71 maverick doing it all better than stock.

[bryant]

i have purchased a 71 maverick. it was owned by a really good friend and i helped him a lot with the build. he has moved on from this hobby and made me a really good deal on the car.
this car is really built up.
ill start with the car as i have received it. ill list the parts from the front and work my way to the back.


a billet grill
a custom aluminum air dam
an aluminum radiator
a taurus fan
a 331 motor
fox mustang serpentine drive
3g alternator
afr 185 heads
roller rocker arms
rocker arm girdles
fms aluminium valve covers
edelbrock rpm air gap intake
tfs stage 2 roller cam.
moroso t sump oil pan
hooker headers
msd programable 6al-2
msd blaster coil
holley 650 hp carb
k&n 3 air filter
varishock 2 way coil over conversion
aluminum fly wheel
dual friction king cobra clutch
g force t5 close ratio transmission
pro 5.0 shifter
cnc hydraulic master and slave cylinder set up
ford high torque starter
3" flow tech x pipe with cut outs going to 2.5" magnaflow mufflers with tail pipes.
aluminum drive shaft
ford 9" nodular case, daytona pinion support, billet yoke, 4.10 gears, 31 spline tracloc lsd, 31 spline axles, will wood disk brakes.
varishock 2 way shocks
mustang fuel tank modified with a internal hinged door sump, -10 feed and -8 return.
holley hp 125 fuel pump
center line 17" wheels with nitto tires.


interior
8 point roll cage with swing out door bars and drivers side window net
autopower 5 point camlock harness
corbeau seats
custom dash full of autometer gauges
aluminum rear fire wall
fire suppression system
nos bottle and billet aluminum mounts
rattle trap sound deading


thats about every thing that i can think of that is installed in the car.
it also includes to be installed
total control upper and lower control arms
mega squirt 3 computer and harness
acufab 90mm throttle body
55lb fuel injectors
edis dis system
vortec t trim supercharger.


so my plan is install the above parts and some parts that i have which are
maverickman carbon fiber cowl hood
aerocatch flush hood pins
wilwood front disk brakes
up date the under dash hydraulic clutch to my custom designed firewall mounted master cylinder and pedal.
k&n extreem lid
ford slant top valve covers.


the engine compartment is really dirty. i will clean and detail it so i can look at it and not cringe.
ive been a drag racer for ever but due mostly to the dragstrips closing im going to try autocrossing. the local autocross is only a few miles away so its very convenient to go to. good guys comes and has an autocross that i will enter also. i do plan on taking the car to silver state classic also. my goal is reach the grand sport class where i can run a top speed of 160 mph. i also will look into going to some standing mile races and ive been seeing the texas roll racing and may look into that some day.


so hears some pics of the car.

this is pretty much how i received it. it did have the front air dam on it also.
https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=105509&stc=1

heres the engine compartment
https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=105510&stc=1

this car did participate in the silver state classic in 2011 and 2012
here its is in 2011.
https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=105511&stc=1

and here it is in 2012
https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=105512&stc=1

first thing i did when i got this car is clean up the engine compartment, change the hydraulic clutch from a under dash master cylinder set up that didnt have enough travel and to install a maverick man carbon fiber hood

https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=105513&stc=1

https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=105514&stc=1

https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=105515&stc=1

next i install the tcp control arms and the wilwood front brakes
https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=105516&stc=1

https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=105517&stc=1

im taking an autocross school this weekend with the car. this is the first time ive driven in an autocross so im really excited about it.

[Red67Mustang]

Cool car. I've always kinda liked the Maverick...

[Jear3030]

Bryant,

That is awesome!!! Congrats!

[Dave B]

It's cool you ended up with the car, since you've done so much work on it already.

[Nothingface5384]

Like the Maverickman c/f cowl hood
Look up topranger on maverick.to for hd tubular export/monte bar and bellybar along with his essentric kit with shelby index tool

Camaro fender to rad bars cant hurt either

[GrabberGT]

Glad to see this car bad on the road again. You guys have done soo much with it.

[bryant]

today i took a scca autocross driving school. it was so much fun! i killed lots of cones! taking a 400 hp beast and trying to make it turn is tricky.
heres video of my first run.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk4EQpO6i68

that was so much fun

heres another video of a better run


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmziDoc8-9s

im hooked. i need better tires. i think im going to try competing in the cam class in scca.

