Hey gang, My 302 has been rebuilt and reinstalled but I cant remember where my tranny dipstick tube should be mounted. I must have covered the hole with the headers??? I put a B&M shifter in and the line runs over the top of the tranny support and makes the shifting hard - Although I don't know how hard it would be when it's driving because I can't get any tranny fluid in it...lol Am I gonna have to refab the tranny mount or alter the linkage or what? Oh yeah, I need a charcoal evap container (is that what they're called?) I've heard of "The Maverick Connection" bieng a little pricey. My stock throttle cable won't hook up to my Edelbrock carb because it's too long, any ideas?? Let's see.. Is Dan Starnes gonna make another run of frame connectors this year?? I had a friend that was helping me out with this (unexpectedly challenging, time consuming, expensive, etc.) project quite a bit but he's moved to Waukeegan, IL. so I'll be asking a bunch of silly questions trying to get this beast on the road by myself. Some day me & the old lady are gonna make it to a Maverick Roundup and see the good stuff. Thanks for the advice...
my B&M megashifter cable runs down through the floor to the passenger side of the car and loops back over the tranny crossmember then bolts to the tranny. is this a new shifter? do you have the instructions? if you need i can send you a copy of the instructions for a megashifter. before i bought my new one i needed to adjust the old one so i went to the autoparts store and they let me make a copy of the new ones.
I'll take the shifter out, mount it to a 2X4 and hook up the cable in a perfectly straight line underneath the car. That should tell me if I'm twisting the cable too much or what... I'll try that Monday night. The directions say the same thing you guys are but I don't seem to have a long enough cable to loop around my crossmember without causing difficulties. The shifter type is a B&M Hammer and my cable lenth is 5 feet. While I'm in park my "Ford Lever" points a little forward even when I minimize the lenth with those 7/16 nuts. I'm beat for tonight though, it's quittin' time.
Hey, I just did a B&M (Starshifter). I noticed that the hole they instruct you to drill was too close to the shifter. That caused the cable to stress right there on the transmission hump., right where it connects to the shifter. I think the instructions were a little vague. The new shifter lever has to just right, and so does the "loop". The cable length on mine was 6 feet, and that was just right.Also, if you have any probs with the electrical switches, look at the posts from last week. There is all kinds of good stuff there. Good luck!
That's good news for me to hear. I pulled out my shifter tonight and hooked it up under the car and it shifted beautifully. I'll order a 6 foot cable and try her again. Although I wonder if a really short one would connect without a loop? I didn't put the second bolt in the rear of the cable bracket because that stresses the cable too much going over the transmission support. Did anyone have that problem? If I leave it off and adjust my angle and tighten down my first bolt it's all good. Tomorrow I'll but the shifter back in the car and work on other stuff till I find a cable that works. I wonder if Auto Zone has them or if I'll have to order it and wait around...
on these shifter cables, the tighter the loop in the cable, the more play in the cable and the more bind. if you are buying a new cable, get the longest that is practical for your installation. when mine came loose and cooked on the header, i got an 8 footer and the gentle bend made things work more smoothly. the cost for the longer cable is not that much more.
With the cable bracket at an angle and a bigger hole in front of the shifter my problems have lessened dramatically. I can live with how the shifting works even with the 5 foot cable now. When I meet some of you fellow Mav Guys I'll check out how everyone else made it work. Thanks for the help!!! My tranny dipstick tube is still a problem though. I understand that the bracket is attached to a motor/tranny bolt but I'm still not getting where the tube meets the transmission. There'a a spot that it looks like it could go on the passengers side but it looks like a little bracket that needs another tube or something. It does't actually go INTO the tranny, just along side of it... I have pictures that I'll try to post tonight after work. I have a picture of my stock carburater linkage not hooking up to my new carb also. I'm getting closer!!! Maybe some day instead of just spending time and money on this car I will actually DRIVE it.
Lets see if I can put into words how the trans fill tube works. If you get under the car, look at the trans pan. On the passenger side, front corner of the pan. Most fill tubes fit into a hole in the trans case just above this spot. You should be able to reach the opening with your finger. I'm sure you know how to do that. That is on the most common C4 , called a case fill, because the hole is in the case. If you have an older "pan fill" trans,you should be able to see the hole without giving it a reacharound. Now for the carb linkage. First of all, I wonder did you change the stock intake manifold? I used an Edelbrock manifold and was too cheap to buy the Edelbrock throttle cable bracket. They make brackets to fit any application and there are "universal" brackets too.Well I used my stock bracket and modified it to fit. The cable was a little short. so I shimmed it from the bracket with a few washers. Remember these cars came only with 2bbl carbs. So if you use a 4bbl (I hope so!) there was some modifications made somewhere. The manifold and carb.Maybe your bracket is back to front? Good luck.
the last shifter cable that broke in the 77(b&m starshifter) was a 5 or 6ft?as was the previous cable before that one, so I did some measuring and ordered a short one to connect without loops, worked out well, almost a straight on connection, no bind. it was a pain to get in though, being short and not having the extra play in the cable took a little longer to hook up on the tranny.
I'm not exactly sure,... since there didnt appear to be any bind, they had gentle loops in both, routing wasnt near any extreme heat. the 1st lasted not even 6 months, the 2nd a little longer maybe a year or two. the new short one has been working fine for 8 years now.
Tranny Fluid on the Floor In this picture the rear bolt of the tranny linkage is missing so I could get the cable over the transmission support (painted yellow) without binding. It shifted great!! But then I put some tranny fluid in and started the engine and... not so great, big mess on the floor. Does somebody have PICTURES of linkage that actually works on a Mav? Oh yeah, I finally figured out the dipstick tube. Duh, I'm glad they don't bite
Don't despair I had a similar leak or two when I got mine hooked up too. One seemed to come from the kickdown linkage lever. I missed a plastic bushing in the end of it. Not only that but I also discoverd that I damaged my trans when I installed the engine. I drove it but it wouln't go into third gear. Well lets just hope yours is fine and you can fix the leak. Since you didnt describe it I can't say. Your linkage looks fine. It's no simple task when your on the floor andtrying to figure out. Make sure you can move the cable freely on and off the lever before you hook it up. In all gears. Also You should use the kickdown lever and hook it up. I took mine off back in the day. This time I had to add a custom extension to it to make it reach. You will find the shifter is slower to change for downshifts. Very important with a C4 I think. Sorry i dont do pictures. My computer is not cooperative.
