Anyone owned an AMC vehicle?
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Conway Twitty,a deceased country singer owned an AMC Pacer and I know whom has it with proof,a picture of him sitting on it.I have seen it and it is in Muskegon,Mi.AMC did put in cheap bearings in their rear ends,Koyos and my father remembers replacing them with Timkens.
My growing up car in the US was a AMC Eagle. We required a 4wd/awd vehicle for our old driveway growing up that was very steep and icy/snowy.
My parents drove it for 250,000 miles without a major engine or transmission problem. It was sold because everything electrical had failed including interior lights, rear defrost, heater fan.....
The AWD was incredible and I found the car to be quite capable off road fording 9" deep streams to get to the good side of the local river beach.
The car was maroon with contact looking paper brown woodgrain.
My parents drove it for 250,000 miles without a major engine or transmission problem. It was sold because everything electrical had failed including interior lights, rear defrost, heater fan.....
The AWD was incredible and I found the car to be quite capable off road fording 9" deep streams to get to the good side of the local river beach.
The car was maroon with contact looking paper brown woodgrain.
My mom bought a 1973 (I think) Javelin for cash with money she saved from working. I don't know what the engine was, but I know my dad loved driving it. The family had it until the block cracked while trying to start it on a too-cold morning.
I owned a 1980 Jeep CJ-7 for about three years. It was nice for a weekend driver but I hated it as a daily. It had an aftermarket hard top and hard doors which rattled and squeaked constantly. I tried all sorts of fixes to quiet the rattles. A factory hardtop or soft top would have been much preferable.
It ran really nice and had a great 4-speed transmission; however, it needed a carb rebuild and in certain conditions required starting fluid to get it running. Also, it was the one vehicle that I just couldn't keep in one piece. It was hit hard parked unoccupied in front of the house, and another time I had the hood blow open on the highway on a horribly windy day. Luckily it didn't smash the windshield but it really mangled the hood.
It ran really nice and had a great 4-speed transmission; however, it needed a carb rebuild and in certain conditions required starting fluid to get it running. Also, it was the one vehicle that I just couldn't keep in one piece. It was hit hard parked unoccupied in front of the house, and another time I had the hood blow open on the highway on a horribly windy day. Luckily it didn't smash the windshield but it really mangled the hood.
Originally Posted By: Zaedock
I had a '75 Matador. It had a 258 that ran well.
It sort of looked like a big frog.
A friend of mine had a 75 Madador and we drove it from NYC to Miami..On the way down in North Carolina the a/c went out...It was July...Then all the power windows went out in the down position and it poured for hours on end..To make matters worse none of the AMC dealers around could get parts for it.
After we got to Miami he had someone in NYC send him the Title for the Madador and he sold it and bought a 75 Impala..No problems with the Impala.
I had a '75 Matador. It had a 258 that ran well.
It sort of looked like a big frog.
A friend of mine had a 75 Madador and we drove it from NYC to Miami..On the way down in North Carolina the a/c went out...It was July...Then all the power windows went out in the down position and it poured for hours on end..To make matters worse none of the AMC dealers around could get parts for it.
After we got to Miami he had someone in NYC send him the Title for the Madador and he sold it and bought a 75 Impala..No problems with the Impala.
When I was in high school my Father had a 66 Rambler Classic. Six cylinder, with three on the tree. Quite the gas mizer, which was important at 1971 prices. It had ZERO style, purely utilitarian, but I remember the quality as being pretty decent for the time.
I thought one of the best looking pony cars ever was the AMC AMX. A college friend used to have a silver one with a black interior, a very, very good looking car. To the best of my memory it only had the 343, not the 390.
For some reason, I used to like the looks of AMC Spirits when I was in high school but I never owned or rode in one. To my young eyes they were a little different and cool looking.
