Re: [Amc-list] CHRYSLER SALE

[Frank Swygert <farna@xxxxxxx>]

I have to agree with Archimedes on how Chrysler treated AMC. It wasn't that bad. I hated to see all those NOS parts dumped, but you can't blame Chrysler for writing off what was basically non-moving inventory. They got pennys on the dollar (of retail value), and some will say they could have sold them, but it would have taken a lot of time and effort to catalog and sell the parts. They got more for a tax write-off for scrapping them as unsaleable (for the mainstream business they were, not for us collectors though!) without a lot of effort. All dealers didn't participate in the scrapping though -- a lot kept their old inventories. Most, however, saw it as a way to recoup some of the money they had in old inventory that was just taking up space (Chrysler bought back old inventory that could be scrapped at a percentage of the original cost... don't know how much though). 

I have to disagree on the engine Andrew. It wouldn't be hard to retrofit the 4.0L with roller lifters, not when the main casting could be easily changed. The only problem now is getting the lifters not to rotate. If I had access to the engineering department I think I could come up with a cost effective way to do it! Retrofitting an existing casting is a different story, though it has been done. Need to modify a lifter and cross bar, but if I had resources to manufacture my own lifters... 

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Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:57:57 -0400 (EDT)
From: adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Sandwich Maker)

" - the 4.0.  This engine was so good for its time that it survived the
" buyout and kept right on powering Jeeps through 2006 - twenty years
" after its basic development was completed.

not to mention it was a freshening of a design almost 25 years old
then.  imho a major reason engines like it and the ford 300 are gone
now is that as flat-tappet pushrod engines they inherently need
high-zinc oil and couldn't easily be reengineered for low zinc.

-- 
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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