[Amc-list] AMC Heritage- Kaiser-Willy's and others- So. Dak. Perspective

["RetroRalph" <retroralph@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Maybe it was just the general road conditions in the area I grew up in 
the Black Hills, SD but the late 1940's and early 1950's cars... 
especiall the Kaisers, Frazers, Henry J's, the Aero Willys, and the 
early Jeeps Station wagons (tin woody's) seemed to delevop body panel 
cracks after only a few hundred miles of the washboard gravel roads 
around there.

After a little time we could identify them by their rattles and clatter 
as they went by.  We tried them out because we liked the way they 
looked, small, light economical, simple and even liked their styling. 
The Kaiser and Frazers were previously established cars and not the 
newer postwar models manufactured by Henry J. Kaiser.  They were 
generally powered by a Continental flathead 6 engine which was used by 
many other makes or models including Jeep and Checker, etc,  maybe even 
Studebaker.

Our rough country roads made short work of those cars.  Shock absorbers 
would tear off. they could not be kept in alignment, they would pound 
you to pieces, bodyy and frame cracks showed them to be too fragile for 
general use around there.

The car models that seems to hold up well were the Pontiac, Olds, 
Hudson, Nash, Studebaker, Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto, Most Fords, but some 
models would get kind of rattletrap, Chevy's were kind of weak as 
deleoped cracked in the fenders, and old shock absorber styles would 
quickly lose effectiveness but they were better after 1949 & 1950 body 
styles and then in 1954 they even got a pressurized oiling system.

Us farmers pretty much didn't care to much for Henry J Kaiser cars, even 
if we did know how he and his companies performed for us during the big 
war.   We sure did like his army jeeps and his CJ's of the time.  They 
worked for us and we could go places with them and didn't have to ride 
the horse through the blizzards.  They even had farming attachments for 
those things.  They had a good power-take-off setup for moving machines 
and power rakes, etc... and we didn't have to hook up the team of horses 
to pull our big hay wagons around.  And they could carry 4 to 6 people 
down the road to the swimming hole on those warm afternoons.
______________________________________________________________
Ralph Ausmann  -  Hillsboro, OR - > <ralph.ausmann@xxxxxxxxx>
http://mysite.verizon.net/res79g4m/


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Swygert, Francis G MSgt 436 CES/CECM" 
<Francis.Swygert3@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Amc-list] AMC Heritage Cars -- Willys Aero/58-63 
Americansuspension bracing
----------------------------------
Date: Thursday, April 26, 2007 12:59 AM
From: orlinpettit@xxxxxxxxxxx
--I noticed one of the AMC heritage collectible cars on the list was the 
Aero Willys. If you ever buy one examine the front suspension lower 
A-frames very carefully for cracks. 50 years on I can take you to the 
spot were the front suspension collapsed in the Aero my dad owned. Worn 
shift linkage will get the transmission hung in reverse and first gear 
at the same time as well.
The Aero was made into the '60's in Brazil.. should be easy to find one 
down there.
-----------------
I printed an article on the Aero in AIM back in the first year or two 
(8-9 years ago!). Neat little cars! The 58-63 American is of similar 
size and can have similar problems. The lower arms don't crack, but the 
rails where the front suspension mounting reinforcements weld on do, but 
can be MIG welded. Once welded a hard brace needs to be mounted between 
the suspension reinforcements.

There is no solid crossmember on the 58-63 Americans. The easy way to 
brace it is to drill a piece of 2"x2"x3/16" angle iron to fit lower 
suspension mount bars where the stamped steel "K" brace fits (replacing 
the K brace) then drilling so that a 3/8" or 1/2" steel rod will fit 
between them under the engine. The rod needs to be hardened, not
hardware style all-thread. I prefer a 3/8" rod inside a length of 1/2" 
or 3/4" (inside diameter) steel pipe (water pipe is fine), but the pipe 
need to be threaded on each end and have a coupling in the threaded end.
Why? The brace will have to change length to accommodate suspension 
alignment. The couplings screwed in 3/4" will allow 1/4" +/- adjustment 
on each end. The pipe secured with the threaded rod prevents flexing, 
whereas a 1/2" threaded rod with a nut on each side of the angle can 
flex a bit when the suspension is unloaded. This is why the welds crack 
in the first place -- flexing and metal fatigue due to weight (the 195.6 
L-head or OHV weighs 500-550 pounds!) over time. It took 15 years of 
hard use for my first one to develop cracks, usually takes over 20 with 
moderate driving (I was a teen, and a teen owned it for a while before 
me...). On that one I drilled the reinforcement and bolted a piece of 
angle on vertically, then ran the rod and pipe between that so it didn't 
have to be moved for front end alignments. The angle could be welded 
onto the reinforcement plate also.

The K-brace has slotted ends to allow for lower arm bar movement. It 
works fine and keeps the car together well beyond its designed 10 year 
life. You can't complain about the engineering when a car is over 20 
years old and starts to come apart! To many of us do just that -- I've 
been guilty also. And remember, most Ramblers were poorly maintained and 
driven hard by the third (sometimes second when the original purchaser
kept it a long time) and subsequent owners. With that in mind, it's 
amazing engineering that keeps 40+ year old cars with 100K+ on them 
together at all!!
_______________________________________________


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