[instro84]

nice looking maverick.

[Tomswheels]

Sweet! We look forward to seeing you out there with us CAMming it up! Nov 30 the we will have at least 10 cars there, come park with us and have some lunch, we bring the grill!

[bryant]

i have family in town that weekend but im going to do my best to get away for this.

[Jear3030]

Looking Good!!!

[wfo guy]

I enjoyed the videos. Progress is progress! I'm an ex-dragracer in blown alky dragsters. Depending on what you've been exposed to, the amount of finesse in accomplishing ones goals varies. :) Good luck and pick the best parts the first time.

[bryant]

i made it to the autocross today and ran in the cam class.

the guys in the cam class are a great bunch of guys. really nice and helpful.

so this last week i changed from a 7/8" swaybar to a 1 1/8", removed the rear traction bar links and found a broken front coil over mount and fixed it.

all of this made the car go from having a twitchy oversteer feel to an understeer feel. so now i plan on going back to the smaller sway bar and replace its polyurethane endlinks with rod end links.

i have to work on being able to properly read the autocross course. my first 2 runs i messed up the lane change element and didnt realize it.

i am hooked and plan on running the full san diego scca calendar next year.

[Tomswheels]

Bryant, great to meet you yesterday, and lots of fun watching/ hearing the Maverick thunder around one of our toughest tracks of the year! Remember the Qualcomm surface is tricky, and since it was cooler yesterday, that might have led to some of the understeer. I run the biggest front bar possible in my Valiant, and then try and adjust when needed using the rear bar. Stickier front tires will also give you a clearer picture of what the front really needs. Bad tires+ slick surface = tough read on suspension setup. I am looking forward to running with you next year.

[monkeystik]

i love the front spoiler,i might have to steal that idea for mine

[Bonehead]

Always been a fan of the Maverick. Fun little cars. Good luck on yours!!!

[bryant]

i love the front spoiler,i might have to steal that idea for mine

i have it in a cad design that i can get cut out and made. the place i went to get a cost on the water jetting was really pricy. i need to shop around to see if it would be worth building for sale.

[bryant]

so i have been going to the autocross pretty frequently. i have started to get an understanding of what and why the car behaves the way it does. first problem tires. i was on 4 year old nito 555s. so not the best tires. i just got some falcons. just driving on the street i can tell the increase in grip. next ive been having a local alignment shop do my front alignment. its an old school shop that does it with out the computer machines. you know the old school way. they just didnt get that i wanted a handling alignment for autocross. they said that will wear the tires. the last time they aligned the car i had set all the caster adjustments to the max the had them only adjust one side to match the other. so i took the time to do my own alignment. i left the caster alone. i used an angle finder app on my i phone to adjust the camber from the 0 degrees they had it at to -2 degrees. i then made 2 toe bars that clamp to the bottom of the wheel and used tape measure to set toe. i set it to 1/8" toe in.
next thing i was experiencing was a whip effect in the rear end. i believed that my rear leaf springs would deflect badly to the side in a turn and when i would straighten out and apply power the rear would want to whip back the other way. so ive made a pan hard bar. thank you to ron sutton for the guidance with the design. here are pics of the pan hard bar

view from the bottom. you can see the slider tube coming down from the frame with the gold slider clamp . also note the tube reinforcement brace. i ran it to the fuel tank support. you can also see how the slider box clamps onto the differential.
111648

Here you can see the slider box clamped to the differential.
111649

another angle of the slider box.
111650

here you can see the tube slider. i ended up with a limited amount of height adjustment. going down it will hit the leafspring and going up it will hit the exhaust. i would say i have about 2 to 3 inches of adjustment for roll center.
111651

heres a pick of the slider bar bracket and rod end. Ron Sutton sells these at a really good price.
111652

heres a different view of the axle clamp slider box assembly.
111653

and another, note the first attempt at a light weight pvc pan hard bar!
111654

heres my good buddy Mike welding the the tube slider to the frame. check out our cool stands. the car goes up on the hoist then we have 4 wheel stands that are about 5' high we set the car down on so the suspension is compressed at ride height. also you get a good look at the brand new falcon tires on the car.
111655

here is the slider tube. if you look above the exhaust pipe you can see where we welded the tube to a plate that we shaped and welded to the floor and frame rail.
111656

another view of the slider tube that you can see the frame welding.
111657

now the car feels glued to the street. this weekend get to test it out at the autocross.

