Good shit man. Please don't ever lose your way. Seems every youtuber falls victim to the success and ends up a totally different person than who I started watching.
@@tabbott429 Yep. My second car I bought in 1984 I paid 75 bucks for it. A 1968 Chevy Belair. Drove it a couple of years until the valve and the piston decided to meet. Ended up scrapping it for $100 buck.
I'm from northern Indiana. Back then by the time you got to 100,000 miles the body was rusted to NOTHING. Usually at 90,000 the engine was completely gummed up inside with sludge and was barely even running. Almost nobody would redo and engine because the car was shot anyway.😂
I'm sad to say I haven't watched a ton of your videos, Luke. I'm really really impressed with your methodical approach to diagnosis and repair. The care you show in how you go through all the systems before ever really turning the key really shows a very sublime pride & competence in your work. I watch your contemporaries' videos (Junkyard Digs & Pole Barn Garage) and while those guys are both also extremely knowledgeable mechanics they both have varying degrees of skipping along without attending to all the things that make engines run & run well. Long time sub, newish viewer; I'm gonna check out more of your videos in the near future. Thanks for the uploads.
@@ThunderHead289 I love JYD videos too, don't get me wrong. I guess I haven't gone that far back, I have seen some of your earlier collaborations which are always a treat.
I'm a Mopar fan, but have owned GM and Ford vehicles, however I am glad you rescued this Gremlin. Never had an AMC but I have a soft spot for AMC cars. I always liked the Gremlin so I hope you can resurrect this car.
Thanks for the Gremmi vid. Ibought a new 73 Gremlin X with the 258 and auto transmission. Was a fantastic car for a teenager who was tough on cars. I sure miss it and would love to have it back. Enjoy your vids!
In high school, my girlfriend had a red Gremlin like yours, except hers had a 4-speed standard transmission. It was pretty peppy (especially compared to my 1959 Bel Air), and I remember asking her if her car would go 100 mph. "Let's see!" she yelled, and matted the pedal. She didn't let up until the speedo registered 100... and I have never been that frightened since!
I always liked gremlins, I just discovered you a week ago, and really like the style and way you teach and present info, thank you for that and thank you for saving the gremlin
My younger brother had a Yellow with black stripes Gremlin, he ordered it thru the military PX while in Vietnam, the bigger 6 with a 3 speed, Livi jean package, I used it a few times and drove good in WI winters.
I little tip. When using a syringe to transfer gasoline, Put a little air between the syringe plunger and the gasoline because the gasoline will melt the plunger pretty quickly.
My first car, way back in 1989, was a 1978 Gremlin. It was also my first wreck. Someday I hope to find and rescue another one to make up for killing mine.
AMC means Ain't My Car... I would put the power washer to good use and clean it up so she shines and then find someone who wants it for what it is. It's so original I'd hate to see it get cut up. I've always been a fan of running 'em as they came from the mother ship.
What a cool car. A guy near me had one that was tubbed with some kind of Dodge V8 in it, maybe a 440, painted red/white/blue like the trans-am Javelins. Not usually a Pro Street fan but this car was awesome.
The 8n tractor we had as a kid 68 years ago had a fitting on the intake manifold to supply vacuum to run the milkers for the cows. It was a lot slower milking one of 30 cows at a time. We lived in the sticks with not very reliable power service.
This was a great one! i cant wait to see part two. such a sick little car, definitely keep it. i still say put the lawnmower carb on it and use it for a daily driver.
Considering that Pinto’s blew up and Vega’s started burning oil at 20K and rusted on the showroom floor, the Gremlin was the best American small car of the 70’s.
I love the old AMC cars, Hornets, Gremlins, Javelins, and even Pacers. I actually had a Pacer, which unfortunately gets a bad, undeserved rep. The 258 6 cylinders were used in a lot of cars and Jeeps for AMC.
I beleive a version of the 258 is what became the 4.0 in jeeps? And that engine I know to be quite long lasting. Impressive the mileage I've seen on then
Come on Luke...We need more content!!..I had a 75 Gremlin with a 304 and a 4 speed that I swapped for the 3 speed it came with...Man did that thing do some CRAZY burn outs!!
Had one just like that. Color and everything. I think ours had a 'spoiler/wing' just above the rear glass though. I'm sure it added at least 5 HP. I liked it. The inline six propelled it up hills pretty well.
23:10 the syringe is a neat idea for that little vent tube to fill the bowl, I was thinking an itsy bitsy little beaker (50mL or something) for cinematic value but the smaller pipettes are probably better than a beaker
Are you kidding me, sleeper of the century. Clean it up, keep the patina and LS swap it with an L33/4L60 and an 8.8 rear. Don't want to, sell it to me, I've been looking for one for years. A Pacer would work too.
We used to have the factory that made a lot of the AMC vehicles right here in town. Good to see them still out there. I haven’t gotten past the video opening but I say get her running good and reliable again and if you don’t want her sell her off I’m sure you can find someone who will want her
Drop a small block ford in it and a blast with it. When I was a kid in the 80's my grandpa bought one with a mild 302 in it. Been hooked on hot rods since.
