wanting to start ordering parts for th e72 suspension does anyone know the part number for upper and lower control arms for the maverick ,I heard great things about scott drake and I think im going that route,anyone know who has the best price on scott drake parts?
don't use scott drake. it's cheap offshore quality. use moog parts, rockauto.com should have you covered!
check out info on post #3 regarding MOOG lower control arms, give John at Opentracker a call and he can set you up on upper/lower control arms or if you decide to purchase elsewhere, he can help you out in regards to getting quality arms. John currently uses the Scott Drake upper arms in his builds....... David http://mmb.maverick.to/threads/dlz-suspension-parts.103786/#post-1055200
tody I went to rockauto and all of their control arms had Ck or Rk in the part numbers I would be afraid they are the offshore pieces also ,I will give John a call at opentracker and see if he can help me with something of good quality
has anyone used PST I hear good and bad but seems like scott drake has good and bad feedback ,just don't know who to trust having great quality
PST is decent...I got a rebuild kit from them. I can say it definitely could have been put together better but the parts themselves seem pretty good.
I agree. John just helped me out on an issue I had with Moog's lower control arms. Short story is that some Moog LCA's are made in China and some are made in the USA. I purchased 2 new LCA's from Summit only to discover that the spherical bearing kit I bought from Open Tracker to replace the rubber bushing was too small in diameter to fit the hole. John pointed out that many, if not all of the offshore LCA's use a 1 9/16" bushing while the US made parts have a 1 7/16" bushing. Open Tracker's spherical bearing kit will only fit the US made parts with the 1 7/16" bushing. Trouble is, you can't order the parts by country of origin. This issue will also arise if one wanted to purchase poly bushings to replace the rubber. They typically don't call out the bushing OD in the specs. I ended up sending the kit back to Open Tracker and purchasing their USA made LCA's with the spherical bearing already installed. They really are a stand up company!
so if I was to use my factory lower control arm what size bushing would be in the control arm 1 7/16 or the 9 1/16 I haven't removed them yet to check ,but I have thought about replacing the ball joint and bushing with poly and vs aftermarket control arms just cant make my mind up but if anyone could tell me what size bushing the 72 mavs had I might could oder before removing everything
Moog's web site lists bushings for both 1 & 7/16" and 1 & 9/16" versions but doesn't differentiate... http://www.moog-suspension-parts.com/products/ford_maverick_1972 The difference in RK8123 is it's supposedly OEM configuration meaning no grease fitting and a better sway bar bushing mount than the K8123(that just has a raw hole and adapters)... I have the K8123 on my Comet was less than impressed...
did you get a chance to call John at Opentracker?? It might be cheaper just to purchase new MOOG K8123 made in USA lower control arms, at least it will have new ball joint and you can see what size the bushings are if you decide to change to poly. I'm sure John would even sell you a set of K8123's or steer you to who would carry the Made in USA versions. I'm pretty sure that all K8123's are made in USA, the ones with the RK/CK after the number made overseas.........give John a call to be sure. David before I converted over to Opentracker's rollerized LCA/UCA's, I purchased new K8123's and had Energy Suspension 1 7/16" bushings installed, tack welded the sleeve to the arm, so not to move and used those eccentric kits..... what are you going to do with your car?? stock suspension rebuild or better street performance handling?
I haven't reached John yet gonna try this week ,thanks for everyones help trying to learn as Im trying to do a good rebuild with quality replacement parts ,I plan to try the 1 inch Shelby drop with a new aftermarket belly bar and monte carlo bar and disc brakes not gonna be a race car just wanna freshen everything up ,also might try the rolle rbearing spring perches
Like others on the forum have mentioned, Opentracker is a stand up company. After you talk to John about what you would like to do with your car, he will explain in great detail how everything works etc., and knowing him, probably will tell you that the single most noticeable improvement that can be done, is changing the stock spring perches over to "rollerized". I can tell you from my experience with them, night and day difference how your car reacts etc., again, leave a message/email with them and they will get back to you. David
I talked with John super nice guy who helped me a lot thanks for everyones help ,that's what fellow maverick owners are good at doing helping each other out!!