[Tomswheels]

Looking good Bry.... Excited to see it in action Sunday!

[xsboost90]

falkens are my favorites- rt615k's at least. Those will be on my mustang. IF the alignment shop will not do what you want- time to find a new shop. My old one did it the old school way and every time i would go the price was a $100 more than the previous. Finally found someone who is awesome and not gouging me too. Love the maverick- i could have had one for my first car- had it all lined up then my dad comes home with this beat up 79 mustang. Changed history forever.

[bryant]

thanks tom. i wont make it sunday. going to the ford show at knotts. ill be at practice on saturday.

[JTC85]

always loved mavericks, good build!

[bryant]

Update.
I placed 2nd overall last year in cam-s (only 4 cars and only 2 of us ran most of the whole season), but I got a trophy so that was cool.
In the beginning of the year I was around 10 seconds slower than the leaders. By summer I had gotten down to 2 seconds behind the leader. The only real change to the car sense the last update was changing the stock wilwood pads to racing pads. That really helped with the braking. It also makes a big mess. I tried 3 different sets of racing pads over the last half of the year. Thanks to Tobin, I have a set on that dont dust as bad as the others and work just as well.
My falcon tires started going away in october. I took another autocross school in noverber and learned a few key things that really helped.
This year with the rule changes I'm in cam-t class. So far we have had up to 15 entries for a race. The first two races I was still on the near slick tread depth falcons. At the last race I had 2 new bridgstones on the front and the dead falcons on the back. Wow what a crazy set up. the front end was glued and the rear was on ice. Talk about a difficult car to drive. the mismatch of grip really taught me a lot about how having equal grip front to rear is important. I would have been faster with the dead falcons all the way around.
I should have the rear bridgstones by the next event. I cant wait to drive with the fresh tires. These bridgestones are incredible. just driving down the street you hear them sticking and ripping from the road surface.
I have some plans for my motor this year. Ive decided to not supercharge it. The motor was built with low compression to be supercharged. Im going to swap the pistons out to get the compression back. The current motor did throw down 350hp on a chassis dyno that I suspect reads high. I expect the compression bump will get me around 50 more hp.
Also about 3/4s of the way through last year, I fried my gear set. I figured that the turns were pushing the gear oil out into the tubes and when I would apply power out of the turns, I had no lube. I welded in baffles to keep the oil in the center section. I changed the gear from 4.10s to 3.89s. The new gears are better on the freeway but the 4.10s were perfect on the autocross. I have a close ration g-force gear t5 that really works well with the 4.10s. I have the standard ratio g force gear also and Im thinking about trying when I do the motor piston swap.
So that where Im at right now. Im extremely excited about the up coming year. I plan on going to the cam challenge at fontana.

[Tomswheels]

Looking good Bry!

[bryant]

So, I have not updated this thread for 2 years it looks like. 2016 was a year of mostly driving and working on driving skill. Then in 2017 I codrove a friends 69 Camaro with full DSE suspension and an LS7 motor. I also got to drive a lot of other cars throughout the year. It was a fanomenal year of learning driving, and suspension tuning skills. I was lucky enough to have been choose for the spirit of the event award at the CAM Challenge, west which came with a gift certificate to EVO school. I took Phase 1 and phase 2 in the end of October and then went to Ron Suttons workshop in november. Then I ran the maverick again for a fun run. Wow how did I ever drive this car with its manual slow steering!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I started a power steering upgrade project. Being a Maverick, I like to try to do my own thing vs buying off the shelf proven stuff. I had seen some stuff on line of a DIY rack and pinion conversion using a an 80's Cavalier rack. The Maverick is a rear steer car and the Cavalier rack is for rear steer and moves the center of the rack and is supported by the ends. I spent a few days building bracketry to mount the rack, hooking up the steering shaft, modifying the steering column to work with the u joint steering shaft, building a custom power steering pump, creating a custom serpentine drive system to work with my electric water pump and a Cavalier power steering pump.

