Thread: 72 ford maverick ifs work with 52 ford f1?

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Hi everybody, I have a question regarding an ifs swap out of a 72' ford maverick into a 52' ford f1 truck. Will this suspension swap work? I have been told that the maverick suspension is the same as the mustang 2 suspension. I have noticed a few differences between the mav suspension and the m2 kit, for example the mav does not have the crossmember that goes under the engine, and the steering linkage is behind the engine as apposed to being in the front of the engine. If this will work. what parts and conversions will I have to do? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

busterknuckles

The Mavericks are the same suspension as the older Mustangs, with the coil in the tower above the upper A-Arm. Nothing like the Mustang 2's where the coil spring is between a pocket on the frame and the lower control arm.

The Maveric suspension was designed for the unibody construction. It won't work on your truck unless you weld the body to the frame and make heavy gauge steel inner fenders that are also welded to the frame and cab to support the shock towers. Even the original unibody wasn't strong enough for that front end. They used an ezport brace to attach the top of the towers to the firewall and Monte Carlo bars to attach them across the top of the engine when they were set up for racing. I used the front suspension from a Pontiac Fiero on my truck. If your frame is 36" or less across you can unbolt the front crossmember from the Fiero and weld it to your frame or weld some mounts and bolt it in. Other people have used the complete front crossmember from a Dodge Aspen/Plymouth Volare and they worked well but they are getting hard to find. They used torsion bars instead of springs so you would need to make a rugged mount for them further back on the frame.

Thank you guys for your replies. I was afraid that might be the case. Looks like im going to be making another trip to the drawing board!

busterknuckles

"...........Other people have used the complete front crossmember from a Dodge Aspen/Plymouth Volare and they worked well but they are getting hard to find. They used torsion bars instead of springs so you would need to make a rugged mount for them further back on the frame........."


Actually Al the Aspen/Volare (and post 78 down sized New Yorkers, Dodge Diplomats, etc) had a drop out front sub-frame and "bent" (L shaped) torsion bars. The whole unit comes out with 4 bolts.

I put one of these under a 51 F1 years ago and other than carefull measuring and triming on the bottom of the frame it was pretty straight foward.

Like Al said depending on where you are they can be a little difficult to find but if you can find a whole car there usually dirt cheap.

i used the torsion bars on a few cars and they worked great except for the headers. caused me major problems with the headers.

That sounds like a pretty good deal on the Aspen/volaire suspension mike. I will have to keep on the look out for one. I would also like to learn more about the fiero suspension in case i cant find one. Al is there any way you could send me some info on what you had to do on the fiero swap? My isp adress is chadirene@wmconnect.com I appreciate your guys input.

Here are some other suggestions:

http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=193210

Originally posted by busterknuckles
That sounds like a pretty good deal on the Aspen/volaire suspension mike. I will have to keep on the look out for one. I would also like to learn more about the fiero suspension in case i cant find one. Al is there any way you could send me some info on what you had to do on the fiero swap? My isp adress is chadirene@wmconnect.com I appreciate your guys input.

I put some pictures on here a while back. It took a while to find it but here's the link.

http://www.clubhotrod.com/forums/sho...=&threadid=699

Probably not what you would want, but I've seen a 59 F100 with the crossmember out of a 73-79 F100-F150. Twin I-beam, not much of an upgrade but it is disk brake & power. The frame on the 59 was 1/2" wider the guy welded in a 1/4" plate on each side to shimm things up then bolted in the crossmember using factory rivet holes.