I’ve always had a bit of a thing for the underdog. In the automotive world, AMC is pretty easy to cite as the biggest underdog. Their cars were just so weird and immediately recognizable with those funny flush door handles. Growing up in the 90’s there were already not many left due to the fact that everything that old had already rusted away, especially unloved cheapskate-mobiles. For me, the Gremlin was the biggest underdog (sorry Pacer) in a line-up full of underdogs. It was just a hilarious looking car; could any other automaker sell a car that was such an obvious amputation of a bigger car? I had to have one, and eventually one showed up in the weekly classifieds paper I’d been reading since I was 12.
At the time, I don’t believe I had ever seen a Gremlin “in the metal”. I had seen pictures in books and on the internet but never of the final 1977-78 iteration. Imagine my surprise when the above image greeted me upon seeing this car parked right up against a fence in one of the lesser-nice neighbourhoods in town. It was even weirder than the other Gremlins! I wanted it.
Having learned from my first car, this car had to be a runner, it had to move, steer, brake and not need any major work. Above all, there had to be no major rust issues in the frame, floor or other vital areas. I was a lot more diligent inspecting this car. The odometer showed 43 000 kms and the old lady who owned it had put all of 3500 kms on it in the 15 years she owned it. She learned to drive in that car at middle age and never really felt comfortable doing so. I don’t think she could have picked a worse car to navigate Winnipeg’s brutal winters and terrible roads. Nonetheless, she cried when I gave her the $700 cheque to make it mine, and she handed me a $20 bill for my first tank of gas.
I may have been more diligent in inspecting this car but as you can see from the photos, it was not without its faults. Cosmetic issue like the broken grille, rust-through on the tops of the fenders and around the tail lights did not concern me. Where was I going to find a new grille anyway? A full tune-up was quickly performed on the 232 cubic inch tower of power, which stopped its annoying tendency to diesel and made it run much better. I took it out on a covert uninsured test drive to the gas station I worked at and it seemed ready for full time duty. Filling up the tank the first time I was astonished; the gas tank just kept swallowing fuel. It took 80 litres to fill it! Good thing it was an economy car. Nonetheless, I was confident it would pass its government mandated safety inspection required of any vehicle changing hands in the province.
For my first safety inspection I figured I’d improve my odds of success by bringing it into the shop owned by the father of a friend. I remember him laughing when I dropped it off; was this a bad omen? Turns out it wasn’t; I can’t remember the details but it needed some work that I performed in short order. He did advise me though that the front sub frame was beginning to rot and that it was unlikely to ever pass another inspection. I didn’t care; it had passed! Finally, my own wheels; no more borrowing my Mom’s ’93 Taurus wagon.
The first order of business, now that I was free, was to pick up my best friend and go for a late night high speed burn to “blow out the carbon”. I would have taken any excuse to hoon on my new baby, but it really did need it. The poor car had been sitting too long and even when it was driven, I doubt it ever made its way onto the highway. I pinned the throttle and flew up and down a quiet back road, the old 6 cylinder readily took the abuse and rewarded me by actually running better. It was still by no means fast, or fuel efficient, but it was running well and could be counted on to get me and my friends around.
Sitting in the (not very comfortable) driver’s seat, a Gremlin does not feel at all like a “sub-compact” car. There’s a fairly long hood out front (albeit far better proportioned for 1977-78) and a solid feel all around. The interior is very cheap but actually looks pretty decent in black. Only when you start driving the car does it not feel at all like an average sub-compact car. Or any other car for that matter. The steering is very light, takes forever to get from turn-to-turn, but has a tight turning circle. The wheelbase is so short that the rear-end wants to slide out at the slightest provocation. The motor is torquey but refuses to rev beyond 5000 rpm, and is not zippy or responsive. If nothing else, it was a very good vehicle to learn to drive with, as the poor handling forced you to be a better driver.
