1973 AMC Gremlin Base from North America - Comments

The seats have started to wear badly after 32 years of abuse. The dash is strangely still in good shape.

In about the summer of 1999 the original muffler fell off while decelerating, at high speed,coming down a mountain in Colorado. I think it actually exploded from the unburnt fuel. Last year the little Motorola alternator finally gave up the ghost. It also was likely original.

Other than routine maintenance items those have been the only faults in memory.

Oh and I haven't bothered to replace the broken speedometer cable. (5yrs and counting)

For some strange reason the right rear tire smokes a lot and I get speeding tickets often.

There have been a few modifications from the factory configuration that I have made.

I converted the the front brakes to disks.

The clutch linkage is now a hydraulic unit from an Eagle.

Exchanged the points distributer for an electronic unit.

The car also has 1973 Hornet front sheet metal due to a minor wreck at Redstone Arsenal Alabama.

Its got somewhere over 200,000 miles on it now. I'm not sure of the exact number due to the before mentioned speedometer cable failure and neglected repair.

Now that we are back home in Texas it desperately needs a new air conditioning system!

That is all. thank you.

"For some strange reason the right rear tire smokes a lot and I get speeding tickets often."

Allow me to give you an explanation.

All cars with rear-wheel-drive and a solid (live) rear axle exhibit torque reaction when moving off from rest.

This tends to lift the right hand back wheel and allows it to skid.

As for the speeding tickets: you got them for exceeding the speed limit. Doesn't mean the car is fast or powerful, just that you can't drive properly.

Hope this helps.

Einstein.

I Think the gremlin is a cool car. There is no need to be rude to this guy.

"The car also has 1973 Hornet front sheet metal due to a minor wreck at Redstone Arsenal Alabama."

I'd love to see a pic; I've always wondered why they kept the longer front end (shared with the '70-72 Hornet, except for the grille) on the Gremlins, a shorter hood would (and did on the '78) balance the car out visually.

The Gremlin had the "longer front end" of the Hornet because it was based on the Hornet. The Gremlin was a Hornet with the rear overhang shortened to a kammback. Different grille, slightly different instrument panel, but basically the same car-including the 1978 which got a new instrument panel, but was otherwise mostly the same as previous models.

I own a 72 Gremlin 232. It has a 600cfm carb header dome, forged pistons, 4.0 head. It makes over 300 hp, a stock 232 makes 123 hp. There are a lot of performance parts for the 232 and 258. Gremlins are so cool.

I hydroplaned mine on a wet road with oversized tires and rolled it. It was only 2 years old and it was not totaled. The sheet metal reminded me of cars from the 50's; it was strong metal. New cars today seem tinny and light for fuel economy.

I kept it 8 more years, and it was still running great with the 304 engine.

I agree about unnecessary wheel spin; it was very easy and unintentional at times to avoid that.

I added Lakewood traction bars. At stock height it cornered really well at high speeds with larger tires filling the wheel wells. I got quite a few tickets on the street.