[Amc-list] American brakes, pleasant surprises

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

Welp, no-go on the Ambo brakes on the 63 American. It appears
that the backing plate would clear the steering guts, except the
weird little steering arm curves around the 9" backing plate,
within 1.4". Would require new steering arms, and rod ends and
linkage and all that attended trivia.

Also, the American 15x5" wheels have a 2-5/8" center hole,
and the Ambo front hub requires 2.75". The big flanged drum
would have fit otherwise. Obviously non-American wheels would
solve that.

Also, the American wheels, the center section is riveted to
the rim, and not welded like newer wheels. Odd.


As a consolation prize, the brakes on all four corners are
in fine shape. No excessive wear on the rear backing plates,
the shoes sit square. I didn't actually pull front drums off
but they stopped fine with no pulling. I popped one grease cap
off and there was adequate grease in it, so for now I leave it.
No signs of leaking wheel cyls.

The master cyl is bad though, and the lines under the hood are
rusty, so I ought to replace those before failure.



The front suspension is tight, and appears to have had consistent
maintenance. I popped the vent off the upper trunnion and grease
both zerks and clean grease came out immediately. Both sides.

The lower trunnion, is there a vent or something? (I could
RTFM I suppose.) Took a lot of pressure to get anything in
there at all. I know that's a problematic component in these
cars so I'll go read about it.



Popped the axle cover off, the gasket (and fluid...) looked
original.  Gear teeth fine, I sealed it back up. 9/34 tag on
it (3.77). No wonder it's quick on the street; the tires are
185/65-R15's and should be 185/75-R15, so they're over an
inch short.

WITHOUT overdrive, 60mph is 3100rpm! A bit much for this little
thing.  With OD however 60mph is 2200 rpm, totally reasonable,
and 70mph is about 2500rpm.

The exhaust, made of pre-bent tubing nicely done (though towards
the end of it's life now) is 1.75" OD, so with the 2 bbl carb,
this is about as "hot" as a American gets in stock trim I
think. So that's what 440H means!

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