[AMC-list] ancient Gemmer steering gear, ancient starter motor

[tom jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

well it appears the desert era has ended. i actually worked on a rambler.
that robot-building job i had last fall just ruined me. seem to be cured of
it.

aka what I did not do to my rambler(s) this winter


so to prepare for rallying the american this summer/fall i'm actually
working on that stuff that will make the car super-tight. Steering gearbox,
that really odd (but aircraft-like) steering linkage, that on a Classic is
simply a forged rod with holes for the rod ends, but on the American, is a
hollow tube filled with half-ball sockets and springs. that's been sitting
on the shelf ready to go for a few months.

i bought a spare steering box from Bruce Gasser last summer, just today tore
it down. Absolutely no lubricant in it, looks like it ran out back before
Nixon got caught. Parts seem just fine, oddly, even the tapered roller
bearings. tomorrow i begin the search for seals (wish me luck i'll need it).
it's a lovely design, probably costs more to make than circulating-ball
types. very simple to work on and to adjust.

sure will be nice to have tight-like-new steering!

the "vintage" (sic) american racing torque-thrust D's from the classic will
go on the american (i bought them NEW at All Tire in San Fran, back in the
80's, during my SOLO II days, they were not vintage then!). since the
american is no longer a commuter box, i'll put super-sticky tires on it,
probably drop .75" off the tire diameter to bring the revs up for a bit more
grunt without losing top end (increased a bit by the balance cam carb and
ignition).


so my starter motor was acting strangely, and getting worse fast. kept
"popping out", i assumed a solenoid problem, bought a new one, no help. went
to buy a new/rebuilt, found i can't buy one (and local rebuilders do crap
work) so i just bought all the parts from rockauto.

(gotta love a car where you can drop a starter in 15 minutes using only
three combo wrenches)

upon disassembly i found a big chunk of bronze brush flopping around in the
commutator and brushes! amazing it didn't ruin the windings. so the motor
was shorting out, that was the source of the starter "popping out". brushes
worn down to nubs.

so tuesday i'll clean up the commutator on the small desktop lathe at work
(I want one of those, $1200 lathe plus enough tooling), new brushes, bushes,
new clutch-gear thingie, should be good for another decade.

i have most of the parts to fit the front antisway bar, gotta weld up
brackets, that's easy enough and all thought out. swaybar is a rambler part,
classic i think, but not certain, but it's about perfect for the american
when installed backwards.
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