Have you noticed the bias-ply tires yet? I should point out now that this was 2000-2001; it’s not like radials weren’t available. The old tires passed the inspection so I kept them. The old rear ones were “winter cleats” that I drove on until they formed a crack that went all the way around the sidewall, but still they never blew. I figured some preventative maintenance was in order, so I threw on 2 AMC rally rims off an acquisition that will be detailed in a future COAL. Those tires tried to fling me off the road numerous times but they never succeeded. At least nothing that resulted in injury to me or the car.
So I had a car and a license, but needed money to keep said car, what’s a boy to do? Get a job driving the car, of course. It was time for me to become a pizza delivery guy. Is there a better job for a teenager? The incentive is to drive fast as the more deliveries you do, the more money you make. You get free pizza and when there’s no deliveries you can do what you want; you just have to be close by in case of an order. So you could also hang out with your friends when it’s slow. What’s not to like? Well, it’s really hard on your car. It’s a job I would work off and on for the next 5 years, outlasting 4 of my vehicles.
I did many things with this car that are bad ideas; I’ll even share some of them with you.
I decided the stock exhaust system was stifling my motor so I replaced it with a home-made Cherry Bomb muffler in a clamped-together mess that was way too loud.
I once had the entire 7 man staff at my work in the car to go to and from a staff meeting downtown. They weren’t small guys either; I felt really bad for the guy in the fetal position behind the back seat. There was a lot of muffler scraping and sparks; it made quite the scene.
Some buddies and I did a 2 hour road trip in a blizzard at night to see a rock concert. Got on the highway 15 mins before it closed, nearly put it in the ditch numerous times, never exceeding 60 km/h but made it just in time.
Once I fishtailed too hard around a corner and ended up stuck in the snowbank in someone’s yard. Without anyone to help me I hurriedly grabbed the stock death-trap bumper jack and proceeded to jack the front bumper and knock it over until I was back on the road. With the final violent knock-over, the impact somehow caused the horn to stick on. I scrambled to pop the hood and yank the horn wire and quickly sped off.
But the dumbest thing I did that led to it’s demise didn’t seem dumb at the time; it actually seemed pretty smart. In the interest of gas savings, I would shut off the engine and coast into a parking spot without burning any fuel. Steering was kind of difficult but good exercise. I would push back the spot where I would shut of the engine as I figured out how much momentum I would need to glide into the driveway. Soon after, the transmission began to slip, badly. I replaced it with a $50 junkyard transmission but again this one began to slip. I convinced my Mom that I would need a parts car for another transmission and various other rare parts and the result is the $100 hulk you see above. The lesson of course is that when you shut of the motor, the torque converter stops turning the transmission oil pump and the transmission stops getting lubrication, thus causing transmission failure. Whoops.
I think I may have stopped my practice of killing the engine and gliding to a parking spot before the third tranny died. It may have failed due to the parts car sitting for 18 years or maybe just general abuse. I had had enough of doing the transmission bench press in the driveway and it was time to move on. The car was sold without a functional transmission to an eccentric fellow who drove a 1964 Econoline van for the princely sum of $300. He quickly fixed it and put it on the road, but was soon badly rear-ended and the old Gremmy was retired.
image via allfordmustangs.com
As for me, I would make yet another youthful mistake in the form of a 1978 Mustang II fastback with a 351W swapped in. Every time I fixed something, something else would break; it was an endless battle I lost and gave up on before I had gone too long without my own wheels. I would wise up with my next purchase and buy something that came with a passed safety inspection, although it really shouldn’t have passed. It wasn’t an AMC, but there would be many more AMCs in my future.
Awesome write up, and great actual pics of your Gremlin.
I love AMCs, owned a 73 AMC Hornet sedan… Gray primer, too, with the inline 6. Ran mint. It looked like a hippo. Lol
Nice pic of the Mustang II Cobra… Growing up in the 70’s, my neighbor across the street had a black/gold one… That car was sexy, too.
That little pickup in the background is cool… It looks like a Toyota Hilux. At first glance, it looked like a Mazda REPU.
