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25 april 2023
Welcome to RamblerLore.com, my Rambler and American Motors technical information collection, mostly but not exclusively 1958 through 1963 Rambler Americans and the Nash Ramblers they share components with, back to 1950. My concern is driving, not restoration. The information here derives from that goal, so emphasis is on suspension, brakes, engine, chassis, etc. My daily driver is a 1960 American. My other car is the Rambler Roadster, a heavily modified 1961 American setup for sports car use. It is driven very hard, is all-Rambler except transmission, axle, and home-built rear suspension. The roadster has been the test bed for reliability-oriented mods in use for 10 years or more.
Replacement parts are increasingly difficult to source. Retail stores and online catalogs no longer accurately make available parts for cars that haven't been made for a half century, so a large part of my work is identifying parts by aftermarket part number (as opposed to application) and in more and more cases, fabrication and modification. See my Parts List spreadsheet below; further parts lists and cross-references are in the works.
Scroll this page or touch or mouse over the bar at the top of the screen to
jump to article groupings.
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| Google Sheets broke compatibility with non-Chrome browsers (wrapped text fails) and so
I've had to remove these two spreadsheets. Now I'll have to manually export Libre Office sheets
manually. I haven't done that yet. Replacement parts I have personally installed with aftermarket numbers and notes. I update this frequently, so it's best used online here. |
| Spreadsheet that calculates MPH and RPM given tire size and axle information. It encourages "what if" poking and playing around. Save a copy on your own computer so that you can save changes. |
This includes AMC factory Technical Service Manuals, aka TSMs, factory Parts Catalogs, which contain many illustrations, AMC "family photo album", and other AMC documentation. It also includes some critical component-manufacturer data, such as Borg Warner transmissions, radios, and a few old hobbiest pages dedicated to under-documented things like the aluminum six cylinder engine.
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A compilation of disc and drum brake data taken from AMC factory Technical Service Manuals, arranged into one large table, cross-referenced. Now with Bendix, Wagner, Raybestos, UPB, Aimco parts numbers cross reference. |
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A how-to of rear axle bearing replacement that applies to all AMC axles all years, in note form, alas no photographs. |
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Pre-1964 AMC "small cars" and Nashes have a peculiar method of attaching the rear yoke assembly to the pinion shaft, known as the "big nut" axle. Here's how to work on them. |
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Front Bendix 9 x 2.5's shown here, but other sizes the same. Wagner is the same except shoe hold down spring is a different style, and the wheel cylinder has stubby pushrods to the shoes. |
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Making drum brakes work as well as small disc brakes but drilling for ventilation. |
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Installing a Scarebird disc brake kit to pre-1964 Americans (applies to Nash cans as well). |
17 apr 2023
Fuel delivery: carburetors and fuel injection, electronic carburetors, intakes and plenums. All of these are specifically for the Rambler 195.6 OHV engine but all of the ideas and principles apply to all old engines of moderate to low power ("stock"). The old Rambler Six is not popular -- everything I did had to be from first principles, and I've ended up sourcing ideas and components from old european sports cars, the old air-cooled beetle engine, Corvairs, ... all folk who themselves had to work from first principles, and not just go to Summit and checkbox Famous Brand.
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A run-through of the many fuel-delivery systems I've used on the Rambler Six engine, both sensible and foolish, including the Holley Sniper Autolite 1100. |
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I repurposed a 1980's Carter YFA "feedback carburetor" into an idealized self-adjusting carburetor. |
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Includes plenum fabrication details for the exotic ones. This is a sub-page of the Induction page. |
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My experience and notes on installing a Howell throttle body injection (TBI) system, intended for Jeeps, on the 232ci in my 1963 Classic. |
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Some notes on my experience tuning the Howell TBI kit (GM 1227747). |
16 mar 2023
These are things written specifically to illuminate some technique or process or problem and how to get past it.
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The Motorola 93MR was the radio option for 1958 through 1960 Rambler Americans. It's a hybrid tube and transistor set. No vibrator, it uses special low-voltage tubes. While it's not too hard to make the 64 year old electronics work, the knobs and special mounting nuts are a serious impediment. |
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I can't think of a better description for things like this than "studies", as in case studies, as in taking a look at a failed part to diagnose a problem or find a solution. Documentation of work done on a car or project that doesn't rise to the level of "How-To" but might contain useful hints. These are arranged as note-to-self. These are forensic or post-mortem projects and examinations, that don't quite rise to the quality of the how-to's, but may contain useful information. YMMV.
