How difficult is it to install a rear sway bar on a 1970 ford maverick? I also wanted to know how difficult it would be to do the 302 conversion from a 250 straight six and what are all the parts I need? I have some but I do not know if I have all of them.
i did the 302/250 swap. not too bad, need frame & motor mounts, use flexplate for the 302. exhaust manifolds/headers. V8 throttle cable, minor fitting work for vacuum ports,heater hoses, etc. front pully setup cant be too "thick" or may have fan clearance problems with the radiator. i "lost" the a/c & the car sat 1" higher than with the 250. no front spring swap needed. 302 needs front sump pan. easiest if doing headers to swap to floor shifter & get rid of the oem column linkage. i also trashed the power steering. probably forgetting a few other small things, but nothing major. dont know about the rear sway bar. i like to go in straight lines, mostly.
Only thing I can add is that since your car is a '70, I would be makeing sure you have a 8 inch rear under there. 7.5 won't hold up long.
rear sway bar If you are trying to set your car up for corner carving - you don`t need a rear sway bar. The Maverick and Mustang both have a natural tendency to be loose or oversteer when you add a V8 and start adding power thru turns. A rear sway bar will only make this condition worse Your efforts and dollars would be better spent working on the front end by going to a Global West type upper and lower arm and using their camber /castor specs. You would also benefit by using a larger 1" Sway bar on the front - A pair of new Konis on the front and a softer shock and standard rate 1" lowered spring on the rear. In general - you are stiffening up the front of the car and softening the rear. Add a good set of 7 X 15 or 8 X 16 wheels and some good Z rated tires and you are ready to dust some sports compacts.
A front bar can be mounted on the rear by turning the bar oppisisite of how it was mounted on the front. Clamped on the axle housing and fabbed link mounts on the frame as well as fabbed link bolts. Just hold the bar in place and look at all the points to get an idea of what you need to do. Provide for chassis extreme movement clearences. I would put a heavier bar on the front than on the rear. This will flatten out the handling a good bit. The tires and widths used make a big difference on how the car acts when pushed in turns. Certainly to much bar in the rear is not good but you have to see that for youself on your car and driving. I run this setup and like it.
The sway bar is easy to do as long as the car is sitting levelish. It only loads up when one side of the car is higher than the other (compared to the axle.) Any time you're working with bushings and stuff though, it's kind of labor intensive, but not what I would call difficult.
another note if you don't wanna run anything bigger then a 7/8 front bar on a i6 it will hit the oil pan. if you wanna try it go ahead cuz anything will fit if you make it. i like dented oils pans don't you? as far as rear bars they are easy depending on what kit you get.. i have seen two kinds.. one is a total B!^@$ the other is eaiser but i think it is a older model. dollars would be better spent? wow! that set up would only run about $1000 bucks for arms and about $200 plus for shocks! my .... i don't know about money better spent.... cuz that sounds like a lot of money to me to me, for a budget, i'd stick with the stock arms upgrade the stock control arm add some kybs and sway bar... hense i'll take on any maverick with that front setup alone with my stock arms = tires and i'll be all over it!
If your car is a '70,and you put on the v8 double hump crossmember(to run dual exhaust)you'll have to modify the 'member a bit,'70's never came w/v8.