Yes, AMCs have the bad rap of being the underdog. When I was growing up, AMCs were the “laughing stock” of car companies, and your family was viewed as poor or on welfare if you owned one. Lol
Kids could be so stupid at the time…. Funny, because my friend’s dad had a yellow Pacer DL wagon, and they were not poor at all. 🙂
Can’t wait to hear about your next few COALs, Nelson.
Back in 1997 my first car was a 1976 Toyota Corona Mark II. It was already worn out when I got it and I had to spend $1200 in repairs just to get it roadworthy before I registered it. But I absolutely loved that piece of crap. Beautiful, smooth inline six, close-ratio 4-speed on the floor, light and fairly powerful.
I, too, delivered pizzas with it for six months. Big mistake. I spent everything I earned on fixing its constant faults. I replaced the alternator, then the brakes would go soft. I fixed that, and the dashboard electrics would go haywire. One pain in the arse after another. My girlfriend at the time convinced me it was time to get rid of it in 1999.
I miss that car so damn much.
Those 6 cylinder Mark IIs are kind of overlooked, being after the better known Crown and before the Cressida. Maybe Paul can find one in Eugene and do a full cc. Seems like the kind of car one of the retired professors might have curbside. The manual on yours must have been rare. I wonder if Toyota ever hooked their early five speed to it.
Not a 76, but…
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-asian/curbside-classic-1971-toyota-corona-mark-ii-some-things-never-change/
And a 72 which I believe is similar to the 76 (ignore the ‘1970’ in the title)
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cohort-sighting-1970-toyota-corona-mark-ii-heritage-for-sale/
That is a great cc, but it is of the earlier 4 cylinder version. The six was the only Japanese sedan so equipped at the time in the USA market. That must enhance the historic nature of the car
Your second one, that’s the ticket. And Supra wheels!
Always preferred the look of the longer, sleeker 73 Corona Mark II… That is when the Corona was worthy of the Mark II moniker, and became a more serious luxury car…
As opposed to the 1965-71 Coronas, that look like fancier Corollas.
The Mark II became a separate car, being the luxury model… While the Corona stayed as the family compact offering above the Corolla.
The Mark II is the same as the Cressida, in Japan with some turbo engines as an option.
Other Mark II derivatives are the sister Chaser and Cresta.
1973 Toyota Corona Mk II hardtop
I’d say the first Mark II looks like a fancy shovel nose Corona. When the 76+ Cressida reached oz, the Mark II moniker disappeared here except for (much later) grey imports.
I had a 74 sedan (auto) and wrecked a 72 coupe for parts it was a 5speed, I kept the manual conversion kit but never used it ex couldnt drive manual it went with the car when I sold it, they were good cars mine had the 4M crown 2.6 motor.
Great read thank you. I never paid much attention to AMC cars after 1970 as I thoroughly disliked the 71 Javelin at the time.I saw a snot green home brewed Gremlin hot rod with a 360(I think) really burning rubber at Santa Pod a few times in the mid 80s.
I enjoyed reading your Gremlin adventure. I really like that color blue on it too. I came across a bright and sunny yellow Gremlin last year for $1000 here in Florida and I had one foot in the car and decided it wasn’t for me. My wife was relieved as she later vented that she’d probably never ride in the car with me.
Interesting write up. There were still some Gremlins around in the eighties but definatly not cool yet. Probably Waynes World got teenagers looking anew at AMC’s crazy seventies offerings.
I wonder why AMC didn’t have the 4 cylinder cutdown of their 6 ready to coincide with the Gremlin’s intro. A torquey six or V8 makes it fun for the teenage third owner, but an entry level sub compact should actually be economical. On the other hand, the six probably made it feel more like a regular American car than the Pinto or the Vega. Which of course is really what it was.
AMC didn’t even offer a 4 cylinder Gremlin until 76 or 77, utilizing a VW/Audi truck engine until switching to the “Iron Duke” from GM. Was the “cut-down” Jeep 4 cylinder even available back in the early 70s?