American Motors sold a s--t load of them. The hornet was as popular because you could get them in a four door or a wagon. Good luck with this Gremlin project. 😊
I owned one with a 4 cylinder Iron Duke engine/manual 4 speed. It was a good car except the rear end sagged a bit and then I found the rear springs started pushing through the area inside the hatchback. I noticed a lot of them sagging that way.
What you really need in your life is a MK2 or MK3 Reliant Robin 850... tops out just under 100mph, gets there quicker than some modern cars, super super cheap to run and with some light modding will make it one of the most fun cars ever to drive. Had mine 13 years now and she still excites me on these rural Dorset roads, will cruise all day long at 70 and as long as you have good tyres and looked after rear stuff, will go round corners like its on rails, drive it like an old Sports car, run into a corner like a lamb, roar out like a lion and cya to anyone following on 4 wheels hehehehehe On mine I put in tri prong spark plugs, high end HT leads, performance sports coil, upgraded rotor arm, electronic 45d distributor, on the fuel side ported the inlet port matching the holes and dremeled out the siamese on each side then polished everything. 4 branch exhaust with a cherry bomb on the back finishes off the rorty beastie, oh and a set of Peugeot GTi rear anti roll bars.
You ever considered giving the ole Gurl a bath before you try to spark her off. I mean clean is so much easier to deal with, because you don't have to worry about dirt n grime going inside her innards, or blowing up in your eyes. Plus water is fairly cheap all things considered these days, but as I always say. If your clean n presentable, then you tend to do your best regardless of whatever someone else might think about you. Plus your wife doesn't have to wear it too just to do the laundry when she does it. Plus it saves the trees, because you at least don't have to go through nearly as many shop towels. 😂 PS My cousin back in the late 70's had a X model that we grafted a 390 out of a 73 pickup with 18,000 miles on it that his dad had been hit in the rear by a kid on a rain soaked asphalt road sitting at a red light. Had top loader four speed in it, and after sitting for 6 years under a tree awaiting a new body that never appeared until he chewed the little 6 cylinder up after a hard life.. It got it's new transplanted body. With a set of N 50's on the back on a set of 12"x15" chrome deep dish with chrome center caps it was a little sketchy from off the line as it tended to spin sideways in a haze of Dayton bias ply tires, but from a 40 roll the little car was down right scary fast. He drove that little car well into the late 80's before the rear differential locked up going down the hiway at 75 mph, by the time it stopped doing all kinds of acrobatics it wasn't worth pulling the old 390 out, but somehow he walked away with two broken fingers on his left hand which had been pinched between the roof and the steering wheel.
One of these days when the house is more organized and I have room in the garage i hope to buy and resurrect an amc eagle wagon. But I do plan on modifying adding a lift lol
give her a bath and sell her for the right price. gremlins are valued for the right collector and this one is all original with just regular maintenance done for probably 10-15 years. the fact it ran with little to no issue will probably bring it higher in price given all it needs is a little detailing and it's basically brand new at the dealer with all original parts. jay leno would probably buy this if he didnt have one already.
Looks to me like a 1973 Gremlin X. Notice the stripe, wheels and dash. My very first new car was one like yours, only silver with blue stripes. It had a manual 3 speed on the floor. Only kept it one year then traded it in for a Matador.
At around 16:45 when he uses the pack on the solenoid directly to turn it over, dude the beat goes way harder than I thought it would. He needs to sample that and make it his intro song.
258s and 232s are great engines, lot of potential. If you really want to make power a 360, 390 or 401 is probably a better choice but the sixes are very reliable, economical and made very adequate tq, you can put together a mix of 258 and 4.0 parta and boost and make a few hp with an AMC six.
I bought my ‘72 Gremlin for$2600, 258 with automatic transmission. I got 26 mpg on the highway towing a thousand pound pop up camper. I traded it for a new’77 Hornet station wagon for $ 5200.
You could take all that time to label plug wires. Or you could just remember the firing order is 153624 in a clockwise rotation and mark the #1 post on the cap. Pretty much every inline 6 ever made has that same firing order.
You keep saying how many miles the old Ford truck has, which is impressive for a Ford honestly but i have a Trailblazer with over 300,000 on it and still runs like brand new! Has the "Atlas" series all aluminum straight 6 in it, amazing engines!! Only things ive ever done to it was a water pump and u joints and thats it. Also the 4l60e transmission is still going strong as well, has towed a many of cars with it all over the place! If you can afford 17 miles to a gallon of gas I highly recommend a Trailblazer, 2007 or newer though, thats important, you don't want one before 07, they put a much better head on them 2007 and up to 2012 i believe is when they quit making them.
The AMC 6 is among the most durable engines ever built (all the way up to the Jeep 4.0). Mine sat for 10 years, and other than a carb problem of my own making, it popped off and idled just like yours did. The only real problem with them is that they're fairly gutless in front of an auto. It may not be so bad in a small car like a Gremmie.
@@tabbott429 That carb isn't going to help on his 4.2, but they're still pretty gutless in front of autos even with others carbs on them. They make great low end torque, but the show is over not far from idle and with an auto they just _chhhhug._
not to be critical but, why didnt you use the tractor to pull the car out? I'd love to see it going. Its in too good of shape to just do nothing with it. You should give it a bath and go through that ignition and exhaust and check those brakes. It'd be a spiffy little grocery go-getter. Get Kevin to come up and make it a gremlin party!
