Sounds like a nice car. I always liked them except for the front end shake we could never get rid of. We only had the 287 engine and it was quite peppy. It's a shame AMC went out of business, there cars had a lot of good points.
He might be calling the Urethane, Nylon, does anyone even make real Nylon for bushings? Seems like it might be too brittle for that application, just a guess.
I just put $50 apiece radial tires from Discount on my 60 Dodge and they run smooth as glass. Much better then the 22 year old radials that were on it. Hancock (sp?) brand IIRC.
It is a nice bodied car. Bench seats, vent windows, gearshift on the column, very nice seats. It is just the lousy ride! Short of replacing everything again, including softer springs, etc. this car is not going to ride any better. Someone who has three AMC cars, including an old Rambler SC and a 50's Rambler and a 71 Ambassador(same car as mine, just
4" longer wheelbase), he said it was the cheap Chinese tires that were making all my problems. He has radials, real Goodyears, on his, and his ride smooth.has your mechanic taken it for a test ride? What is his opinion?
The work was done in FL before we moved. It did pass the TX state inspection with flying colors, and it involved taking it out on the road for a short drive.
Switch tires with him for a few hours and see how the ride is.
Scott, I can't throw any statistics at you but in 1975/76 I was working for the state. We always used American cars of course and in the early 70's we had Plymouths. They were good cars overall but almost every trip resulted in me writing down something that needed fixing next time it went in for it's 3000 mile oil change - brake issues, shaking, heater controls, adjust doors, fix window cranks.... But in 1974 we got new Mercury Montegos and in 76 new Chevy malibus. Those cars were bulletproof, nothing ever went wrong with them. We also added a hand me down 72 Impala to our area to replace a 70 Plymouth whose power steering had taken on a life of it's own and become a safety hazard. That 72 Impala was also bulletproof. I used to drive these things 10,000 miles a month and they were all great cars. Even the 72 AMC's were basically trouble free, just not quite as nice overall as the Fords and chevies. I truly think the knock given to the mid 70's Ford and GM cars was undeserved.
Parents owned a '73 Lemans. With proper oil changes etc. the motor died at 98k. Rear quarter panels were rusted out too.
He just "mentioned" that is what he has, I do not know where he lives.
I thought the problem was that cars built one day would be good and cars built three days later would be crap.
^ what he said, then you will know for sure
nate
If you have a friend with an old Ford or MoPar with good tires, the wheels use the same bolt pattern - 5 on 4.5".
nate
Ashton Crusher wrote: " There's a reason they used rubber originally instead of something hard like nylon. "
Yeah, like, nylon bushings probably didn't exist in 1971!
I imagine that they did; nylon itself predates WW2.
nate
Most likely Hankook:
Their tires used to be awful (had them on a Renault 11 I bought used in
1993, and wet traction was miserable), but I expect along with the rest of the South Korean automotive industry their products to have improved considerably over the last two decades.
Well, I was thinking of a conventional needle gauge Speed-O-Meter, but in a silly wide rectangular shape, e.g. .
Modern cars are wondrous in many ways - just wish someone made one without all the unnecessary crap - get the weight down to 1,800-pounds or so, and eliminate the power steering and power brakes.
Those cars were still horrible in terms of steering feel, ride control, handling, seat design, space efficiency, ergonomics, specific power output, fuel economy, etc.
Put shaved tires on a mid 1970's VW Golf I/Rabbit, Honda Civic, Honda Accord, Datsun B210, Datsun 510, etc, and you could actually have fun running laps at a track - not so with practically anything coming out of Detroit at the time (even the Corvette was turning into a lounge lizard cruiser).
That 70s tech was awesome - fitting a round gauge in a square hole!
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