The Gremlin didn’t get the VW/Audi 4 cyl until ’77, it cost more and made less power, Paul did a piece on it.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1977-amc-gremlin-pay-8-more-and-get-13-less-hp-and-33-fewer-cylinders/
They did then switch to the Iron Duke and I believe the AMC 4 came out in 1984. I’ve only driven the AMC 4 a few times but I was impressed, way better than the Iron Duke.
That was promoted in the Gremlin’s marketing of the time, the six and the fact that it was wider and gave the impression of being a larger car from the front seat forward.
Comparisons were made with the Beetle of the time and made the most of it’s american sized shoulder and hip room. The back seat…. not so much.
I always loved how AMC called the heat/vent system “Weather Eye”. You just don’t see that kind of cheerful branding slapped on a car’s accessories anymore. Very AMC. Could you get A/C in a Gremlin?
A relic from the Nash days I do believe.
Yes, the Gremlin had an optional A/C system, fully integrated into the dash just like the Hornet. It was a good system.
When you look at the Spirit hatchback, a reasonably attractive shape extruded from the Gremlin, you have to wonder why didn’t they just design the Gremlin that way in the first place?
Makes you wonder what GM could have done with this sort of treatment to a Nova and a budget for a complete new body, instead of going all advanced technology and European with the Vega.
YES there was a prototype clay IIRC for a shortened 3G 1968-72 Nova but GM somehow and rightfully did not go this route.
I thought about this, too, and think that, since the Hornet was still in production, it was an effort to try and disguise the Gremlin’s true origin of being nothing more than a Hornet with the trunk lopped off in order not to cannibalize sales. By the time the Spirit debuted, the Hornet was gone, so it wasn’t necessary to differentiate it from a car that no longer existed.
In fact, for a company that operated on a shoe-string budget most of its life, I could never figure out why they went to the trouble of coming up with a completely new quarter window for the Gremlin that didn’t look all that different from the Hornet, instead of simply using the very similarly shaped quarter windows of the Hornet 2-door.
Rudiger, some of the early mock ups did just that: a Hornet with a [can’t remember now number of inches] chop in the wheelbase. They left the trunk as well and it looked awful. And too much like a Hornet.
They really had to do something very different as it was well known GM and Ford would have brand new subcompacts coming in 71.
Also, AMC cribbed the styling from an AMX show car of the late sixties that featured the hockey stick rear window, so it wasn’t much of a question why they wound up doing what they did. Even the optional stripes mimicked the show car.
I would imagine that a Hornet with a stubby little trunk ‘would’ look like hell. But a Gremlin with a slightly elongated quarter window taken from the Hornet 2-door doesn’t sound like it would be all that much different from what they used (and save the costs associated with coming up with a Gremlin-specific window that was only slightly different).
“Production model with a stubby little trunk, that looks like hell.”
Why does the E36 BMW 318ti hatchback, come to mind?
Just like the Gremlin was basically a Hornet, with a stubby lil trunk… So too, was the 318ti, which was an E36 3 series with a stubby lil trunk.
So, was this the 90’s German version of the AMC Gremlin? 🙂
Great story!
Just last month, I saw a ’77 Gremlin — the first Gremlin I’ve seen in years. The one that I saw was firecracker red with white rally stripes and a white vinyl interior, a combination that made the Gremlin even more eye-poppingly unique. Like yours, it had some significant rust-through, but it was impressive that it was still on the road… and this was in northern Missouri, which isn’t exactly an easy climate for cars. I did take some pictures, and hopefully will get a chance to post them here before too long.
Loved this write-up – great story-telling and pictures. I was squinting at the pictures of your powder-blue Gremmie and actually, it wasn’t a bad-looking car. I like the dog-dishes and the chrome, roof-mounted spoiler. Never had a chance to ride in one, but our family plumber, one Mr. Williams, used to show up in either a Gremlin or a Pacer, neither of which had any matching body panels. I always liked that AMC’s were so different than the GM fare everybody in town seemed to be driving with their GM employee discounts.
