Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich Biebel
Now I am old enough to not only remember Kelvinators but I had the distinct pleasure of working on many Ramblers of the day.......They were a bit behind the times as I recall. Still had flathead engines when everyone else had OHV's. They aslo used some really ancient stuff in the front end and had the last closed driveshaft-torque tube arrangement that I recall. I had an old lady customer with a Rambler wagon......manual trans and a flathead. She used to ride that clutch to death and I changed it more than once. Disconnect the entire rear and roll it rearward to get the trans and clutch out.....
I do recall an old Rambler that layed in our station for a good long while with a 327 ohv V8 and I think it had a 4 barrel carb. It was an AMC engine not a Chevy......
I also worked on postal vehicles some and Jeeps later in my mechanic life......AM General built the Post offfice vehicles out of some the cheapest parts they could find......Maybe they still build them ?
Now Jeeps were my real favorites back in the mid to late 70's.........I worked in a dealership...Pontiac-Jeep-Subaru.........Seemed to me like the Jeeps were built with almost anything AMC could find laying around.......you just never knew what was under that hood !!! LOL....
GM was doing the same thing though........Pontiacs had all kinds of engines under the hoods.....A class action suit was won over that one......
Kelvinators were actually pretty good refrigerators I think.............
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Rich they were really behind the times.They were the first American car company to have curved side glass (1964 I think) dual master cylinder (1964).The uni body concept was used on the 49-51 bathtub Nashes.The 1957 4 door Rebel was one of the fastest
production cars that year.There's probably a bunch more I can't think of off hand'
The torque tubes were only in the Classics and Ambassadors in 1964 I think.Then for 1965 they were gone.The trunnion front suspensions were a bit fugazy,but the AMX's and Javelins had them even used them through 1969.FYI ALL Gen 2 (287-327) and Gen 3 engines (290-390) were high nickel content including the heads.All 390 and 401s had steel cranks and rods.They were available in FS Jeeps,Ambassador,Rebel,AMX and Javelins.Granted the Borg Warner autos left a lot to be desired,but in1972 the Chrysler TF became the std.auto across the line.SS Amx's can still hold their own despite the lack of extensive parts and R&D over the years.Even my 6 cylinder can run pretty quick for a granny car engine.So yeah Antique Motors Corp belongs in the archives with the dinosaurs.