The only thing keeping my mav off the road beside the lousy running 302 is the suspension. If I go on the freeway, the car swerves so badly left to right, that I think I will die, and that is why I stopped driving it. There are 2 pieces, one on the left side of the suspension and one on the right. I believe...they are called the idler arm and the pitman arm..right? Ok, one is commonly available, I forget which one, and one does not seem to be made anymore. One in the world do I do to replace the one that is not made anymore? Forget the junkyards, I need a new part, is this possible? ken, would you know? you are a genious as far as supplying part #'s for everything. This one has had me in a stump
alright, more info is needed, I got under the car at one point, and saw that both of these had a lot of play.
suspension help If they're bad, you might as well start thinking about rebuilding the front end. You can do it a little at a time, due to cost or just take it apart now. Some pieces can be replaced without a alignment some you'll have to have it aligned.
The Pitman arm doesn't normally wear out, that 's why it is not serviced by the aftermarket. The bushing that goes into the pitman arm is in the center link (main steering bar) or in the PS assy in a power steering car. The other end of the pitman arm is in the steering box, so see which end has the play to figure out your problem. Ricky's right though, more than likely everything is worn out or well on it's way. You can buy everything you need in a kit and save a little money and some headaches in the near future. Attached is an exploded view, available anytime on Maverickgrabber.com
I don't have a problem with rebuilding the front end on this car, in fact I am going to. The problem though is that they do not seem to manufacture this part anymore, and I need it because it is old and worn. So If I rebuilt the front end on this, I would have a whole new front end with this old part, I believe it is on the pass side. OK, it is the pitman arm. If you call and look, noone even autokrafters has a pitman arm that I have found for a 72 302 maverick. How do we fix this? Attatched is a pic from one from a falcon, though I doubt it is the same, maybe there is a car that is interchangable with a maverick?
That picture is the idler arm (item 6 in the exploded view). You can buy a Maverick idler arm easily, in fact I have one at home now, a brand new MOOG. The pitman arm (item 7) has no bushings to wear out, it is 100% metal and I suspect your problem is the center link or steering box.
Ok, that makes sense charlie, we both posted at the same time. So the pitman arm seems to just be a piece of steel, and If I buy the whole suspension kit, then it will include the necessary bushings to connect to center link and so forth.. Thanks for the info. The corning abilities on this car were never magnificant from the get go..Can anyone recommend a kit that will help this? I have heard that polyeuro bushings will, But I don't want the squeek.
polygraphite Well, from what I've heard and understand, the polygraphite bushings from www.p-s-t.com are graphite embedded polyurethene (sp?) bushings. Supposedly they offer the poly stiffness, but the graphite is supposed to limit the squeaking. I'm ordering mine in the next couple months so if you haven't ordered by then I'll let you know.
Mine was doing the same thing. DEATH RIDE! I almost rolled it goosing it in a corner, yep almost ROLLED a Maverick! About the whole front end was shot, worn rubber, broken spring perches, but the control arms looked OK. I went ahead and got the complete poly kit from PST, plus spring perches. I replaced the lower control arms with the kit, but left the upper (too pricey). Took it in for an alignment. The Mav rode UNBELIEVABLE!!! I could actually take my hand off the steering wheel and give it gas! Thumbs up for the PST kit. Since we are talking PST, I have to give them props. I ordered this kit from them months ago. One thing came up after another, so this became one of those shelf projects. After I got around to installing it... I realized I needed a rear sway bar, and could use new shocks (dying to try the KYB). Anyhow, considering I was so impressed with PST, I decided to go back to them for the parts. They offer a special on sway bars with the kit, but only for 30 days after purchase. So, here I come MONTHS later asking for the discount. Of Course, at first they said piss off, but when push came to shove they gave it to me. I was very impressed. They really didn't give me that much of a fight. They did say the only reason they did it was because of the sway bar AND shock purchase. So, again THUMBS UP FOR PST!
parts Jeremy Look at my post under original parts in the parts wanted section. I gave 3 web sites that have NOS ford and maverick parts. You generally can get almost anything you need from these people. Tony
having fun yet??? and don't forget the front wheel bearings. If they're loose it'll wander all over to.
Thanks for all the help!! I am definetly going to go for the complete rebuild How much did that pst kit cost, and how much time/ how difficult was it to install? Glad I am not the only one who can practically roll a maverick on a straight away!
check here for kit prices and options, PST Website I cheated a bit on the install. I found this old school wrench to do the whole thing for $75 a side, and he came to me! I did help him a bit (to get it done), and it wasn't that difficult. Dirty but not hard. It took all day.
