[Amc-list] Good Rambler day!

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

Man I got a lot done today, makes up for all the weeks I get 2 -
4 hours total to myself!

On Sat. we were at U-Pull-Parts looking for Escort parts for
the 24hrs of LeMons car. (Anyone know what Escort came with
15" wheels?!) Spotted a 63 Classic sedan, 195.6ohv and auto. Bingo!

Went back today and scored well. It's the second or maybe one
I've seen in 4 years in a junkyard.

I pulled the head, easy enough. Popped the cover -- seven
(7) pushrods off their rockers... odd... then I notice the
starter was PRIED OFF the block... and once I got the exhaust
manifold off I noticed the hole that was added to let the bad
parts out. Damn thing had grenaded bad; cyls 5 and 6 pistons
missing conn rods (they just pushed down). I am fairly sure
the camshaft broke hence the pushrods. Ouch. I'm always curious
what took a car off the road and into a yard, this one is clear.

The head was very recently rebuilt. Spotless in and out, nice
clean dark blue paint. Hopefully it means it was recently
non-cracked. I plan on stripping it down and having it
magnafluxed ASAP so I don't waste my time storing it. It's
a spare.

Got the gas tank. It's in fine shape, not much rust inside
(didn't peek into the roof). A hell of a lot nicer than the
tank in the American!  Got the filler neck, straps, etc needed
to install. Lucky find, that!  Saved me a fortune!

ALso got the front bumper, 100% straight, no dents at all. Chrome
is fair to poor, those mild grey spider web lines. No peeling
though, with some Bon Ami it'll look fine. This is a spare too.

Pulled the genny, seems fine, commutator flat and square. Some
one else took the regulator, and also the steering box.

Hauled all this junk in the Classic wagon of course. Some guy
walks up to me, up to my armpits in motor, and asks it's that's
my Rambler...  Mike, runs Goodguys Garage in the valley, AMCRC
member, does old cars.  I'll go check out his shop soon for the
hell of it.



Then I went home, cleaned up the workspace (aka concrete driveway
on the far side of the property), put the little AMerican up
on jacks and pulled out the axle, trans, clutch. This might be
the DIRTIEST car job I've ever done.


Axle and trans out in 90 minutes. Easy! Umm, is this bad? The
driveshaft simply slid off the splines on the pinion. I thought
it was nutted on there?! This is a big nut rear... is that a
jam nut on a tapered thread meant to jam the splines? What's
the point of that?! Otherwise it's all fine and I'll put it
back that way unless someone yells.

Talk about easy... the trans come out with an OPEN END
WRENCH! except the upper right bolt, boo hoo, had to use a
socket and extentions.

Then came the pain... nearly TWO HOURS to get the trans
crossmember off, clutch linkage, starter (PITA^^2), tin cover
and bell housing.  Clutch came off in 5 minutes. Then the six
well-known bolts holding the flywheel on. This motor has so
little compression (by design and by wear) ... while under the
car (ugh) I used a 4lb hammer and 18" breaker bar and socket
to get those miserable bolts out, while rising up on my (now
bloody) elbows.

Absolutely everything near the trans ("ground zero") was caked
in a layer of the most viscous and gritty goo, 45 years of 90
weight and road dust. I've wrenched a lot of old cars but never
saw anything like this. It stuck to the putty knife. Nasty.


So I've got a 8.5" clutch, and a flywheel that will NOT take the
bigger clutch. But since I'm a good packrat and have a fairly
advanced case of Rambler Mentality, I have another flywheel
and clutch assembly (clutch used, no good) that I matched up
-- it's from a 232 -- and it will bolt up exactly perfectly
to the 195.6ohv and accept a more easily available, and more
substantial, 9" clutch.  (Neither flywheel is "double drilled").

(But I have to check that the 9" fits under the odd little
bellhousing.)

(I find it VERY useful to have one of things like brake
shoes, clutch discs, brake drums, etc simply for sizing and
comparison. They live outside and get rusty, but I only want
them for dimensions. It's been VERY useful...)

The clutch disc is 1/32" away from the rivets; the flywheel
is shiny but fine; the pressure plate driven surface is flat,
but heat-cracked. Right at end-of-life but not gone destructive.


Popped the cover of the T96, and it just doesn't look that
bad. The dogs look like dogs, nice and pointy still. Gear
teeth are smooth and shiny, no cracks, chipped leading edges,
or that ground-away dry roughness from overheat and/or lack of
oil. But it leaks oil in huge quantities, so it needs rebuilding,
but hopefully it will look good once I get it apart and parts
cleaned (which of course is when real problems are revealed).


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