[Amc-list] If you were me..

["oldcars@xxxxxxxxx" <oldcars@xxxxxxxxx>]

OK, I have had a fair amount of good luck in finding cars, but now it is
time to do someting with them

#1 - 81 Concord wagon, good body, 4 cyl 4 speed. Clutch went up some time
ago and the pedal went down and is stuck there. NOBODY seems to have the
clutch master cylinder, although the slave cylinder is the same as a Jeep.
Honestly the 4 cyl is a little weak for the car but it is manageable. The
engine runs quite well. Pretty sure it has a 3.73 rear. 

#2 - 75 Gremlin, drove it home from near Baltimore (over an hour on the
road) and it ran OK. The car was originally from Minnesota and the body
shows it as it is missing not only a lot of front floor but also the rocker
box on the passenger side and this defect even goes up to where the
passenger seat belt lower mount would attach. Honestly I love Grems but I
am afraid this one has rust that is beyond repair. Its drivetrain is a good
old 232 1-barrel with a 150-T trans. Not sure what the axle ratio is but I
believe it is either 3.31 or 3.73. 

#3 - 64 American wagon. Hasn't been driven since about 1988. Flathead 6
with T96 3 speed, accelerator linkage is messed up. No clue on axle ratio.

So...looking at the first 2 cars, I have a great drivetrain in one and a
good body in the other. I guess I will need to move over the crossmember to
move the 232 and 3 speed into the Concord, and of course it would mean no
way to get it through smog tests so it would always have to be registered
as an antique. It looks like I would have to modify the shifter hole since
they don't match up perfectly. The Grem has a multi-pattern bell so I do
know it has holes for a T96 but doubt it would work for the SR4 and anyway
it is the 4-cyl version. I had bought a bell for the 6cyl SR4/T4/T5, but
not sure I would want to pay the cost of a T5, and I am not sure that the
internal clutch parts from the 150T would work with any other trans. 

So, should I merge the two? 

That would open up another possibility, since I am not too fond of the idea
of the flathead (although it ran well when parked). Since the American
wagon is much lighter than the Concord wagon, the Iron Duke should do
better there. The question would be whether I could get the 1964 clutch
internals to work in the bell from the 81 2.5, and also whether I could
modify the 2.5 liter clutch housing to work with the T96 - it looks like at
least a couple of the transmission housing front bolts would line up; not
sure whether the center hole for the input shaft would be the same. The T96
is already in place and working, and anyway I know where I can get a brand
new (open driveshaft) T96 with OD from a Studebaker parts vendor, so I have
a built-in upgrade path. 

I saw a Car Craft article (URL is
http://www.carcraft.com/projectbuild/116_0703_rambler_american/photo_01.html
) where they swapped a Gremlin cross member into a 67 American. So, I
figure that the 4-cyl crossmember would work in the 64 American. 

Any ideas?

Jim

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