One thing I have never liked about this car is the steering. Ultimately I may need to put an aftermarket front end under it to be happy, and I know I'm not getting out of that for less than a couple grand and probably half a year on jackstands. So for now the suspension needs to stay stock or close to it. Is there such a thing as a Maverick with a lower than stock ride height and power steering that doesn't suffer from Tourette's when the road is anything less than smooth at 40-50 mph? Am I chasing rainbows when I dream of a life without wandering and bump steer? The front end is not worn out, the PS control valve is rebuilt, the Shelby mod's been done, alignment is good and it even has extra caster. Maybe the pump itself isn't putting out enough pressure, (it does whine some) or maybe it's the wide tires. I don't know. I know the stock suspension design is ancient and inherently flawed. But I refuse to believe people just accepted this behavior as normal in the 70's and prior. Be honest now - does anyone have a Maverick/Comet that steers right under all conditions and holds the line like a normal car without having made massive changes at great expense? I just want to know if it's possible, so my time and money are spent efficiently. Every time I think I've made a step in the right direction there's some tradeoff. If the only real answer is to cut it all out and go full aftermarket I can accept that, but I can't do it for a while. Thanks.
Been over this before, but.....I have been installing 84-86 chevy cavalier type racks in my cars, and had that setup in my previous Mav and that car was so steady and str8 down the road, and steered awesome, I have now adapted that same setup under my current Mav, this time with a 5.0, T-5, and Hedman headers. An awesome setup that only set me back around $400 for all the stuff to make it work. Of course I did all the bracket making and column cutting myself, but for the money I saved it was worth the time. I have this rack under, my 55 ford club sedan, and my brother-in-laws, 55, my current and previous Mavs, and a friends Mav, and also my 65 and 63 Fairlanes.
im planning on doing a electric steering on my car. you get a steering column out of a mid 2000 gm car like the sunfire i believe. then you get a controller off of ebay to have knob to adjust the amount of assist. you will need to hobble the gm column and the maverick column together. then you will need to get a manual steering center link, pitman arm and idler arm. this can be done for pretty cheap. it should be under $300 if you source every thing correctly.
Another option without surgery is the Borgenson power steering box kit. You can get it with or without the pump and line kit, and it bolts in where the factory box mounts. The only thing I would prefer is to use a factory Maverick manual steering center link instead of the adapter that threads on where the valve mounts. One or two members here have done it with decent results. If you are still running your 351W, you might need to get some measurements for clearance from one of those guys. It might be tight with the bigger engine.
Unisteer is another option. The newly produced unit is kind of pricey $1600 and includes pump, hoses, bracket and rack. Nick Dominck was the car they used to produce these units. Nick say's it works great, as far as he is concerned.
that's great and all except the fact its 1600......in the end...spend a bit more and have no towers and infinite options for the rest of your life when it comes to the engine bay..if i were to choose in between the two i would hold out longer till i had more cash to drop on a R&C kit.
Both of these are really interesting. Particularly Bryant's idea, since it probably stands the best chance of coexisting with my headers, which were a giant pain that I'd like not to revisit. Can either of you point me to more information, maybe a writeup? Thanks! Could it really be that simple? Seriously, I switch to big-and-littles and that's it? If I did that, I'd probably care less about the power steering so I could go manual. Best I can tell the PS control valve is where the slop mainly comes from and I can't see any way it wouldn't, unless it just needs more pressure. Are you suggesting a smaller tire as a cure by itself, or as a way to go manual? I really like the idea of my car having a stock-looking engine bay with a 351w and every factory option a Maverick could have. AC, power brakes, steering, etc. That's the reason I've resisted the idea of going manual, it feels like a step back. But I'm about willing at this point to abandon that whole concept. I really didn't want to use skinny tires up front either, because I have a lot more opportunity to have fun throwing it around corners than drag racing, but whatever at this point. Neither of those things are safe to do when all the car wants is guardrail.
The stock setup can he made to work just fine if you need to keep it driving around on the cheap. Just need to remember that not everyone cuts up their cars just so their steering works as it was designed to. Do it in stages and eventually you'll have an entirely new system that works with big OR little tires. Millions have done it and proper maintenance is key.
Right, that's what I was asking initially. It's taken me this long to start thinking about giving up on the stock suspension, but I don't know how many "stages" it's going to take. Far as I can tell I ran out of things to fix quite a while ago and the best I can say is "it sucks less." At this point I'm just trying to find out what exactly there is to do to the stock suspension, what I'm doing wrong, or if this is as good as it gets. I either want to get it driving right on the stock suspension once and for all, or quit wasting time and money on it until I can do something major.
