The Unfortunate History of the AMC Pacer

[whirlcool]

One of the problems AMC faced was lack of R&D money so they had to use what they had on hand to build their cars. Some parts on late 60's/early 70'sAMC cars could be traced back to other AMC cars from the mid 50's Nash era.

When I had my Gremlin it needed a valve job as a repair. I didn't really have the money at the time to take it in and have it done. An uncle of mine said to do it myself. He said you could take the old head into a auto machine shop and they'll exchange it for a new head that already has been overhauled and set to specs. Just tell them what it was going on. New valves, new valve seats and springs and the head ground back down to level again.

I did that and the total machine shop bill was only $125. the engine was the 232 6. When I took the engine apart it was so easy. All the parts on it were huge, just like what was detailed in my high school auto mechanics textbook. I did the entire job on a Saturday afternoon. When I was done, it started up on the very first try!

 

[sudsmaster]

I remember our landlord in SF back in the mid-1960's (the same place that had the late fifties GM Frigidaire washer) had a pristine Rambler wagon parked in the basement garage. I think it was a "Classic". It had very clean lines and a manual transmission. Nice looking ride.

 

An aside: I work across the street from a line of auto wreckers. Two weeks ago I took some time after work to stroll through one of them. Saw a '64 Corvair Greenbriar van, cool. On my way out I decided to peruse the hubcap collection. I have a '64 Valiant Signet 200 hardtop that lost a wheel cover about 35 years ago. I put baby moons on it but it never looked right, and the damn things are cheap chrome that rust out in a couple of years. The stock wheel covers are stainless, nice. Anyway, I'd checked their hubcaps before and not found anything. But this time I spotted three '64 Valiant Signet 200 wheel covers, in pretty good condition. Mislabled with yellow pen, "American Motors". LOL. I purchased two for $10 each (a real bargain for hubcaps, I think) and now I have a spare! So in a way I have AMC to thank for my find...

 

 

[sudsmaster]

Rebuilding old American engines

Yes, the older American made engines are relatively easy to work on. I'd worked on adjusting valves on my Valiant, as well as on a Mitsubishi made Plymouth Pickup and various motorcycles (Kawasaki, shims under buckets, Honda, screw adjust). In 1994 I picked up a '50 Plymouth Special Deluxe from a friend and decided to rebuild the motor... in my driveway... I was working for myself at the time and business was slow, so I took a month off (as it turned out), pulled the motor, disassembled it, took the pieces to a local auto machine shop, and had it cleaned and bored etc. Then put it back together in my tiny garage and reinstalled it into the car. It also started up relatively easily, although I found I had a clogged fuel line and once that was fixed it ran fine. It was quite an experience, a rite of passage delayed until my forties.

 

[wayupnorth]

My next door neighbors have owned quite a few Jeep Grand Cherokees. He told me the 4.0 engine is actually the same basic motor as the old AMC 258/6

 

[rp2813]

The Nash Era

So true, Allen.

 

The '61 American still used a vacuum motor for its windshield wipers. 

 

[kenwashesmonday]

AMC cars came standard with vacuum wipers right through early 1970s Hornets and Gremlins, but then again Ford Broncos had them into the mid-1970s. Nothing wrong with vacuum wipers if you make them work right, they should NOT slow down much when you floor the accelerator.

Ken D.

 

[whirlcool]

If I remember correctly they slowed down when you took your foot off the gas and sped up when you pressed on the accelerator. It's been a long, long time!

 

[rp2813]

Allen, I think you have it backwards.  On my '50 GMC, if I'm accelerating I have to back my foot off the pedal to allow the wipers to take a swipe.

 

I don't know what Ken means by "if you make them work right."  I've replaced the motor, the vacuum hose, tweaked the motor mounts and linkage for best performance, and they still stop if I'm accelerating.

 

Ken, is there anything else you can recommend?

 

[kenwashesmonday]

Do you have the proper fuel pump installed? The correct one incorporates a vacuum pump to help supply the wiper motor with vacuum at times when the engine has low vacuum, such as when the throttle is open. Often times, over the years, the fuel pump has been replaced with one that has no vacuum pump, and the hose run right from the wiper motor to the intake, which is not correct.

The shop manual will give specs for testing the vacuum pump on the fuel pump.

