History Did you have a Rambler?

Nor-Cal - - not mine

 

found this pic online. I wonder where this Rambler is now?




my rambler is currently benched until i can fix a few things, i dont trust it to not die on me, so until then does anyone have a Rambler stories to satisfy my Rambler itch?

 

In the summer of 1962 I was only 14 but had a friend who was older and had his drivers license. His transportation was a 1950 or maybe 51 Rambler station wagon hand- me- down from his parents. My memory is hazy but I seem to recall a flathead 6 with 3 on the tree, a real dog. But to this 14 year old it might as well have been the latest and greatest from Detroit because I got to drive it all the time even unlicensed. That's because my buddy and I would go pick up his girlfriend and then I got to play chauffeur and drive all over the place while they got friendly in the back seat. It was a win-win for all of us.

 

My avatar is my and my buddy's 62 SW it was a cover car on their album we bought it from the record producer. Now has aT5 a Ford 8.8 rear and 4 wheel disc. And tri power.

 

My Friend Had A Rambler....The Rebel...

 

In the late '80s, I bought a '72 Matador for $75.00 to run through the winter. Changed the oil (what was in it looked like driveway sealer) and the plugs and wires to cure the random skipping, and drove it until spring with no other issues. It even started on the coldest morning we had that winter (-28F). Sold it in the spring for $175.00. A high school friend had a '63 Classic four door, and wasn't aware of the fold down seat feature until I told him about it. He was elated about the possibilities!

 

In Colorado springs a couple summers ago I found my 1960 Rambler Classic super.
I think I must have had 10 people a day come talk to me about it while I was trailering it around.
So fun.

Mine had a rod knock so I was looking at options, and someone somewhere suggested a 232 from 70 or prior would bolt to the T96.
I found one from a 70 hornet.
It makes a bit more power than 195, so I'm in danger of hurting the little tranny, but I found a TR6 clutch disc is the same spline but about 60% the surface area, so hopefully it'll slip before I have any trouble. Works good for regular use.

It's longer engine so I had to extend the radiator forward and Hammer back the firewall, I got a CJ5 water pump.

I adapted the original generator and carburetor.

I got a new windshield on the way, 2500 bucks.
Now I'm locking that thing up, I think I've got six grand into it.
Too beautiful.

 

that is the going rate for a w/s for that model !!?--wow!

 

You should be fine with the T-96 trans, as long as you're just driving normally. What it doesn't like is fast shifting or hard down-shifting, and NEVER down-shift into first unless at or near a complete stop. Even down-shifting from 3rd to 2nd should be leisurely unless it's an emergency... like brakes are going out or you really need to slow and stop fast! Do that and it will last, even with the bigger engine.

I ran one behind a 4.6L stroker for 18 months. Had it rebuilt, and it was the 1970 J model -- the strangest T-96 (just had a slightly larger input bearing and some internals made out of harder material). Synchro (there is only one between 2nd and 3rd) lasted about 200 miles. That's the weak link in the trans, and why I suggest nice slow shifts. The 240-250 hp/ ~300 ft/lbs of the stroker chewed that up even shifting easy! Drove it another 4000 miles before taking it out. Gears looked more like 50K miles on them, and the main gear cluster was replaced with NOS in the rebuild! At about 3000 miles the synchro rings cracked and jammed the trans. Had to pull it and remove them. That's when I accelerated my search for a stronger trans. I wanted a V-8 three speed with OD but couldn't find one. Would have had to make an adapter anyway. At the time (2001) Jeep 4.0L five speeds in 2WD were hard to come by as well, and I didn't know that an 80s Mustang WC T-5 would work. Ended up with an AW4 four speed auto (4th is OD), which I still run in the car.

 

My second car was a 1968 American 2 door post. Nice little car, had bucket seats and 3 on the tree. 199 cui 6 banger. Girl friend at that time Father was a paint and body man. Gave my car a really nice white and gold single stage for the cost of the paint. It looked great. Gabriel Hi-jacket air shocks and jammed in G 60-15,s. Couldn’t light em up if I tried...and I tried! Swapped an intake and carb from a 232 six onto it...didn’t help performance muchLots of fun with that used car lot back row special!
Wow, where did the time go......?

 

In the early 60s working in a gas station,I had a job of flushing the cooling system on a Rambler. Rambler was like a mutt, it used parts from every make of car company.I parked the car on the side of the shop,stuck a running garden hose in the radiator,opened the radiator petcock and left it idle in park.
Looking out the bay window from inside the shop,I see this Rambler slowly inching back.Running outside, I see the brass end of the garden hose hooked itself under the radiator neck and the hose stretched almost to snapping off. Its all that kept this car from disaster,and I found out Rambler used Ford transmissions that eased from park to reverse if left idling.