Well, I had crappy sloopy power steering. I had basically welded a bracket to the stock center link and bolted it to the two bolt holes in the center of the rack. I pulled those bolts out pretty quickly.

So, I got the borgeson power steering conversion box for Ford midsize cars. Now I have power steering but it is slow. So I got the pro motor sports mustang bump steering kit which shortens the length on the steering arm, quickening the steering.

Now the car steers great!

Also the Chris Alston coil overs keep breaking the lower mount. Its a bad design. I have upgraded the hardwear they used and It seems to be holding up but I fear it breaking again. Also Their upper control arms do not give me the range of caster I want. I am maxed out at 5.3 degrees, and want a lot more than that. I will be modifying the arms to do what I want them to do.

The pan hard bar works great. I have done some tuning on it with its height and have had some dramatic results with it.

So the biggest change was to power steering from before, and a lot of tightening of the extremely loose nut behind the wheel.

[slimjim]

awesome build, I just asked you about it on fb but here's all the info I was looking for

[wfo guy]

bryant, I understand what you are saying. After my last build, I think I will build my own suspension components. It may not be better than what I've purchased in the past, but I have to see if I can improve on older designs. :)

[mbheinz]

Bryant let me drive the Maverick last January while my car was in paint jail. I can attest to how slow the stock steering is. When the rear end would step out there was no way you could catch it and just had to let it run it's course. It took a few autocross laps to figure it out. It's great to see Bryant driving his own car again! He has helped me tremendously on my car and the San Diego Region Cam T group is an awesome group to run with!

[67cougnut]

great thread and great choice on car, looking forward to seeing the progress!

[bryant]

Heres some videos of the car from the last couple of weekends.

This is at NMCA autocross at Fontana last weekend (2/24/2018)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVg-r8tPi5c

This is from the SCCA Champ race in San Diego at the stadium on 2/18/2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCjVTpF9HHQ

This is slomo of the the above run and run before it. I really like how I can see how the tires are contacting the surface in the turns and transitions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRVlpDLCk5Y

[bryant]

Update

So at the San Diego Match Tour a few weeks ago, I plowed the parking lot with the front air dam due to a rough shut down area on the practice course. The parking lot won!

The air dam has had many hard damaging hits that I have repaired and reshaped. This time it was too much. So I decided it was time to make a spliter. I scrounged around my shop and came up with some plywood, 3 different types of all thread, nuts, washers, and scrap metal.

SCCA Cam rules say spliters cant protrude past the perimeter, so I took a bumper and traced it out on the plywood and attached it to the car.

I raced this last weekend and the results were way beyond what I was expecting. The downforce it created really unloaded the rear of the car. So I am now working on what I want to do to balance the rear.

Here's pics of the spliter.

151911
151912
151913
151914

[OctaneRiot]

Awesome thread and great job on the car. Been a really good read.

I've just picked up a 71 Maverick and hoping to follow in your footsteps in the UK.

Autocross doesn't exist too much over here, so hill climbs will be the main goal!

I'll be keeping an eye on your thread.

Cheers,

Ralph

[RMMiller]

Awesome thread and great job on the car. Been a really good read.

I've just picked up a 71 Maverick and hoping to follow in your footsteps in the UK.

Autocross doesn't exist too much over here, so hill climbs will be the main goal!

I'll be keeping an eye on your thread.

Cheers,

Ralph

I would love to run a hill climb in mine if I ever get it rolling. There is one in our area that would be a blast and not too terrible for a novice to take a shot at.

[bryant]

Awesome thread and great job on the car. Been a really good read.

I've just picked up a 71 Maverick and hoping to follow in your footsteps in the UK.

Autocross doesn't exist too much over here, so hill climbs will be the main goal!

I'll be keeping an eye on your thread.

Cheers,

Ralph

Thank you. The biggest parts mistake on my car is the Chris Alston chassis works upper control arms and coil overs. At this point, the Ride tech upper control arms and coil overs are my top choice.

[Project Bike Truck]

Thank you. The biggest parts mistake on my car is the Chris Alston chassis works upper control arms and coil overs. At this point, the Ride tech upper control arms and coil overs are my top choice.

Hey, killer build. my buddies all ran Cam-t. I would love to hear about what is breaking on your coilovers? I have the same set up in my ranchero in building. I'm concerned, to say the least.