It's also possible that the vacuum wiper motor is gummed up inside after many decades, even if it's new-old-stock. These can be sent out for rebuilding.

If you look up 1950 GMC at rockauto.com and look at the 2 fuel pumps they have, you'll see one with a vacuum pump and one without. The one without is made for vehicles with electric wipers.

Ken D.

 

[ovrphil]

AMC in the family

My father-in-law worked for AMC. My girlfriend, then, bought a new purple Gremlin back when we were dating - 1972. White interior, it was a budget materials vehicle. But, that car ran a long time before being sold. What she nearly bought instead was a Javelin - but she likes to drive..so she took the slower, more economical machine. He worked at the Jeep plant in Toledo, occasionally commuting from the Detroit suburbs. You guys were talking Jeep, and I thought of the plant in Ohio that is now leveled. For a while, only one stack was left. I used to smile at the Jeep sitting high above on the face of that factory. I'm glad the Jeep has flourished.

I remember a teacher from one of the Malibu schools that I worked at, who had a Pacer. It struck me as an odd car, with lots of glass and seemed to sit lower than some other cars. Ladies seemed to be the primary buyers.

Good memories of a mixed bag company, AMC.

 

[rp2813]

Thanks Ken.  I think the fuel pump was replaced somewhere along the line.  I'll give it a look tomorrow.

 

[mark_wpduet]

Cool Vid

The only thing I remember about the Pacer is kind of a blur because I was so young. My aunt and uncle had one in the late 70s I think, but they only had it for a short amount of time. I vaguely remember being at a family reunion and my cousin was only like 2 yrs old, and I can't remember the details but somehow she was in the car and kicked the gear with her foot and the pacer rolled back down a hill with her in it, but luckily it stopped at the bottom of the hill....It's such a blur because I was only like 6 yrs old...

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

re: Javelin, 'Desert Only' A/C etc.

Remember seeing an Owners Manual for the AMC Javelin and in addition to the standard Heater/Defrost/Ventilation controls and optional Air Conditioning was the nomenclature for 'The Southwest Set-Up A/C'...

 

There just so happened to be an AMC Javelin at a used/classic car lot I went to from Arizona (Historical Vehicle AZ plates, and all!) but the car had a 4-Speed manual transmission so I sadly couldn't test drive this car (going for a near-$340-Grand!) and the man running the shop couldn't close it, to accompany me, let alone let me at least test drive the climate control, of which the Desert Setting knew nothing about...

 

I had a model car AMC Javelin, as well as a Hornet hatchback body w/ a bunch of other parts to make my own "Custom Hot Rod" out of...

 

The Javelin had neat Lights & Wiper/Washer controls: little levers coming off of a tier on top of the dash...

 

Saw in person in that Javelin, as well as one other one (this one was an older when it had just come out--w/ an Auto Trans) at Goodwill Motors on 8 Mile...

 

Too bad a Two-Door MATADOR (maybe Sporty, Tricked-Out) had to be the Javelin's obvious replacement...

 

 

-- Dave

 

[gizmo]

RE: RHD AMC cars

Back in 1981 I was an exchange student near Chicago IL.

I remember being told that AMC had produced RHD kits for assembly in Australia, and they also assembled some of those cars in the USA for use by the US post office. I remember seeing one, I think it was a white Hornet, and being so surprised that it was RHD, I asked a local car enthusiast and that was the explanation I got. RHD was useful so that the driver could reach mailboxes through the drivers side window which was on the kerb side. They had Jeeps like that, too.

The AMC cars were never used by the Australian post office. Back in the 70s almost all Australia Post deliveries were by bicycle or Honda motor bike, not cars.

I always thought the early Hornet was a good looking car - not as fussy and over-decorated as most US cars. Later Hornets with the big crashable bumpers didn't look as good.

I was fascinated with the Pacer. There was even one over here, imported and converted to RHD for the Melbourne Motor Show. It was metallic green. Unfortunately the uneven door sizes were the wrong way around for RHD cars - the drivers door was bigger than the passenger side door. It was intended to showcase a forthcoming new model, but only one ever came here, the model never went on sale.

 

[rapunzel]

All those little blue and white US mail delivery trucks are right hand drive for that same reason. Had Australia Post applied AMC vehicles, they ought to have taken the LHD version.

AMI apparently built AMC cars in Australia for almost 20 years, from 1960 until the mid seventies.