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    Page 3 of 3 FirstFirst 1 2 3
    Results 41 to 56 of 56
    1. #41
      Join Date
      Sep 2012
      Location
      San Diego
      Posts
      264
      Country Flag: United States
      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.
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      71 maverick.
      71 comet in build process.
      i work at Current Auto Performance www.currentautoperformance.com. i also build the differentials for San Diego Gear and Axle.

    2. #42
      Join Date
      Jan 2016
      Location
      Chino Valley, AZ
      Posts
      134
      Country Flag: United States
      looks good bry!
      84 Ford LTD Wagon
      05 Ford Excursion
      Instagram

    3. #43
      Join Date
      Apr 2006
      Location
      Huntington Beach, CA
      Posts
      2,415
      Country Flag: United States
      Nice work. Have you driven it with the new spindles yet?
      Please Subscribe to the AutoXandTrack YouTube Channel

      Autocross and track blog about running autocross and track events with pro touring cars

    4. #44
      Join Date
      Sep 2012
      Location
      San Diego
      Posts
      264
      Country Flag: United States
      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.
      71 maverick.
      71 comet in build process.
      i work at Current Auto Performance www.currentautoperformance.com. i also build the differentials for San Diego Gear and Axle.

    5. #45
      Join Date
      Oct 2012
      Location
      Kennewick, WA
      Posts
      259
      Country Flag: United States
      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.


    6. #46
      Join Date
      Sep 2012
      Location
      San Diego
      Posts
      264
      Country Flag: United States
      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.
      71 maverick.
      71 comet in build process.
      i work at Current Auto Performance www.currentautoperformance.com. i also build the differentials for San Diego Gear and Axle.

    7. #47
      Join Date
      Sep 2012
      Location
      San Diego
      Posts
      264
      Country Flag: United States
      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.
      71 maverick.
      71 comet in build process.
      i work at Current Auto Performance www.currentautoperformance.com. i also build the differentials for San Diego Gear and Axle.

    8. #48
      Join Date
      Sep 2012
      Location
      San Diego
      Posts
      264
      Country Flag: United States
      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.
      71 maverick.
      71 comet in build process.
      i work at Current Auto Performance www.currentautoperformance.com. i also build the differentials for San Diego Gear and Axle.

    9. #49
      Join Date
      Sep 2012
      Location
      San Diego
      Posts
      264
      Country Flag: United States
      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.
      71 maverick.
      71 comet in build process.
      i work at Current Auto Performance www.currentautoperformance.com. i also build the differentials for San Diego Gear and Axle.

    10. #50
      Join Date
      Oct 2018
      Location
      Phoenix, AZ
      Posts
      584
      Country Flag: United States
      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.
      '95 F-150 track ready street beast
      Want more projects/photos? Check my Instagram

    11. #51
      Join Date
      Sep 2012
      Location
      San Diego
      Posts
      264
      Country Flag: United States
      Yep. I ordered a body steering arms from on line then just cut them down and welded them back together.

      71 maverick.
      71 comet in build process.
      i work at Current Auto Performance www.currentautoperformance.com. i also build the differentials for San Diego Gear and Axle.


    12. #52
      Join Date
      Sep 2012
      Location
      San Diego
      Posts
      264
      Country Flag: United States
      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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      71 maverick.
      71 comet in build process.
      i work at Current Auto Performance www.currentautoperformance.com. i also build the differentials for San Diego Gear and Axle.

    13. #53
      Join Date
      Sep 2013
      Location
      sw Kansas
      Posts
      1,640
      Country Flag: United States
      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?

    14. #54
      Join Date
      Sep 2012
      Location
      San Diego
      Posts
      264
      Country Flag: United States
      Quote Originally Posted by wfo guy View Post
      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.
      71 maverick.
      71 comet in build process.
      i work at Current Auto Performance www.currentautoperformance.com. i also build the differentials for San Diego Gear and Axle.

    15. #55
      Join Date
      Jul 2006
      Location
      Chesapeake, VA
      Posts
      605
      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.
      Cars are meant to be driven.

      John B

    16. #56
      Join Date
      Sep 2013
      Location
      sw Kansas
      Posts
      1,640
      Country Flag: United States
      I have ridetech's on my 51 F1. They were recommended by a retailer who autocrosses. I believe he told me the truth.

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