Vintage era Speed Queen Washer/Dryer pair

[philr]

I really like old AMC products. Someone living on my street has a really nice '68 Ambassador SST hardtop coupe.

I used to have a 1988 Cherokee Limited (I think it was a 1987½ or something like that), as it still had a 1987 grille and there were stampings on the door panels behind the armrests that said 1987½. I think by this time, AMC had just been bought by Chrysler but this one still had an AMC badge on the firewall and it said, built by JEEP Corporation. My 1989 Laredo had a tag that said Chrysler Corporation and the AMC badge was replaced by a Chrysler badge.

 

[hydralique]

The Jeep inline six is based on the AMC six introduced in the mid '60s. Jeep had their own, much more interesting overhead cam inline 6 from '62-'65 but that was only used in the Wagoneer and truck models, not in Jeeps that kept the ancient and inefficient F head four. The Jeep six got sent to Argentina for use by Willys there and Jeep in the US bought the Buick V-6 from GM for regular Jeeps as it would fit in the same space as a four. After '67 they bought the tooling too when GM abandoned that engine. Shortly after that however AMC bought Jeep and revised the small Jeeps so as to shoehorn their six in since they didn't want to make both that and the Buick engine, which was once again abandoned. When the energy crisis came along in '73 GM needed more small engines and was only to happy to buy the V-6 back from AMC.

 

What was the last washer to use timed fill? I had no idea anyone used it into the late '70s.

 

[philr]

To continue on the off-topic started with the earth tone colors!
Jeep did use the Buick V6 in the CJ and Jeepster and the Buick 350 in the Gladiator and Wagoneer and old Jeep engines before AMC bought Kaiser. Larger Jeeps also used a Buick ST-400 automatic transmission but these always needed adapters, even to fit to the V6 and Buick 350 "Dauntless" engines as the transmission they got from GM had the "Nailhead" bellhousing for the Buick 401! Jeep eventually had a 401 too, but of a different (AMC) design that still didn't mate to this transmission! They eventually got a 400 transmission with the AMC bellhousing to fit the AMC 360 and AMC 401 motors. Later in the 1970's they switched to Chrysler Torqueflite transmissions.

Before using the Buick 350, they were using the AMC 327 (Vigilante) until 1967-68. When AMC bought Jeep, they started to use their own inline 6 and V8 engines in Jeeps. To fit their inline 6 in the CJ, they had to make the hood a few extra inches longer. Strangely, AMC started to use GM engines again instead of their own (but this time a Chevy 2.8 V6) in the compact XJ Cherokee and Commanche pickup for 1984. VAM who produced AMC vehicles in Mexico had been experimenting with carburated AMC I6 engines in the XJ Cherokee they produced instead of the Chevy 2.8 and Jeep finally modernized it, added a RENIX (Renault-Bendix) fuel injection and fitted it in the Cherokee along with an Aisin Warner 4 speed automatic transmission (to replace the Chrysler Torqueflite that was mated to the previous GM engine) for the 1987 model year, just before Chrysler bought Jeep! Chrysler was wise enough to keep the powertrains like that and not use their own transmissions again in the XJ!

And now back to the topic!

I don't know if Speed Queen still had time-filled models at the end of the production of their solid tub machines. I've seen (on this website) that at least some had a metered fill just like some 1967-70 US-built Frigidaire Rollermatics but all Frigidaire Agitubs (GMini and Laundry Center models) were timed-fill until the end of the Agitub design in 1979. They did have a pressure switch in their outer tub as a safety feature but they were still time-filled.