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Remove and repair of the early American front door hinges. It's satisfying to work on quality parts! A close look at how and why they wear and things to look for. |
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An unsatisfying and incomplete collection of information on AMC and Rambler factory AM, AM/FM, tape players and CB radios. Information is spotty and sparse, and even the factory parts catalogs are silent. |
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Installing a Ford type Duraspark distributor in an early 232ci six, and using the TFI coil. |
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Some high points of installing a Vintage Air A/C system in my 1963 Classic wagon, on a 232ci six. |
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Simple trick for removing Rambler glass mounted in those rubber gaskets with the "H" profile. |
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I had two oil pressure senders fail on the road and at speed, bright red OIL PRESSURE FAILURE lamp scaring the crap out of me. I identified the failure and have a fix that has lasted, so far anyway. |
I've spent a decade doing decidedly non-stock things to this chassis and engine, on two different cars: a 1963 440 Twin Stick, and a 1961 base model. It's a tough car to drive daily; though of very high quality of manufacture, it embodies very old engineering, and in stock form the demands of modern driving stress it to failure, and parts are hard to find. So I ended up doing a lot of one-off repairs and customizations that eventually led to the Rambler Roadster. Some of the work below precedes the Roadster work. Most of it is one-off customizations to the '63, one step at a time. Later work will therefore contradict earlier statements, etc. I've tried to sequence these pages in a way that reveals the progression.
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Fitting a Grant aftermarket steering wheel to the ancient Gemmer steering box in a 1963 Rambler American. |
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Using Modern Drive Line's AMC/Nash T5 adapter to fit one of MDL's T5z transmissions into an early (pre-1964) Rambler American. |
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Forensic disassembly of a (ruined) vacuum modulator from a Borg Warner M8 automatic transmission. |
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Interior design and construction of my '63 American hardtop; a hybrid of Mobius and Japanese anime, and Taiyo Matsumoto's work (Tekkonkinkreet), a Japanese anime artist who spent time in France with Mobius' cohort. |
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Restomod/custom work on the rusty instrument gauge cluster. |
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Simple hack to feed the carburetor with colder air, the pre-1964 American chassis. |
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Rebuilding the Borg Warner T96 overdrive transmission. |
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Photo sequence for a transmission assembly. |
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Not particularly useful images, just what it looks like installed. ... |
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Tire and wheel fitment issues on the pre-1964 Rambler American chassis. |
On 14 July 2005 the remaining contents of Navarro Engineering's (Barney Navarro) shop in Los Angeles was auctioned, mostly shop equipment. I went to ogle the twin-turbo Indianapolis 500 engine, ended up buying a load of exotic Rambler Indy-engine test-mule engine parts. I later sold them to some turbo guy up in the Seattle area who had embarked on a project to re-create Navarro's car #50, but he and his shop seem to have disappeared, so I don't know what became of all the stuff.
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This page is mostly photos of the twin-turbo motor. |
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A quick inventory of the parts bought at the Barney Navarro auction. |
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The Navarro turbo motor mocked up, interesting though. |
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Note this is mocked up with a TE06, not a T04, which the flange was meant for. The TE06 flange is about an inch wider.... |
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Photos from trip to Budapest. No AMC content here! Lots of cool ex-Eastern Bloc (sic) cars though. That's Simon Penny modelling some of the photos. |
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Looks surprisingly like my customized 1979 AMC AMX. I did not know of this car when I did that work.) |
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Ignore these photos. It's not possible for Nash Metropolitans to be driven at speed. Everyone knows that. It is most definitely not going 60 mph in a Mulholland Highway turn. Nope. Beep beep.... |
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A weak attempt to document AMC six cylinder bell housings. If you have one not shown here please contact me, I'd love to add data on it to this page. |
My own cars, present and past, some of them anyway.
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My daily driver, a comfortable and slow little station wagon. Looking to be the best car I've ever owned. |
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A roadster made from a 1961 Rambler American; light weight open car (2250 lbs), custom wishbone rear suspension, home made front suspension, heavily modified engine, five speed transmission, four wheel disc brakes. This is the true sports car AMC could have made. |
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This was my daily driver. Innocuous and forgettable when new in the 1968 market, but today a shining examle of excellent engineering, frugal but comfortable design, and a semi-timeless style, meaning it's not larded up with non-functional stylistical gunk. The smallest six, three speed column shift, bench seat. 22 MPG with 210,000 original miles verified, engine never apart. Wonderfully reliable. |
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Restomod work on my 1963 Rambler American 440 Twin Stick hardtop. Many of the early American project pages above refer to pages within. |
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I drove this car for 21 years, best car I ever had so far. I put 350,000 miles on it, one engine and two or maybe three full transmission teardowns. Never failed me on the road. |
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I took a bunch of detail pictures of my wagon before I sold it. One of the few car regrets I have was selling this wagon, though it was driving me crazy at the time. (2021 note: looking at these photos all hese years later; man was that car wore out! But it was still reliable.) |
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Restomod project for a 1970 Hornet; 1983 258, Torqueflite, in diary form. |
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I bought this in October 1998 from a small car lot in San Jose Calif. My first and probably only actual restoration. |
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Some notes on the logo and text on the rear ofa 1975 Gremlin X, and a matching typeface found. |
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My third-favorite car of all time is this '79 AMX, which I couldn't really call my "AMX", so I called it a Spirit V8, which is what it was. It had quick steering, 304-V8, a torqueflite (later a 4-speed). I bought it in Massachusetts, and took it with me when I moved to San Francisco in November 1983. |