[bryant]

Hey, killer build. my buddies all ran Cam-t. I would love to hear about what is breaking on your coilovers? I have the same set up in my ranchero in building. I'm concerned, to say the least.

The mounting tabs for coil over to the upper control arm snap the stud that they screw together with into the coilover. Also the range of adjustment on the upper control arms sucks for caster. They built them symmetrically so the range for caster adjustment is only half of what it could be. I had to make some major modifications to them to get more than 5 degrees of caster into my car. When I did get the caster I wanted, the handling, and tire wear got way better. I had lots of communication with Chassiworks over the years about these issues and they always give me the we have not heard of that before or you tightened the coil over mount to much. Recently they upgraded the failing coilover mount. I i have had it in my car now for about 5 autocrosses and so far it seems to be holding up. Ridetech has a better design on their upper control arm. Ridetechs coilovers are leap years ahead of Chassiwork varishocks.

[LERM]

Hey, killer build. my buddies all ran Cam-t...
Those CAMT guys are not to be trusted... shady characters at best.

[Project Bike Truck]

The mounting tabs for coil over to the upper control arm snap the stud that they screw together with into the coilover. Also the range of adjustment on the upper control arms sucks for caster. They built them symmetrically so the range for caster adjustment is only half of what it could be. I had to make some major modifications to them to get more than 5 degrees of caster into my car. When I did get the caster I wanted, the handling, and tire wear got way better. I had lots of communication with Chassiworks over the years about these issues and they always give me the we have not heard of that before or you tightened the coil over mount to much. Recently they upgraded the failing coilover mount. I i have had it in my car now for about 5 autocrosses and so far it seems to be holding up. Ridetech has a better design on their upper control arm. Ridetechs coilovers are leap years ahead of Chassiwork varishocks.

Hey i have all of there stuff on my car and the service is sub par. im not going to talk a bunch on here about that. we could talk in person, its only been like 15 years. can we go back to street racing and hanging at the sports arena complex?

[Zspoiler]

Nice to see these old cars back on the road again.I bet people ask you "what is it"?

[OctaneRiot]

At this point, the Ride tech upper control arms and coil overs are my top choice.

Thanks for the heads up! I'll check out their setups.

[bryant]

I have stepped up to bigger wheels and tires for the maverick. I now have 18x10.5 wheels all the way around with 275 re71r's on them. They fit on the rear with no issues but the front is another story. The front wheels would hit the top ball joint with the stock spindle. To clear the ball joint, a drop spindle is needed. I only could find Fat Man Ford drop spindles that would work and they looked very flimsy, specifically the steering arm. I did not have confidence in the steering arm to be strong enough for racing use. So I looked at other drop spindles for other applications. I found that Heights pro G drop spindles for gm have the dimensions I was looking for. The height of the spindle is right, and the SAI was right and it had the drop to clear the ball joint. I did have to ream the top ball joint hole to Fords size. I changed the lower ball joint to a bigger one. Easy to do with the Chrysler style screw in ball joints used in my lower control arms. Now brakes and steering arms were the next hurdles to jump. for the brakes, I ended up using some GM drum brake hubs that I redrilled to ford lug pattern. I had some brembo 95 cobra calipers and rotors laying around the shop. I made brackets to mount the calipers to the spindles and they worked out nicely. I tried f body steering arms and they would not clear the lower control arm. I then got a body arms and they worked but are too long and slowed the steering dramatically. I then shortened them and put a bumpsteer kit in and they worked out great. The SAI on the spindles is more than the ford is and is requiring modifications to the control arms to get my desired camber and caster settings. I am very happy overall with how the 18" wheels look and fit on the Maverick and with some alignment tuning, I'm sure the bigger tires will give the grip increase I'm looking for. Here are some pics of the car.
157836
157837
157838

[frink84]

looks good bry!

[Chad-1stGen]

Nice work. Have you driven it with the new spindles yet?

[bryant]

I did two instructor laps at novice school two weeks ago. That was before
I had the bumpsteer kit. The steering was slow due to the arm length and wonky due to bad bumpsteer. I’m at Sema now and will be finishing the alignment Saturday before the next race Sunday. It should be perfect.

