[Amc-list] LPG no more, and more

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

Welp, it's done. Yanked all the LPG stuff from the Classic
wagon, welded in a sheet of steel to fill the hole I'd made in
the spare compartment, and welded up the fender hole where the
filler box lived. Done is done.

No regrets. 19.5 years on LP. For much of that time I was
self-employed, and when I took road trips, I drove on weekdays,
had more time in general, and LP wasn't inconvenient. Now that I
work for a gargantuan bureaucracy (Univ. of California) I work
weekdays, and most trips are Fri. or Sat. to Sunday. Basically
this nixed the wagon due to fuel unavailability.

Gonna sell all the LP gear; I have two tanks, 35-gal and 28-gal
(water capacity), the 28 is new never used. The 35 came out of
the Rambler.  Comes with slip tank mounts. All in great shape
(tank is ugly dirty).  LP carb (CA-125), Model L converter,
VFF, lots of hoses, rebuilt kits, etc. $500 takes it all. I
even have an actual IMPCO paper catalog, try to find one of
those. It all goes; I have too much stuff.

For the super-short-term, I'm just gonna put a Carter YF onto the
232. It's got the cast iron 1bbl manifold now with the LP carb
on it. When I rebuild my spare 232, I will put aluminum manifolds
and all that modern stuff on it, and the Howell TBI system.


I've been out of commission this week to catch up to all the
school work I blew off in the prep to last week's 24 Hours of
LeMons race; I was also ecstatically high after racing, and it
changed my car life immediately.

I'd driven the Hornet up there (got 22.6 mpg over the 650 miles
up and back; drove 55 - 60 mph behind the truck+race car), fully
planning to start driving it again. But that drive sealed it's
fate; I gotta sell it. It's fine, but it's not the kind of car
I want to drive. It's too new. The Classic wagon's been sorta
in limbo, but I'm switching to gasoline, will shake out some
of the accumulated nits, and might even look into hacking the
T-14 onto the torque tube.

I'm fricking welding up a storm. TT torque adapter to the trans
x-member is not a big deal, then I gotta couple to the funny
spline. I have detailed drawings and measurements of the front
yoke spline (stuff accumulates when you build the same car over
and over for 20 years). I do have a TT T-96 from which I can
liberate the adapter.



I never thought I'd say this, but FWD is great at speed.
Every AMC I've ever had understeered like a shopping cart, even
my 79 AMX in which I'd done all sorts of work to (lowering,
lessened rear understeer, etc). I'm in no danger of switching
brands, but reevaluating...


Next project is the Navarro hot rod. I have a crazy idea
of making a FWD or AWD front-mid engine car from an Eagle
driveline. Moving the motor backwards 24" would let it drop
down... Not a car for racing, just fun.  Weld, weld, weld.

So the Hornet goes, the ancient Ramblers stay, the Escort LX
(!)  we race again next year, with a junkyard turbo on it.
The wagon gets TBI, maybe a manual trans. The American remains
my commuter and fun car, the wagon does road trips and hauling.
Now if I could only locate that #50 car's Hallibrand rear...

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