Whats up everyone, im a 18 year old kid that loves cars. the oldest car ive owned was a 85 mk2 supra, so going this far back in time is new! i have recently stumbled upon a 1974 Ford Maverick, 2 door, with a stright 6 and a pretty nice body with a tad bit of rust. i never really gave this car a second look untill my 93 nissan 240sx was tottaly back in june when a city bus didnt stop at a stop sign and pulled out in front of me. Long story short im offered this maverick with 80k on it to, i guess get it running? The last time this car was running was about 5 years ago. i will be posting some pictures soon. I was not feeling to well untill i found this site and now i have a little more hope that maybe you guys can help me out. Okay for starters the engine isnt running. I need to go to advanced auto to pick up my 1st set of parts. -battery -plugs -I DONT KOW WHAT IM DOING!!! The guy that owned/still owns this car is my girlfirends dad.. he told me that it isnt getting spark to the dist. so he thought it was the coil, he tested the coil and it was good, so he just scratched he head and let it sit for 5 years.. im going to clean up the engine bay and take the old rad. off and flush it and see if its still usable and go through a couple over things today. when i get home tonight im looking foward to seeing many posts, and encouragement for all!
the first car i ever wanted was a 96 supra...i ended up with my mav though, and i'm thankfull because there a whole lot cheaper. Check the carb and ignition module, mine sat for 10 years, i replaced the coil,plugs,wires,modules,rebuilt the carb and it fired right up. Good luck
So glad to hear you are really interested in older cars and learning to work on them. First thing I would do is get a manual on Ford cars. These usually contain info on Mavericks in those years. Sometimes you can find them at the public library, but most auto store's also carry them pretty reasonable. Basic hand tool set to start and maybe a multi meter to check wiring etc. Be sure there is fresh gas in the tank and then after pulling the plugs, put a little automatic trans fluid(about and once) in each cyl. to lube up the rings etc. If it is an auto trans, change the fluid and filter too. After getting it fired, you can concentrate on brakes and safety items before making your first test run. Lot's to do when a car has sat that long but if you take your time and work on one thing at a time, you should end up with a neat and fun car to drive. Keep us posted and welcome aboard.
buy a few extra fuel filters, old gas destroys filters fast. my comet was sitting for five yrs, too. set of plugs, wires and oil and a shot of starting fluid and she purred back to life. I hope you are as fortunate as I was. As for no spark check the wires around the coil, buddy of mine got a comet for free because it had no spark and it only needed a wire replaced. Good luck and I know you'll love the car as much as we love em.
Change out the points inside the distributor. They are bad about corroding up when a car sits for a long period. You'll have be be sure to get them adjusted properly though so you might wanna ask for help if you don't know how to do it. You might be able to take a small fingernail file and just clean them good enough to get it to fire up...but still replace them.
mavericks are just about the simplest car you could ever hope to work on. maitence and mechanical parts are also pretty inexpensive as well. im only 19 myself so dont think that im some vetren, lifetime mechanic or anything. me and my buddy are working on a 91 240sx. we pulled the KA24? out and he's buying a SR20 turbo to swap into it sometime soon. i can definatly say that mavericks are a helluva lot easier to deal with. and my v8 swap has probably cost me less then half of what he's paying and i should be able to give him a run for his money lol
