Re: [Amc-list] steering wheels!

[Frank Swygert <farna@xxxxxxx>]

I'm afraid Mark is 100% correct on this one! Not only is the 63 American "the end of the line", most parts date back to 1950! When they reintroduced the 55 Nash Rambler as the 58 American they literally pulled the old body dies off the shelf, slightly modified them, and continued where they left off in 55! That includes ordering and making all other parts to literally the same specs. That's the only way it really paid off -- using what they already had, tooling that had long been paid for. Although the car was completely restyled cosmetically in 61, almost all of the "skeleton" unit body and mechanicals still dated back to 1955! It was quite a feat from Ed Anderson and team to change the appearance of the car so much while replacing only 50% of the sheet metal. EVERY outside panel was changed, but the only major structural panel to change was the firewall! All glass area is identical from 58-63, and I'm reasonably sure that interchanges back to 1950 as well. In that respect i
 t's an amazing little car, few since the Ford Model T had used basically the same chassis and engineering for as long as 13 years back then! The only one I can think of off the top of my head in modern days is the Volvo 240 series, and it dates back to the 60s 1xx series. Of course there were fewer big engineering changes from the late 60s through the early 80s than between the 50s and early 60s. 



--------------
Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2008 19:44:21 -0800
From: Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>

I'm trying to determine the shaft size for the early American steering box 
without pulling the wheel...

* Does anyone know if a Classic/Ambassador wheel fits on an American? (both 
1963 or so)

I find it a bit odd that the American steering wheel for 61-63 is so 
different from the big car. The American, the horn ring screws on from the 
bottom, and the puller is a concentric thread. The Classic, the horn ring 
is the push-down-and-turn and a simple puller.

AND

Date: Sun, 06 Jan 2008 05:11:03 +0000
From: Wrambler242@xxxxxxxxxxx

Tom,
 I fear that the problem is that the 63 American is the end of a line, the 63 Classic is the beginning.

-- 
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Motors Cars" 
Magazine (AMC)
For all AMC enthusiasts
http://farna.home.att.net/AMC.html
(free download available!)


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