First thing I did when I got the car was remove the hideous full wheel covers that came with the car (same as the ones in last week’s Hornet) and replace them with the dog dishes. I’ve always loved dog dishes, seem so fitting on AMCs.
Great story, love those AMC rally rims on the back too. Had those on my Matador and Concord.
Too bad about the fender rust, I guess those cars didn’t get the plastic fender liner until 1979 or 1980
Thanks, I still have those rally rims.
I think the fender liner came in ’78 with the Concord. Looking under the wheel well it’s no wonder all the salt and crud flew up and never left the tops of the fenders. The nice thing was that Concord/Spirit fenders were a direct swap.
In the UK ‘gremlin’ is slang for problem – as in ‘my car has an electrical gremlin’. Not sure if it means quite the the same in the US? Cute name for a car but with some negative connotations? Same in UK – Austin Allegro ( reads as ‘all agro’) and Triumph Stag (snag). There are probably a lot more…
It means that in the USA as well. Since the term mainly applies to computerized electronics it probably just had a spooky connotation in 1970. Ironic as the Gremlin was probably one of the more durable small cars of the time.
Yes on “gremlin” in the States… at least to my generation and older!
Great writeup here, and I always thought the Gremlin was actually fairly sharp-looking (esp. compared to the rest of AMC’s offerings in the ’70s).
It’s funny how, as youth, some of us stuck with the same brand/model through several iterations (and the same failure points over and over) before finally giving up and moving on. Vegas in my case, of course, although I gave up because A) I could finally afford something a decade newer, and B) it was getting really hard to find junkyard parts by that time!
My brother was notorious for this. Pinto, Son of Pinto, Pinto III, Pinto’s Revenge… then a series of Honda Civics… and finally his Saab 900 period. He said that once you knew what the common problems were for a particular car, it was easier the next time around.
There was a Twilight Zone episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” starring William Shatner (some Canadian actor you may have heard of), who portrayed a passenger in a plane afflicted with gremlins.
It seems to have been a 1920’s British term introduced to Americans by Disney.
Ah, the old shut-it-off-and-coast-into the parking spot trick. Where I live now it’s downhill from the communal mailboxes to the parking area and I’ve been doing it for years. Good thing I have a stick…
In certain pre-electronic ignition cars, coasting with the engine shut off and the key in the on position will also cause overheating of the ignition coil, melting of wires, and billowing black smoke. Ask me how i know
Well written .
Gremlins were sturdy and reliable yes but not much fun to drive .
-Nate
Didn’t the Gremlin come in second place (behind the Vega, of all vehicles) in that classic 1971 Car and Driver comparison of sub-compacts? IIRC, the contestants were:
Vega
Gremlin
Pinto
Beetle
Corolla
Simca 1204
The Vega and Gremlin were chosen as numbers one and two, respectively, based largely on their highway prowess, an area where the other vehicles were judged to have very little ability. But once the Corolla got a larger engine, and the Simca 1204 morphed into the Omnirizon, that would change.
Umm; it came in #6, or last. https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/cc-classic-1971-amc-gremlin-small-car-comparison-6/
Dang, I could have sworn the Gremlin was rated much higher thanks to the better ability of the six-cylinder (the only one in the group) to handle highway speeds (which was a major factor in the Vega winning).
Regardless, it just doesn’t seem like the Gremlin would be all that bad in that group. In fact, I’d go so far as to call the Gremlin a hipster car before the term had yet been coined and they all flocked to early sixties’ Ford Falcons.
Hard to believe, the Corolla didn’t come in 1st compared to the other junks on that list.
Although, this is the early 70’s, and the other cars were more sturdier than Corollas were back then.
Other than fairly reliable engines, the Corolla was pretty flimsy and tin cannish in those days of yore.
My how times have changed.