 

Working on this one currently, a '54. '54 is the first year of American Motors but it's still technically a Nash Rambler. Will hopefully be starting a build thread soon but I'll put it in the "antiquated" area since it's not really custom other than the 4 wheel fender skirts which I do plan to run.

37K miles on it with one repaint over a few areas of horrifyingly bad body rust repairs but otherwise nice, perfect floors. Fixing the bad spots and hopefully saving the paint job, just blending in where necessary.

 

great!

 

I had a SC/Rambler in HS

 

There are SO MANY Rambler/AMC myths that people spread!!

"Rambler was like a mutt, it used parts from every make of car company."

No, they used a FEW parts from other companies. The reason people assume "most parts" is because the parts they used were the ones you had to mess with all the time (for tune-ups) and typically give the most trouble on any car. They didn't make electrical systems, used Delco (GM) and Autolite (Ford), depending on engine and year. They didn't make carburetors, used mostly Carter and a few Holleys, the occasional Autolite (again, depending on engine and year) -- same with fuel pumps (mostly AC and Carter). From 66 on they used a Saginaw (GM) steering column and box.

They NEVER used "Ford" transmissions. The auto trans referred to by garyf was a Borg-Warner trans, built by B-W. Ford licensed the design from B-W and built their own, slightly modified version. B-W made all of the AMC trannys at their factory, and also a portion of the Ford units. Internally they are the same, but Ford used a slightly different valve body and case. The original deal between B-W and Ford had B-W building 50% of Ford's auto trannys for the first five years (this was in the early 50s). The lone exception is the SR4 four speed used in the late 70s behind the short lived Audi 2.0L four (that AMC assembled in the US). That was a Ford built tranny used behind Pinto 2.0L engines. Most other trannys were B-W until B-W stopped making auto trannys in the US around 1972. 1972+ AMCs sued Chrysler Torque-Flites, specially cast with bells for the AMC engines.

MOST parts found on a Rambler were made by AMC. All auto makers bought some items from outside suppliers in the 50s and 60s, even more so today! The philosophy at AMC was "if we can buy it cheaper than we can make it, then buy it". It takes a lot of R&D time and money to make many parts. Most of the parts they used from outside sources were customized to fit AMCs only. The distributors, for example (both Delco and Autolite) used the same internals as their GM and Ford equivalents, but had shafts and lower bodies (and drive gears) to fit Rambler/AMC engines.

 

The father of my best buddy, when I was a kid, had a full size mid '60s Rambler 2 door hardtop. Not sure if it was an Ambassador, or what, but it had bucket seats, and I thought all it needed was some chrome wheels and a Thrush muffler. I liked that car. I had the coolest Javelin around, an AMX, and a Gremlin. Do those count?

 

In 1964 or '65, my parents picked up a (about) 1958 Rambler station wagon for my mom as an interim transportation solution - gutless 6 cyl flatty, automatic, rusted out floorboards, funky little ugly fins on it, and a too-small replacement exhaust system that was loud as hell. We lived on Mt Soledad in Pacific Beach and I could hear my mom coming, foot to the floor, up those hills for at least 3 blocks.

....Sorry afficionados - until the mid- to late-60s, Rambler styling was like the high school nerd who wanted to be kool but couldn't quite pull it off...and then they created the Gremlin LOL

 

beep beep
beep beep
The car went beep beep beep

 

Parents had a 60 Rambler with push button automatic then we had a 65 Classic 770 Station Wagon. That was a great car took us all over the east coast towing our Nimrod pop up camper. I had a 61 Metropolitan for almost 10 years.

 

Was that an E-Stick? Or was the E-Stick more of an electrically shifted manual trans?

 

E-stick was an automatic clutch. No clutch pedal at all! There was a handle with a cable attached to the clutch lever so you could engage it to park in gear. Note that I didn't say throw-out lever! The clutch worked in reverse. An engine oil pressure servo pushed the lever in to APPLY force to the clutch, not release it. There were some vacuum and electric switches to control a valve body on the oil pump, which was a special high volume unit. The switches determined if the car was in gear or between gears. Oil was fed to the servo accordingly. In theory using oil pressure was great -- the more rpm the higher the oil pressure. It used a slightly larger clutch disc, but it relied on slipping a lot for a smooth take-off. If you drove it mainly in town that was a lot of slipping, and a clutch disc might not last more than 10K miles. Apparently some companies bought them as delivery cars since the E-stick was cheaper than an automatic. It only lasted about three years. If you were a suburban commuter it would be okay, but the clutch disc still didn't last as long as a standard clutch car would (assuming you knew how to drive one!). Of the few cars that survived with E-stick another problem came up -- what happens to oil pressure when a car gets high mileage on it? It goes down. So much over 60-70K miles and the clutch would slip when under a load! Most people who had them and kept the cars reverted to a regular clutch. Just need the pedal, linkage, pressure plate, disc, and bell housing. Everything else will swap over.