Hey fellas I don't own a Maverick yet, but I'm definately looking hard for one. I had a couple of basic questions about the Maverick. With the amount of room in between the shock towers and headers how easy are plug changes??? How is leg room, I'm 6'0 tall, also if I end up with an auto how easy is it to fit the clutch pedal assembly so I can switch over to a stick(done the job before in a fox body stang so I figure it shouldnt be too bad in a Maverick). Thanks for any info in advance fellas and anything else you might wanna add to help out would be greatly appreciated.
On the 302 it is not bad changing plugs. I am 6' with big ham hands and I have changed plugs on cars that I consider to be substantially tighter than the 302 Mav. At 6' I have never been uncomfortable in my Mavs. I did the auto to toploader swap... I did it the hard way, using Falcon, Mustang, and auto Maverick parts all melded together. Other than some fabbing, it was easy. I think you will have a harder time finding the correct parts than you would converting over with Maverick specific parts. I actually used my auto bracket and brake pedal. The donor brackets would not fit as I hoped, so I used one of the clutch pedals and installed the bushing into my auto bracket. Then I cut my brake pedal down to the size/shape of the brake pad off one of the donors, then installed the pad. It all looked great when done. Back to finding parts. Almost every part needed for the conversion are unique to our cars, so the usual suspects (Stangs, Granadas, Falcons, etc...) cannot offer any donor parts. The only thing I want to add is: Don't remove the tower braces on your Mav for any length of time, and never when driving. No matter how ugly you think they are. They keep the towers from bending in towards each other. I ran with them off of one of mine for a while, the towers leaned in 2" I would later find out. They say the weight of the car will do it when just parked for long periods without the tower braces. Dave
Hey I appreciate the info bud, I've been looking at the tower braces and thinking of custom fabbing a couple of tubular ones for a little more clearance room. Also can you tell me do the front brakes have the hubs built in or are they seperate, hate brakes with the hubs in them. I know I'll end up switching the tranny over to either a Tremec TKO or a T56, how is the clearance room in the tunnel??? Am I gonna need to bang it out or cut it out and custom fab a new one??? Thanks for any more info
The front hubs are built into the drums/discs. On my car I am using the front drums and hubs for a mid to late 60's Mustang I believe which have seperate hubs. The drums also have cooling fins built into them which seem to help alot with them fadeing in stop and go traffic. The wheels stick out about an inch farther using Mustang hubs and drums on the front.
i am 6 foot....leg room is awesome.....unless you sit in the back...but i never sit in the back of my car.... its my car.. spark plug changes isnt bad....not as bad as my wifes s-10 blazer.....that is a pain in the butt
I boxed in my tower braces, just a piece of steel over the top, made them much less flexible, I also modified a Mustang monte carlo bar to fit my car. I have '68 Mustang spindles and the discs and hubs are one piece, I don't like that either, too fricken messy. The tunnel does have to be modified for the TKO. It requires some fab work but not too bad to do, the cross member has to be fabbed as well. Good luck with your project.
Here's one from a couple weeks ago, don't mind the oil on the underside of the hood, the fuel pump was spitting oil out from the holes in the top of it.
Easy on a I-6, a little tougher on a 302. After I removed all of the emission crap such as the heat stove and warm air duct, along with the hoist brackets, I can now change 'plugs in 20-25 minutes. As for leg room; Mavericks are not big on leg room. At 6 feet tall, you're probably okay, but if you were any taller than that, I'd say you'd be pretty cramped. At 5'-10", it's perfect for me....
Changing plugs with a 302 is easy....compared to what's out there these days. I don't think the manufacturers want us working on them now. Try changing plugs on a 351c in a Maverick. Challenging is the word! My old 351w was a bear, but do-able...assuming I had a socket and a 3/4" wrench (ratchet wouldn't fit in there)
the "hardest" on a 302 is plug nr 6 (second one on the right hand side if you look at the engine from the front). But it is indeed still easier then on many modern cars (where clearance is expressed in quarters of inches).
