Are 69-70 Mustang shock towers compatible replacements for Maverick Towers? What I want to do is replace the towers so I can do the Shelby upper control arm modification and have room to grease the bushings. Any ideas will be appreciated. Ken
Hi Ken.. I'm assuming your talking about the negative wedge mod? I usually do that to all cars that will allow it due to the geometry limitations of these old cars and rarely have issues with needing more room in the shock towers. This is my first Comet though, so I'm interested to know if there is a limitation on these cars for this mod. I plan on getting my suspension tweaked by the end of the summer after my ride becomes road worthy again first. On the initial mock-though of what that shock tower will allow on my car.. it appears that there would be no issue with the typical 1 inch relocation point from such a kit. Probably wouldn't try to push much more than that though unless you notch the rail a bit or use travel limiters. However, at full suspension rebound(mine has no engine right now, so it's easy to see).. there is very little room between the frame rail and upper arm. If using stock springs?.. they are tall enough to not unload enough to move around in the perch. Shorter performance springs would likely require a travel limiter though. Hope that helps. PS. an easier workaround would be to drill 2 small holes from the engine bay side and point the zerks in that direction for ease of access. Works slicker than crawling under the car! Good luck with it all.
Thanks groberts101. A few years ago,when I had the front end rebuilt, I looked at doing this modification, it seemed like the towers were angled in too much to allow for the mod. I am getting ready to pull the engine and trans out for a freshing up and thought of going over the front end with all the 70 trans-am boss 302 chassis mods. Thanks again, Ken
The angle isn't much different than any other similar generation Ford unibody car and it should work just fine. Need to also keep in mind that the kits generally come with a ball-joint wedge to make up for that potential issue. Take a little from here.. give a little back there, is all.
I ran across this thread and thought I'd pass it along for you to have abetter success rate with it. Probably better to take mine with more salt and lean towards those guys first hand experiences with it. http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=2326 I know that I for one, wouldn't dream of putting bigger power/more weight in one of these cars with stock front suspension geometry and then flying around corners with it or they'll drive like featherweigth trucks. lol I would still use the new wedge kit though regardless of the "good enough for a 1 inch kit" comments in that thread. JMHO based on doing about 6-7 cars with those mods over the years. I'd also brace the piss out of the firewall/shock towers/rad support if you intend to turn that thing at higher speeds. That alone really ties the front end together on these old cars. Can make them a pain in the ass to work on sometimes.. but still well worth it when you hit the twisties.