My parents owned a Rambler when I was a little kid but I barely remember it
My parents owned a Rambler when I was a little kid but I barely remember it
Originally Posted By: addyguy
Originally Posted By: oldmaninsc
My grandfather owned several 1960's Ramblers. He drove them a lot of miles. Not sure the exact number, but he made a lot of trips across the United States.
My grandfather always bought cars with the 3 speed stick shift transmission. The column shift. I drove it a few times - very clumsy to drive after you are used to a 4 on the floor type of transmission.
My Dad bought a new Rambler in the mid 60's. The back doors would come open going around turns - with only the driver in the car! It was a real lemon. It spent more time in the dealership's garage than it did his!
A close friend bought an early 70's Gremlin with the 258 straight 6. They named it right! He had nothing but problems. Valve job at 50K miles, transmission replaced shortly after that - oil leaks like crazy, etc.
It was a purple one! YUCK! We called it the Purple Ape! So his CB handle was "The Grape Ape".
In the early 80's another friend had a late 70's Gremlin with the 4 cylinder engine which I think was a Pontiac engine. While being very gutless it seemed to run well for her.
The 4-cylinder in the Gremlin was and Audi-sourced 2-liter OHC 4-cylinder. The Spirit, and later AMC's, used the 'Iron Duke' 2.5 from Pontiac; and then in 1982, AMC developed their own, completely different 2.5-liter 4-cylinder.
Interesting. I saw that on Wikipedia too. I'm 99.9 percent sure though that she had the 2.5 4 cylinder in hers. I don't remember the exact year - I'm thinking it was a 78 or so.
I also don't remember it being an OHC engine. It had about the same amount of power (or lack thereof) as my 72 Vega had!
Originally Posted By: oldmaninsc
My grandfather owned several 1960's Ramblers. He drove them a lot of miles. Not sure the exact number, but he made a lot of trips across the United States.
My grandfather always bought cars with the 3 speed stick shift transmission. The column shift. I drove it a few times - very clumsy to drive after you are used to a 4 on the floor type of transmission.
My Dad bought a new Rambler in the mid 60's. The back doors would come open going around turns - with only the driver in the car! It was a real lemon. It spent more time in the dealership's garage than it did his!
A close friend bought an early 70's Gremlin with the 258 straight 6. They named it right! He had nothing but problems. Valve job at 50K miles, transmission replaced shortly after that - oil leaks like crazy, etc.
It was a purple one! YUCK! We called it the Purple Ape! So his CB handle was "The Grape Ape".
In the early 80's another friend had a late 70's Gremlin with the 4 cylinder engine which I think was a Pontiac engine. While being very gutless it seemed to run well for her.
The 4-cylinder in the Gremlin was and Audi-sourced 2-liter OHC 4-cylinder. The Spirit, and later AMC's, used the 'Iron Duke' 2.5 from Pontiac; and then in 1982, AMC developed their own, completely different 2.5-liter 4-cylinder.
Interesting. I saw that on Wikipedia too. I'm 99.9 percent sure though that she had the 2.5 4 cylinder in hers. I don't remember the exact year - I'm thinking it was a 78 or so.
I also don't remember it being an OHC engine. It had about the same amount of power (or lack thereof) as my 72 Vega had!
You might be right - it got confusing around 1978.
In 1977, for sure the Gremlin 4-cylinder engine was the Audi 2.0 OHC.
But in 1978, the Concord came along, and its 4-cylinder engine was definetly the Pontiac 2.5, it never had the Audi engine. It would make sense that the 4-cylinder in the 1978 Gremlin was also the 2.5.
In 1979, the Gremlin changed into the Spirit, and it had a 'coupe' version that was nothing more than a 1978 Gremlin body; whereas the 'hatchback' body was new. That car also definetly had the 2.5 Pontiac 4; so if she had a 1979 'coupe' Spirit, it would look just like the 1977-78 Gremlin.
After 1980, only the 'hatchback' version of the spirit was availiable.
In 1977, for sure the Gremlin 4-cylinder engine was the Audi 2.0 OHC.