[RMMiller]

I wondered about the early A/F body spindles, thought they looked like they could work. I bought the Fat Man pieces for mine and they are HEAVY! I agree, the steering arm does look like the weak link but I won't use mine as hard as you do.

[bryant]

These are the heights pro g spindles. They are tall and have much more sai/kai angle than gm and a little more than ford.

[bryant]

So I have been working out the spindle change. I have had a few issues. I could not get enough caster, and ended up making adjustable strut rods out of some swedge tubes and other stuff. That enabled me to pull the lower control arm forward and get more caster. I have not measured it, but Im now getting the tire temps across the surface, I had been seeking. Next I replaced the drum brake hubs with willwood hubs. I didnt get the ford lug pattern perfect in the drum hubs and had vibration issues. The willwood hubs are much lighter and more ridged. Problem with them was they take a unique hub seal, that was a surprise discovery on a Satuday afternoon. Anyways, the car feels worlds better with the good hubs. Next, I started to dive into bump steer. I was experiencing and wierd steering feel in turns in autocross. I would go into the corner at steady speed and have understeer then I lift a little to set some weight on the front and it would dive in. A friend was working a corner and said he could see the inside tire turned in way more than the out side. So today, I made a bump steer gauge, and dang! I had .318" toe out with 1" of droop! So I moved the tie rod to the bottom of the bump steer stud. This reduce it to .118". So its significantly better but not perfect. So next step is gong to be relocating the inner tie rod up. I was looking at the RideTech true turn for mustang, and it sure looks a like what I have cobbled in to my car. The spindle has gm brake mounts and looks just like tall gm drop spindles. The steering arms look close to the A body arms but with steering limiter arm. So Im planning on making a center link plate like theirs. So thats where Im currently at with the Maverick. Ill try to get pics of everything next time in working on it.

[bryant]

So at the last two autocrosses, I broke my steering. I had just added an Howe steering quickener to the steering column and was happy with the speed of the turning. Two autocrosses ago at the CAM challenge, right after the steering quickener, the power steering pump died rapidly. My codriver and I did all of Saturday with no power steering. On Sunday, he codrove another car and I dont blame him. I replaced the pump, and then last weekend, in a turn I felt a pop in the steering and ended up with an additional 1/4 turn of the wheel to go right and the wheel would be still 90 to the right after a right turn and be straight after a left turn.
That was the Borgeson power steering box for Mavericks and midsize fords. Now Im going to try a unisteer rack and pinion. I know of 2 other regularly autocrossed Mavericks and they both use it. That's encouraging and I am looking forward to a steering feel that is competitive, not a handicap. Ill try to get some pics of the install.
I also am chasing some bad outer tire wear on the fronts. I have come to the determination that I have too much body roll and will be working on reducing that too.

[bryant]

Heres an updated list of mods to the car:

a billet grill
a custom splitter
an aluminum radiator
a escort fan
a 331 motor
custom serpentine drive
electric water pump
3g alternator
afr 185 heads
roller rocker arms
rocker arm girdles
fms aluminium valve covers
edelbrock rpm air gap intake
tfs stage 2 roller cam.
moroso t sump oil pan
hooker headers
msd programable 6al-2
msd blaster coil
holley 650 hp carb
k&n air filter lid and 5" r2c air filter
varishock 2 way coil over conversion
Modified TCP upper control arms
TCP lower control arms
AFX drop spindles
Wilwood hubs.
99 Cobra R brembo front disk brakes
Unisteer rack and pinion
aluminum fly wheel
dual friction king cobra clutch
g force t5 close ratio transmission
pro 5.0 shifter
cnc hydraulic master and slave cylinder set up
ford high torque starter
3" flow tech x pipe with cut outs going to 2.5" magnaflow mufflers with tail pipes.
aluminum drive shaft
ford 9" nodular case, daytona pinion support, billet yoke, 3.89 gears, 31 spline torsen lsd, 31 spline axles, sn197 mustang rear disk brakes.
varishock 2 way shocks
mustang fuel tank modified with a internal hinged door sump, -10 feed and -8 return.
holley fuel pump
18x10.5 wheels Re71r tires.
custom aluminum and acrylic rear spoiler


interior
8 point roll cage with swing out door bars and drivers side window net
autopower 5 point camlock harness
corbeau passenger seat
kirky drivers seat
custom dash full of autometer gauges
aluminum rear fire wall
fire suppression system
rattle trap sound deadening

Thats pretty much everything I can remember.

