Getting it rolling.....

["rsx401" <Plumpy72@xxxx>]

Thought this might be a good place to brag about my Gremlin. I have 
had it for almost 18 years yet last Sunday, June 1st, was the first 
time I ever drove it......it sure felt good!!

I see some of you have experienced some of the same problems I have 
run into over the years. I installed a set of the "free flow" exhaust 
manifolds on my Gremlin because I did not want to have the ground 
clearence problems assocoaited with the headers. 

I think the headers I used on one of my Gremlins (back in the 80's)
were manufactured by Headman. I had to put the car up on ramps to 
install the passenger side header from the bottom. If I remember 
right, I had to jack the tranny over to the side to get improved 
clearence too. After they were installed I noticed I did not have 
much ground clearence. I think it may have been because the motor 
mount tower(between the block and the rubber mount) on a Gremlin is 
considerably shorter than those on the full size AMC's and the 
headers are the same regardless of which body style they are 
installed into. I ended up putting spring spacers in the front coils 
to get the height I needed. Even with the spacers the header flanges 
would still drag every once and a while.

You guys can understand the suprise I got when I tried to install the 
factory free flow manifolds. I ended up modifying my strut rod 
bracket instead of grinding on the manifold. It is a snug fit but so 
far so good. The manifolds sure helps the 401 breathe!