But in 1978, the Concord came along, and its 4-cylinder engine was definetly the Pontiac 2.5, it never had the Audi engine. It would make sense that the 4-cylinder in the 1978 Gremlin was also the 2.5.
In 1979, the Gremlin changed into the Spirit, and it had a 'coupe' version that was nothing more than a 1978 Gremlin body; whereas the 'hatchback' body was new. That car also definetly had the 2.5 Pontiac 4; so if she had a 1979 'coupe' Spirit, it would look just like the 1977-78 Gremlin.
After 1980, only the 'hatchback' version of the spirit was availiable.
Greaser, that was the AMC 360 , I've had 5 of them in various Wagoneers. Jeep was owned by AMC from 72-87.
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As I recall in 1968 AMC made Factory A/C Standard in the Ambassador..It seemed to sell alot of cars as Factory A/C was a expensive option then..
I bet they sold allot cars in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale area.
I bet they sold allot cars in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale area.
I currently own a "1965 Rambler American" with a 195.6 engine & 3 speed column shift with only 31,000 original miles.
My dad owned a bunch of them from a 1953 Nash to a 1981 Concord. Junk.
I never owned a true AMC, my Cherokee is an AMC design but it was built years after the merger with Chrysler and has Chrysler engine management on the 4.0 (a huge improvement over the AMC/Renalut/Bendix "RENIX" injection on the early Cherokees) and the post-96 upgraded/Chrysler-ized interior. Plus all the Chrysler upgrades to the engine itself- intake, head, main-cap girdle, etc. I've got a book on Chrysler engines written by a 40+ year Chrysler engineer who retired as head of the engine division (Bill Weertman). He has a chapter in there pretty much raving about how good the inherited AMC 4.0 and 2.5 were.
When I was in HS, one of my best friends had a '74 Ambassador. Good car, but boring. I was always fascinated by what a soup of "store bought" parts AMCs had. That Ambassador had an AMC in-house engine (360- a great powerplant later used in the full-size Wagoneers), a Chrysler TF727 automatic (AMC called it the "TorqueCommand" transmission), a Ford starter, Ford alternator, and Ford/Motorcraft carburetor just to name a few. Other AMCs like the full-size Gladiator pickups and full-size Cherokees and Wagoneers at that time used GM HydraMatic transmissions. And AMC actually *owned* the design of the Buick 3.8L v6 for many years before selling it *back* to Buick in the late 70s. It was used in Jeeps and was called the "Dauntless" v6, and a fairly modern Buick 3800 can be retrofitted to a Dauntless-equipped Jeep relatively easily.
One thing AMC always could do was build a *solid* chassis and for the most part, engines. Boring maybe, but built like the proverbial brick outhouse.
When I was in HS, one of my best friends had a '74 Ambassador. Good car, but boring. I was always fascinated by what a soup of "store bought" parts AMCs had. That Ambassador had an AMC in-house engine (360- a great powerplant later used in the full-size Wagoneers), a Chrysler TF727 automatic (AMC called it the "TorqueCommand" transmission), a Ford starter, Ford alternator, and Ford/Motorcraft carburetor just to name a few. Other AMCs like the full-size Gladiator pickups and full-size Cherokees and Wagoneers at that time used GM HydraMatic transmissions. And AMC actually *owned* the design of the Buick 3.8L v6 for many years before selling it *back* to Buick in the late 70s. It was used in Jeeps and was called the "Dauntless" v6, and a fairly modern Buick 3800 can be retrofitted to a Dauntless-equipped Jeep relatively easily.
One thing AMC always could do was build a *solid* chassis and for the most part, engines. Boring maybe, but built like the proverbial brick outhouse.
My thought of the late 70s-80s AMC vehicles was a car body on a truck frame with tacky plad interior. They were pretty unique vehicles, and with the added ground clearance and 4wd perfect for someone who lived in a rural area and needed a car with those properties.
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