Re: 63 Classic strut rod bushings
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Re: 63 Classic strut rod bushings



On Tue, 21 Jun 2005 farna@xxxxxxx wrote:

Subject: Re: 63 Classic strut rod bushings
63 and 64 are unique in that the strut rod is not adjustable on
the front side (like later ones, and Americans) so you can't just
stuff a late-model bushing in it.

I'd be interested in hereing about your fix Tom. I did just put later two piece bushings in mine for a while. It worked okay, but caster was hard to get set right.

http://wps.com/AMC/Strut-bushing/index.html


A LOT OF WORK went into this! It's lasted a year or whatever, some
13K miles, with no problems at all, alignment has held perfectly.

It did a fair amount of groaning the first 6 months or so, typical
of urethane in cars not designed for it; I greased them a couple
of times and they shut up, but at this point I think the contact
points have simply polished through use and only groan at the
extremes of travel (eg. up a steep driveway at an angle).

Someone pointed out that the big front washer could be drilled for
a zerk fitting -- good idea! All I did was turn to extreme lock,
and use a paintbrush to work a bit grease behind the front washer
(the rear rubber compresses enough to do this).

I finally cut my strut rods in half and welded the rear half of
a Concord set to them. Now that works really good! All AMCs used
an adjustable strut rod from 1967 or 68 on, earlier were
non-adjustable.

I don't have a welder, nor enough experience to trust my welding in such a life-critical spot.

Speaking of front ends, what alignment settings do you use on
your Classic with radial tires? I'm thinking 3* caster, 0* to -
1/2* camber, and 1/8" toe-in as "ideal". I'm planning on setting
the rear axle at 1/2* to 1* negative camber as well (Jag axle,
remember). That shouldn't affect wear and may improve handling
slightly.

I tell them always ('cept forgot to for the Hornet!) "maximum caster, zero camber, 1/8" toe". Works on all Ramblers it seems. On my autocross Spirit, same except -1 camber.

The hornet is dead-stock, whatever-caster, 0 camber, 1/8" toe.

The squealing I had when new-new has largely subsided, it was tire
scrub. The alignment is still way to Rambler for me (eg. for a
grandma car with no sway bars front or rear!) and I'll soon enough
add a rear bar (I added a front!) and then go through the
alignment, probably in the spring.  It runs and tracks now, that's
good enough for this summer.








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