Yeah, it wasn’t until the mid-seventies that the Japanese began getting their act together with improved quality and larger engines more suited to American highways. It’s worth noting that Car and Driver didn’t even feel a Nissan (then Datsun), Honda, or Subaru product from 1971 was worthy of entry in that particular comparison (and they were right). In 1971, while a Toyota Corolla was improved over sixties’ Japanese products (which were widely regarded as cheap junk), they still had a ways to go. By the late seventies, all the Japanese auto manufacturers were well on their way to becoming the automotive juggernaut that they are today.
True but by the time Toyota hit the 2000s most especially from 2003-on, the Corolla was and is now too plasticky and soda can weak in terms of body durability and quality. In addition since Toyota became complacent with their success from the early 1980s through 2002, their products were becoming as worst as General Motors were from the late 1970s through today most notably Chevrolet in terms of quality control and recalls due to defects.
Great story – you must have had nuts of steel to drive that thing around Winnipeg in the snow. And to follow up it up with a Mustang II? You really do have a thing for underdogs. Looking forward to the next post!
Loved the article. Parents had a 71. Same dash and thin seats [though a bench] as in your write up.
I’m wondering though: did those rally wheels come with radials ? That could be the reason it nearly threw you off the road after you’d swapped them from the snow tires. Never mix radials and bias plys.
The seats in my car were a bench, they were just disguised as buckets with a bit of a separation in between. A third occupant would always ride in the middle of the bench, way more comfortable.
I’m pretty sure the rallys also had bias-plys, they were really old too. They were much fatter so that may have contributed to it’s tendency to toss me around.
Thanks for the reply. Had a hard time finding bias plys for my Valiant. At a certain point they became MIA in tire stores. Now it’s hard to find 13″ radials.
Jeez: still a bench seat seven years later [I love em, but…]. And the same dash.
Have to give AMC credit for not changing for the sake of change.
I would imagine the fact that the car had virtually no weight over the back wheels probably also had something to do with the rwd car being tail-happy in snow. Good grief, Mustangs and post 1967 GM A bodies were notorious for this, and they had hundreds of pounds worth of rear overhang.
It was partly the weight distribution and partly the fact that the weight distribution and shorter wheelbase had led AMC to shorten the Hornet’s leaf springs. With semi-elliptical springs, shorter = softer, so that didn’t leave the Gremlin with much in the way of axle control.
The ’77 restyling gave the Gremlin a new pair of front fenders, new grill and bumpers. It resulted in a shorter car by about 4″ and made the design look so much more balanced by correcting the front-heavy look of the car. This same front clip was also used on the 1978-83 Concord, 1979-83 Spirit and 1980-88 Eagle 4×4. Unfortunately, AMC used the same crappy interior – looks like this car has the base split bench seat which was a shapeless mess that offered no support whatsoever. Believe me, I know since the ’80 base Concord I once owned had the same awful seat. A split bench seat, in a small sporty 2-dr sub-compact? What was AMC thinking?
AMCs in ’78 got new dashboards and I believe much of the rest of the interior as well. They were way better than the older ones. They probably kept throwing those modified church pew seats in the lower end cars but higher end cars like the Eagles were way better all around. Aside from the crummy plastic shelf they kept mounting below the dashboards, they were pretty on-par for the era.
“Church pew seats” what a great description! LOL Gremlin got the new dashboard shared with Concord for ’78 but otherwise kept the same crappy interior it had featured since 1970. Concord was considerably upgraded when introduced and was much nicer inside than Hornet ever was. Finally in ’79 the restyled Gremlin aka Spirit got a much upgraded interior. It wasn’t until the end of the ’70s that AMC finally realized that a much more hospitable interior in their vehicles could make a difference to the quality “feel” of their cars and to driving enjoyment.
I think the Matador/Ambassador interiors were quite nice early on, so AMC certainly knew how to do this, but sadly they let Gremlin and Hornet lanquish in spartan hell for years.
Agree entirely. Speaking of spartan hell, here’s a pic of the ’76 Gremlin parts car’s rubber mat, radio-delete interior.
Egads what a horrible place to spend time in!
That about sums it up: built like that straight from the factory in the folk’s 71.