[Sbeck09]

Did you just cut and weld the steering arms for the pro g spindles? I'm needing to make changes to my steering arms, but cant find a solution for front steer applications.

[bryant]

Yep. I ordered a body steering arms from on line then just cut them down and welded them back together.

[bryant]

Wow! Over a year with no up dates!
So ya major changes!
I broke the Borgenson steering box last year in July. Must have been right after the last post. Borgenson welds a mounting flange to the sector shaft housing on the box that fits maverick. The flange broke off where the heat from the weld fatigued it. Borgenson did warranty the box but I felt it would break again. So I ordered a unister rack and pinion kit, and waited, and waited. 2 months into waiting I call them, and they cant find good cores to build the kit. I canceled it.

I started googling rear steer rack and pinion conversions and finally came across flaming rivers kits. They have one that uses a centerlink that that allows the inner tie rods to be further inboard than the width of the rack. Of course they don't make a kit for maverick and they dont sell parts out of the kits. I did have a right hand drive front mount flaming river rack left over from anther shop project that went a different direction. Well, if you turn it around and mount it in the rear, it goes the right direction!

So I fabbed up mounts and a center link. A bunch of U joints and a support bearing and a howe 1.5-1 steering quickener to speed up the slow Flaming river rack and I have rack and pinion steering!!! It worked pretty good. still had bad bump steer. Also the car handling was never what it was pre drop spindles.

So right before covid shut down everything I reached out to @Bryce and went to his amazing garage to let him measure and analyze my suspension and steering. Turns out I had camber loss under compression. He told me the changes that would correct it. I then took the front suspension apart and got to work. I lowered the upper control arm pivot 1" and put a 1" tall ball joint in the upper control arm. I lengthened the control arms 1". I made a new center link that raised the inner tie rods an 1".

Racing started again in So Cal end of June with Cal Club starting up and NMCA West, both racing at Auto Club speedway in Fontana. I noticed big improvements but still not what I know it can be. Mostly I need to get the alignment dialed in. Tire temps are still hot on the outer edge of the tires. My rear leaf springs spring rate is not good, and the rear Varishocks are wearing out. So Im mulling over going to rear coil over and a 3 link. I am the fastest leaf spring car besides the corvettes at NMCA West but that doesn't win any trophies!!!

Heres the bottom view of the rack. You can see it uses a trunnion bearing to stabilize the center link
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Here is side view, you can see the extended control arms. This still has the first center link and the Abody steering arms. I ended up having custom arms made that were much stronger and gave some better geometry.
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[wfo guy]

Very interesting. Is it logical to think that the 8 point cage took a lot of the frame flex out , allowing your suspension improvements to work properly or are you to the point of needing more rigidity in the structure?

[bryant]

Very interesting. Is it logical to think that the 8 point cage took a lot of the frame flex out , allowing your suspension improvements to work properly or are you to the point of needing more rigidity in the structure?

The car has always had the cage as long as I have been autocrossing it. The cage absolutely reduced frame flex by a drastic amount.

I am sure my top to handing issues are front alignment optimization, and rear suspension. The leaf springs have too soft of a spring rate and they are leafspings!!! One of the rear shocks has 1/4" of movement before having resistance.

I dont like the company these shocks are from. Every time I call for tech help, they try to sell me additional product. Their front coilover system failed several times. The first couple of times, they blamed it on installer error. Finally they upgraded the failing part. I saw that and contacted them about getting it. They wanted to sell it to me. I reminded them that what they sold me was defective as evidenced by the upgraded part and would be in their interest to just send me the new parts. They agreed and sent me the new parts still trying to sell me more of their product in the process. I have gotten rid of their front coilovers and have gone to Ridetech coilovers. They made a huge noticeable improvement.

Rear Ridetech shocks are next on the list of purchases for the car.

[jaybee]

Awsome little car, I love these things. Sort of took me by surprise because it's one of those cars I looked down on when I was a kid.

[wfo guy]

I have Ridetech's on my 51 F1. They were recommended by a retailer who autocrosses. I believe he told me the truth. :)