about it. Maverick 103 in Mustang II 96.2 in Pinto/Bobcat 94 in
Well crap! I'm going about this all wrong. There are too many variables. It all depends on what wheels and tires you decide to use. I can calculate what offset you'd need to get the right ackerman angle if i had the wheel mounting surface width and the tire width you'd like to run. By changing the offset distance you would effectively change the front track width to get the right angle. Just for info... Ackerman angle is set by drawing a line from the center of the front tire to the center of the rear end. The tie-rod arm on the spindle should lie along this line. Based on some initial calculations my SWAG is that it probably doesn't matter. There's a one degree difference you'd have to make up by putting a stock Pinto IFS under a MAV. Assuming that you're going to put some kind of toe correction in the alignment, all of this can probably be thrown out the window. You could correct that by moving the center of the tire ~2.5 inches outboard. This is assuming 0 offset in the stock Pinto wheels. This would make the front track on the maverick 4.32 inches wider than stock, so you'd have to compensate for that on the rear as well. It would be interesting to actually what it worked out to be with actual measurements though. Oh well, it's some good food for thought. I was using 55.5 inches WMS for the Pinto and 56.5 inches WMS for the Maverick stock. EDIT: I did a quick search and this site is really useful in visualizing what I'm talking about. http://www.rctek.com/handling/toe_angle_effect_on_ackerman_steering_principle.html The pinto/M II front end will automatically give you more ackerman, which will toe the wheels in more during a turn. This will make the steering feel "quick." By aligning it with some initial toe-in you'll get back to more of a true ackerman. I don't know how much toe-in ford designed for though, so you might still have more ackerman even with a degree or two of toe-in. I guess the point to all of my rambling is that the handling should be pretty darn good, but the tire wear may be slightly accelerated.
That is good stuff tho think about. Interesting link too. Sounds like you answered your own question....for certain situations it matters and others it doesn't. For all out canyon carvers the geometry is a little screwed up. For drag and street machine use it doesn't really matter. My opinion. I expect the front tires will squall a little doing parking lot maneuvers......or is that the rear tires sqaulling from the spool Cleaver
