Yep, I drove the car home under it's own power today! After fighting with the entire fuel system in general the last couple of days, I got it running pretty good. I put about 10 miles on it up in Murphy, NC this morning and all seemed well. The car only gave me trouble one time during the 110 mile trip home. Comeing through Ball Ground, GA, about half way home, it started running real rough and wouldn't idle. I pulled off and found that the PCV hose had came loose from the carb spacer createing a massive vaccume leak. I can already tell this 200 is going to be knocking back some awesome gas mileage. I haven't even begun to fine tune the timeing and stuff yet and it used less gas then the finely tuned 250 in the '72, not to mention it's still running on the crappy old points ignition. (my brother was following me in the '72) I gotta give a HUGE thanks to Tim Holland (mtrhed) for the engine and trans. First class guy with some awesome cars. Sounds like him and my grandpa have crossed paths many times, but never met until we went to pick up the drivetrain last Wensday. I'll get some pics up first thing tomarrow.
Yea, uneventful as far as problems go (thank god). But from a driving it point of view, it was intresting to say the least. The suspension is very, very worn on this car and the alignment is way out. The rear has about 6 inch tall shackels with worn out bushings. The car feels very unstable going down the road and the fact that you never know which direction the brakes are going to pull when you go to slow down dosen't help either. I think I was griting my teeth about the whole way and there were several times I had to remind myself to breath... Definately some serious suspension work in store for this car. It's going to be a great car, just has alot of miles on it in a previous life. It's showing 75,000, but that has definately turned over a time or two.
Jamie At least yours did not end up on a Roll-back like my sprint did on its way home! I will never forget my wife seeing the car for the first time and saying " It looks great....ON THE BACK OF THE TOW TRUCK"!! Glad you and the car made it home ok (except the sore muscles from holding the wheel with a death grip) sounds like a good trip!! Thanks Jerryfow2
Congrats on getting it home Your brave driving a car in that shape that far... Those shackles have to go tho bud... not safe at all but Im sure your aware of that. lol Keep us informed
Yea, those shackles are going - right into the garbage! Pieces of crap. Who the heck would put junk like that on their car. It feels like if you take a corner at more then about 10 mph, the shackles would just collapse on over. My brother was following me in the '72 and he said you could visibly see the body of the car swaying side to side on the shackles. Scary as hell. I'm going to put the 5 lug rearend from my '76 in it with the staggered shock/ubolt plates, some new 4 leaf springs, and stock shackles. Then the car should be good to as far as the rear suspension goes. I will have pics soon. Just haven't had time to get out and get some.
You wouldn't happen to have a set of factory shackles your not gonna use would you? My car had those shackles, but i dont have replacement ones so I just drilled 2 holes as close as i could to the top of it and bolted em back in. That way it cant sway like you were talking about
I'll look. The ones on my 4 door should be fine. Not sure if I want to deal over the internet for a while though. My current schedule makes it very hard to get things shipped out in an timely manner. My trader rating has suffered because of it.
If you have a set, Im not in any hurry. So dont worry about the trader rating system Yanno im not in any hurry cuz i asked about a wiring harness about a year ago but things got all screwed up. lol No big deal, i know how things come up and go But anyways, if you want to sell them let me know im interested... and we can work something out Im positive
Dumb Question OK. What are shackles? I've never heard of these on a car before. My Mav doesn't handle well on curvy roads, could that be the problem? Roz
They attach the rear of leaf spring to the rear of the car. Most stock Mavericks don't handle all that great.
What Jamie said. You can buy/make shackles that raise the car up in the rear to fit a bigger tire, or to make the rear higher than the front so it sits at a slanted stance. But they are not very safe. Stock ones are what you need
