1970 Maverick Upgrades?

Discussion in 'General Maverick/Comet' started by miguel, Jan 3, 2016.

  1. miguel

    miguel Member

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    So I have a 1970 Ford Maverick with a 250cid and an automatic 3 speed transmission. Since I have money and time I can put on the car, I am going to drop the 3 speed and put a t5.
    Will this affect any other part in a bad way?
    Pros and cons?
    I want to keep the inline 6 since I drive it everyday and its not as loud as the v8.
    Yes i am goin to put headers but after i tune the engine.
     
  2. 69GT

    69GT Member

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    Well. I put a T-5 behind my 302 and it hasn't been in any way bad. Making it work however was the hard part. Had to custom make a cross-member (friend built it) and it bumps up against the top of the tunnel. We are going to raise the tunnel at some point but I have had it in there for 7 or 8 years with no trouble. I recommend replacing the rear gears with something shorter since the 2.79 or 3.00 gears will no longer be necessary. My 3.70s with the .68 overdrive in 5th gear yield a final drive ratio of 2.52. So now 70 MPH is about 2500 RPM in 5th.

    Go with a hydraulic clutch conversion. They make them for converting 80s and 90s Mustangs to hydraulic. They preserve all the internals and mount the slave cylinder forward of the clutch fork so it moves it the same way the old cable set up did :) You will need to find or be a competent mechanic to properly mount the master cylinder since some modification is required. I ran a cable clutch for about 4 years before going to the hydro set up and it was the second best mod next to the 5-Speed ever on my Car.

    Even with no horsepower mods your car is going to feel like it gained a butt load of power :) Of course 10 or 20 more horses will be making it to your wheels too.
     
  3. bmcdaniel

    bmcdaniel Senile Member

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    I've had a T5 in my 70 for almost 20 years. As mentioned above you'll need to do something about the crossmember, the T5's mounting pad is about 1 1/2" farther rearward than the stock tranny. I think I still have my modified 6-cylinder crossmember somewhere around here that I ran for a few years after I did the swap if you're interested. I now run a V8 crossmember. The 70's transmission tunnel is smaller than in later Mavs. To keep the correct pinion angle I split the top of the tunnel and added metal because the tranny's shifter tube hit. My car was a manual shift to start with so I just used an old Lakewood bellhousing with an adaptor to mate the T5 and used Mustang clutch linkage available from any Mustang supply house.
     
  4. 71_Maverick

    71_Maverick Member

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    T5 is definitely going to help, 2 more gears for a daily driver, plus it's definitely strong enough. The inline 6 engines are dogs though, I had a 200 with header and carb kit sounded great! But slow.. Look into classic inlines great guy, knows allot about the inlines.
     
  5. Krazy Comet

    Krazy Comet Tom

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    A T5 behind a 250 has been discussed on many occasions and within the last week, look around...
     

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