Hello, I am new to this site but not to Mavericks. I have a 1974 Maverick Grabber with 25,680 original miles. The car has been in my family since brand new and has a great deal of sentimental value associated with it.The car is in it's original paint scheme orange & white with black interior.I have owned this car for almost 7 years now and have not done much to it. It sets in a heated garage and has been babied all it's life. I have started to upgrade the suspension with new bushings and heavy duty sway bars installed. In the process I noticed a rip in my upper ball joint's boot. I cannot find a replacement for it so I was going to buy a new upper ball joint from "Autokrafters" when I was reading my service manual and it states that "Upper or lower suspension arms must be replaced as a unit. Ball joints and other subcomponents should not be installed in a used suspension arm." Anybody with any input on this statement? The whole assembly is very expensive, and I was looking for an affortable solution. Looking forward to browsing through , Doug
doug , the upper ball joint can be replaced. the stock one is rivited on so you will have to grind the heads off those. the new joint comes with the bolts. think about it .....why would they sell an upper ball joint if you are to replace the complete a-arm. the lower ball joint comes with the lower control arm. you will have to replace the arm...they are pretty cheap. thanks for asking...frank...
I have new lower arms and joints coming, I guess that I am a by-the-book kind of a guy and just had some concerns about when my "Ford service manual" has in bold letters not replace just the joints it had me worried. Thanks for the reply.
Not sure why Ford would say that, but thousands of people have done it over the years without problems. Would love to see some pics of your car.
welcome to the board. lots of info here. i did the balljoints in 89 over 80k miles ago with the rivet to bolt conversion and no complaints.
top ones are okay to do. the bottom ones need to be replaced as a unit. there about $67 each from napa.
welcome to the board! Not sure were Holland, OH. is, but we are having a small gathering in Columbus on April 1st.
Howdy and Love to see pics of your car. I'm not fond of house brand parts. Most are made in other countries. Moog K8142 is the upper ball joint part number. In my opinion, Moog is the best and worth the money.
to the board. Pics, we love pics. I'm having my suspension replaced as we speak. New upper & lower A-arms & sping perches...Also had the leaf springs rearched & added a 4th leaf...
I am not a computer guru by any means, I"m trying to get some pictures out that are on a JPEG file that restrict my acsses to this sight....Have a buddy due to come by this week and help me with the problem.
cool! welcome to the boards! btw heres a post on when i redid the frontend on one of my cars. also a little insite on what i found on ball joints on the lower arms. http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=17905 hopefully it might be useful... if not oh wells again