Interior by Rubbermaid. Had a friend who had a ’71 Purple Gremiln, 3 on tree shift rubber mat stripper. In ’75 it looked 25 years old already, though no rust in So.Cal. Dents everywhere, interior crumbling to dust, never washed, abused to hell and still reliable. It seemed like almost everyone that owned one of these just beat them into the ground. Great story.
AMC probably is one of the pioneers in producing truncated cars such as the 1G AMX with the Javelin and the Gremlin and later a version of the AMC Spirit (not the slightly longer sporty fastback version which was more a revised variation of the same car) which were actually bodies from the Hornet/Concord/Eagle but just “chopped up”.Later on and many decades later, other manufacturers such as the Volkswagen Jetta 2-4 Door Sedan into a Volkswagen Rabbit/Golf 3-5 Door Hatchback. Toyota with the Platz (Echo with a trunk version) also followed in the same suit from 2-4 Door Sedan (Yaris or Echo) into a 3-5 Door Hatchback version. In addition, a BMW 3 Series 4 Door Sedan into a 5 Door Hatchback. There were quite a few others but there will be just too many to name as further examples.
IIRC, the VW Golf hatchback came first, then the Jetta sedan and wagon.
Yup, the Jetta/Vento/Bora was a hatchback with a boot and it wasn’t until several generations in when it stopped looking like exactly that.
i’m really loving this series. hey buddy, where’s the rest of your car? it’s like you did everything wrong so that you could have a funny story to tell later. how in the world did your parents let you do this stuff? buy wierd old cars that don’t run? buy cars with rusted subframes and rotting bias ply tires? leave parts cars in your driveway?
but then again i was in a blowout in my mother’s car because my parents had ignored the recall on firestone 500 tires. their reaction when i told them them was yelling at me for being late.
Yup you are correct in that a automatic transmission does not get lubed if the pump is not running. One thing I like about my ’83 Ranger 4X4; the Borg Warner 13-50 transfer case has an oil pump driven by the rear output shaft. Need to tow it? Just put the T-Case in neutral and leave the rear wheels on the ground.
Looks like that car could use some new teeth that are missing from the cheap plastic grill. Custom horizontal steel bar grills would look great. The Gremlin was always a goofy looking car until it was turned into the Spirit. If I had designed the 70 Gremlin, it would have had the Hornet Sportabout hatch and rear end. Something that would have been cost effective for AMC, which didn’t have much money.
That’s a good point–I wonder how it would have looked with the Sportabout hatch? Might have looked a little more conventional than the sawed-off look it ended up with, but it might or might not have been an improvement…
Loving this series. And we have to love a story where a Gremlin is an upgrade. 🙂
I actually like Gremlins, and considered them one of the best looking AMC cars of the 1970s, probably second only to the Sportabout. A Gremlin X with the stripes and rally wheels was a good looking car, at least in the right color. Perhaps I might have been less enamored with them had I ever actually driven one.
A 304 Gremlin taught me and my 390 Galaxie some respect at a series of stoplights in downtown Fort Wayne back about 1977 or so.
Chicago area being close to Kenosha WI, which is now a “suburb”, AMC’s sold well here. Gremlins were all over the city and looked on as ‘good honest transportation’. Some peers of my parents had them and liked them, mom’s lady friend said “best bargain” car. Neighbors had a Levi’s X for 7 years.
But, the cars went out of style by ’76-78, and while Concord sold OK, it was the end of AMC’s ‘true Kenosha’ cars. Spirit was too late, Eagle was a hit, but led to Jeep market growth.
Nice find…a Gremlin in 2000. Those had entirely disappeared from the roads in my part of the country by then, but I never really saw all that many.even as a kid in the 80’s. Maybe they didn’t sell as well in the Southeast?
Three transmissions. Ouch. At least the junkyard replacements were cheap! Also a little envious your parents were willing to have a parts car in the driveway, that never would have flown with me (though you were also far more mechanically inclined than i was as a teenager…)