Hey fellas, As the car has gotten a bit faster I'm having to start tackling the looseness of the car as its going down the track.. for the front I have pretty much replaced everything minus the gear box, which is on the list to do... The one thing that is jumping a little ahead of that though is the condition the leaf spring bushings.. They are probably the original ones from 76 and while I was easily able to replace the rear shackle bushings with the polyurethane ones for a cougar, the fronts have a bit more of a issue... Somewhere up the history of the car someone decided to put in some sub frame connectors (SFC)... I don't know if they are aftermarket or home made but are a poor design... for one, the front is just welded to the end of the of the sub frame, where normally you'd want the SFC to follow the full length of the factory frame...The second part though is the killer.... since the rear "frame" and the front "frame" of the MavCom are not in line and the rear is further apart, they have the SFC turning and terminating at the exact spot where the leaf spring front eye bolt goes.. so now I have to sawzall or plasma cut the sub frame to be able to access the the bolt to replace the very dry rotted bushings... The advice I'm looking for is, What options do I have for the bushings, stock rubber for one, and I see global west makes a aluminum sleeve with derlin inserts... What other options are there? Thanks
Calvert sells solid bushing which will be your best bet for drag racing,& if you want to get their bars,stay with 3 leafs as they work better with them.
I have poly bushings in mine. Their noisy and I'm contemplating changing to cheap parts store rubber. Their more rigid than oem but will be quieter.
Global west sells shackle kits thatre grease able. they don't make one for the maverick specificlyrics but the onesame for the cougar fit. I just bought some to redo when I put my caltracs on
I don't think you can use the global west front bushings with the caltracs.. they have their own... I am just guessing...
They're do work. both are aluminum one is just geaseable. global west even mentions on their website that their shackles are designed to work with caltracs
So today I moved the car to the back yard and proceeded to pull off one leaf spring.. Like I mentioned before, the car has some sort of home made subframe connectors and they terminate right where the access hole is for the front leaf spring eye bolt.. So, I had to cut them off to access it.. only to find that after cutting off the section of SFC I find they also welded a plate that I now have to grind and hole saw thru....fail
I gave up.. after an hour of dicking around trying to get the car high enough to be able to get under it, sparks flying everywhere and realizing how much of a pain in the balls its going to be to holesaw the holes.. I decided to take the car over this week to a local fab guy and just have him plasma the hole.. I'll then replace the bushing and take the car back and have a better set of sub frame connectors either put in or made up...
