I have been working on my Maverick for a few months now, learning as I go along. So far I have completely ripped out the interior sanded down all surfaces, repainted to prevent rust, installed sound deadener through out. installed new carpet and new dash cover. cleaned all plastic surfaces and redyed them from tan to black. replaced front bench with 2 buckets I salvaged from a '79 Fairmount. had the rear seat and the buckets reupholstered to black vinyl and painted all metal surfaces in the car to black. Next comes the Engine... this is where I have no experience. I have ordered new. Valve covers, gasket and seal kit for entire engine (302 by the way). I am replacing the stock 2 barrel carb and intake manifold with a 4 barrel. I have a new timing chain and housing. The pistons, heads, rockers... etc are a year old so not bothering with them. my first question is regarding replacing the Intake and carb... I see I have a choice of Electric choke and Manual choke... I am fairly certain I have a manual choke, but I could be wrong... to start the car I have to pump the gas about three times when the engine is cold before it will fire up.How easy is it to convert to electric?... most of the carbs I am looking at are electric. Second question, the individual I purchased the car from converted it from a column shift to a floor shift... but it appears that all the old parts are still connected on the steering column and if I accidentally hit it, it can go into gear (essentially) now this doesn't pose any great problem but the first time this happened I could not figure out why I could not get the key out of the ignition or start the car... because the old column shift was in R... now the lever is not there just the ring with gear selectors. How do I remove this? And any other help would be great. Thanks!
From the factory, your car would have had an electric choke, as for pumping the gas, welcome to the world of carburetors. You can remove the column shift lever by popping the pin out of the steering column, that holds it in, have a good look, and you'll see it. Plus you should find a way to lock the shift collar into position, where it enters the engine compartment, it could slip while driving, locking the steering column.
Could you expand a little on locking the collar into position where it come in the compartment? Is the locking of the wheel just a automatic trans problem? I have a manual that was moved to the floor. I am having the collar removed and the protrusion cut off. Edit: Hope you didnt feel like I was jumping on your thread, I think the questions pertains to both of us. OH and to the site
Thanks for the responses, I now see after looking at the carb in more detail with the understanding of what an electric choke looks like and see that it is indeed. As for the column shift... the lever is no longer there, never was since I had it, but somehow the collar did move once, has not happened since then but I guess I do need to know how to lock it or remove it altogether. Also how do I post pictures?
I think you need 10 or so posts. Then you can do it by clicking on the "go advanced" button below the post edit window. From there, scroll down to "manage attachments". You also can just hyperlink to imgr or photobucket or something by using the yellow square with the mountains on it above the edit window.
The steering colum interlock, it the flat thing with a small hole in it, just near where the steering colum sticks thru the firewall, it connects the shift linkage to the column shift. You need to find a way to secure it, so it doesn't move.
regarding the missing column shift lever, does you column still have the selector indicator on top? sounds like the previous owner just popped out the roll pin and removed the lever, so if the mounting boss (square with slot where the lever used to be) is still there, then the selector is still there and you might beable to see where the pointer is. If it is to the far left, then it is locked in Park and you should not have anymore issues of key getting stuck in the ignition, if it is any other position, it is possible that you may have problems later on. It is possible to carefully insert a screwdriver into the slot where the lever used to be and shift it back into Park position, which would then lock the column shifter and then everything is OK. Another issue if it is not in Park or Neutral position, the car will not start because of the Neutral Safey Switch which is at the base of the steering column, it is curved shaped approx. 3 inches with many wires coming out of it. When I installed my Toploader 4 speed, all I did was make sure the column shifter/selector was in Park, then removed the shifter lever and disconnected the linkage arm at the end of the steering column located in the engine compartment. Correct method would be to located a steering column assemble from a floor mounted shifter Comet/Maverick and install it in your car, but this takes a bit of work to do. Good luck and welcome!
