[AMC-List] Report from the desert

[Michael Bailey <route66rambler@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, been a while, thought I'd check in.  The 258 engine seized on my 74 Gremlin, Molly last night.  It's had a good miss going on for a while now,  with an inconsistent backfire, and no amount of tuning would take it out.  Last night I pulled up to a store, and when I shut her off, there was just a split second of dieseling-like noise, and that has never happened before.  When I tried to start her after coming out, it acted like the starter was drawing too much current(click click).  After a little checking, it became apparent that the motor is frozen.  Well, Phoenix in June, maybe "frozen" isn't the right word.  At any rate, I'm sure that I know exactly what's wrong. I just thought it would be interesting to see what some of the guesses from list members would be BEFORE I take it apart.  Oil's great, coolant's great(wasn't even hot in 110-plus) On the bright side, I have a Jeep 258 or a 76 232 that can go in while I repair the 258 that's in Molly now.  Of course, I am
 right in the middle of yet another move. The trailer park I've been living in was sold -you guessed it, to developers.  Usually not a big loss with most trailer parks, but this one is over 50 years old, 84 sites, with 2-1/2 acres per site, huge mature trees and pastures everywhere, irrigation, horses, just a paradise. Oh well.  So I get to pull an engine swap in the middle of a move(again).  People have been talking on the list lately about works-in-progress.  So I thought I would review this particular project, called Project Mollyfloggin', which is now just over a year underway. Molly Blue is an experimental test bed for Keeping Your Gremlin Alive in the 21st Century, and I use her for my daily driver.  I bought her in 2005, at the same time as the Alamosa Project(69 Javelin SST), on the fifth of May, or as we say here in the United States, Cinco de Mayo. The car is a 74 Gremlin with virtually no options except A/C and a luggage rack, and AM radio. I replaced the
 original bench seat, steering wheel, visors, armrests and shifter knob with buckets and stuff from a 77 Hornet AMX. So all the tactile surfaces are AMX. A couple months later I scored a gorgeous dash pad, gauge insert, and locking glovebox surround from a 72 Hornet SST 2 door.  About that time the City of Phoenix decided it needed my 12.5 acres more than I did, and we had to move. Then the throwout bearing on the 3 speed failed, munching  the fingers on the pressure plate.  So I got to do a tranny job, in the middle of a desperate move, in a housing market gone mad(800% climb in my area in last two years).  Lacking the 350.00 needed for replacement parts, I scrounged a junkyard floor shifter(82 SX/4) and four gauge mini-console from an 85 Eagle wagon, and installed the automatic from my 76 Gremlin. Then my crumbling dashboard finally finished crumbling.  Luckily there was a beautiful 74 Sportabout at a local yard that was happy to donate a nearly-perfect dash.  I took the
 opportunity at this time to replace the hatch lid with tinted glass (76 Gremlin) and re-dye the door panels, and a friend donated a headliner to the cause(78 Concord hatchback). It doesn't fit exactly, but it's very close. About this time, scored two cool Rambler American 440's from LA, a 67 HT and a 66 convertible, both V8's.  Around this same time, the County of Maricopa decided it needed the house I was renting more than I did, so that PIR could have yet another lane on 115th ave. The tranny  ran great, but leaked horrifically.  Upon further inspection, the drain plug appeared to be stripped.  Pulled  the powertrain again, (in the middle of another desperate move, still insanity in the market, AND I had to retrieve two cars one at a time 300 miles from LA) installed all new seals and a new torque converter.  This got me up to about 3 AM on the morning of the Cactus Classic AMO meet, where Larry Daum had encouraged me to "bring the Earl Schreib Gremlin".  But I knew it
 wouldn't get done unless I missed the meet.  So I went without taking Molly.  It turned out misery loves company, and Larry had a similar story on his Javelin, so we didn't get to see each other's cars.  Then I got the great idea to adjust the bands on that tranny, botched something, and it wouldn't move.  So I pulled the auto out of my 75 Gremln X and swapped it in.  At the same time, cut out the rust in the floor pan and patched it for now with an aircraft rivet gun and some stout aluminum sheet, sealed at the edges with epoxy. Also, patched and re-wired most of the rear harness. Been running great until now.  Oh yeah, new brakes and carburetor in there somewhere.  Scored perfect taillight lenses off a 71 Gremlin at the local yard. And chrome latch bezels for the inside door panels from an 81 Concord DL, and an AM/FM radio from a 73 hornet sedan.  Replaced the front signals with units from a 75 Matador 4 door. All the interior plastic is complete, from many donor cars,
 and awaiting a re-dye.  There has been extensive cleaning, de-rusting, parts hunting, and bodywork on the other five projects going on at the same time.  Have obtained many documents, ads and brochures(up to about 600 advertisements, need to scan them in) and a friend of mine, Dan Lopez, bought one of Eddie's Javelin/AMX books and donated it.  I owe an apology to Joe Fulton and Eddie Stakes for deals that I promised but was unable to follow up on, Joe for a Hornet grille, and Eddie for a couple of books I am going to order.  I am very sorry, guys.  Usually I am reliable as a mule, but circumstances are tough, what with all the moving etc.  I will be back on those deals as soon as possible.  By the way, I noticed the suits and surveyors taking pictures at the tiny 1-br apartment I am moving into, so the jig is up on that place, too, probably in the next 6 to 9 months.  I am becoming very familiar with this process now.  At least the housing market is beginning to cool some,
 prices are off about 25% right now.  Wish the weather was cooling, too.  I pulled the website down for a while, due to overwhelmingly negative response.  Let me know what you guys want to see that's not at other places, as opposed to just sending hate mail, and I will try and incorporate constructive suggestions into what I am doing there.  I have a couple of different ideas I want to kick around on the list vis-a-vis the Route 66 Rambler museum, but I don't want to take any more space than I already have on this post.
See ya, gotta go load the truck(or was that pull a drivetrain?).
mike



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