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1981 VAM Rally GT - Revival

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Rambler Mexicano View Drop Down
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    Posted: Jan/04/2014 at 4:25pm
After one year of sitting on its wheels due to other personal projects (higher priority), lack of available cash and debts I finally managed to remove the dust from the paint of 1981 VAM Rally GT (1981 AMC Spirit GT).

The neglect took its toll, the hoses inside the hood dried up and cracked, the rear brakes got stuck to the drums among other things.

In December 2012 the battery died, I had to Y-jack the car to start it up. I was able to do this a couple of times until the gasoline ran out. It sat dead for about five months since the last time I had started it up.

I obtained a used battery in great condition and almost new, so after saving a lot of money for debts and bills and could finally afford the luxury of trying to fire up the car again. I bought a 20 liter drum to get some gas, and dumped the content on the gas tank, got a new gas filter and hoses and... VIOLA!

The VAM car came back to life!

Thanks to the fact that I was able to get the battery, had some savings and found a very reliable mechanic with experience in overhauling cars from stock to high performance, I took the risk of posponing some things for a while and get back on my car after a FULL year of not driving it.

Due to the car sitting for a year I did not take it to the emissions test, thus I did not have the passed emissions sticker. If a transit police officer is close by and sees that you get pulled over and get yourself one heck of a fine.

I was able to take the car from my house to the brake shop unnoticed and back, I waslucky since I was driving through one of Guadalajara's main freeways. My rear brakes were pretty far gone, aside from one being stuck also one of the drum cylinders was leaking fluid.

With the brakes issue solved I took the longest step, which was to take the car to the new mechanic's shop.

Before I go on I'll list all the things that were wrong with the car.

A) SUSPENSION

1.- The suspension was extremely soft and unstable, the car's rear leaf springs consist of a single main full-length sheet, followed by a mid-length second sheet and a very short third sheet, which mainly covers the rear axle portion.

This was solved with the addition of a fourth sheet between the main and the mid ones.

2.- Also, three our of the four shock absorbers were completely useless, and the remaining one wasn't going to last much either.

My mechanic suggested putting heavy duty shocks in the front and middle duty units in the rear. He told me the rear shocks would be hard to find due to the AMC Spirit's rear suspension design (the type of joint of the axle's end of the shock). He was able to find a pair of reconstructed units for middle duty use, but he was NOT convinced by them, and he ended up putting heavy duty shocks on the rear similar to the one in the front.

3.- Only the front coil springs, while being used and having lost some height by now, were still in good condition. There was no point in making the expense for new units.

The height issue was solved by the use of one-inch high circular wedges made from
polyurethane located between the spring and the shock tower top. Please let me know the CORRECT ENGLISH TERM for these circular parts.

At this point, the suspension is FINISHED.

B) CARBURETOR

The car is a 1981 VAM Rally GT, which is characterized by having the company's most powerful engine of the year which was focused towards high performance. 172 net horsepower @ 2200 RPM against the standard 282's 132 horses .

This engine incorporates a two-barrel Holley 2300 carburetor while VAM's standard 282 six of the year incorporates a Motorcraft 2150 unit. When I bought my car, the Holley carburetor was long-gone, replaced by a beaten-up Motorcraft unit that wasn't even a 2150 model.

I was able to buy a brand new Holley 2300 unit and as it came I slapped that puppy on my engine's standard aluminum intake manifold.

Some time later I realized this carburetor in a VAM engine had a specific type of JETS, which were number 60 units to be accurate.

The carburetor had several problems in recent years, apparently the flow of gasoline was EXCESSIVE as the car would choke when you pressed the acceleator to the floor. It would starting revving until two seconds later. Also, white smoke would come out of the exhausts most of the time, regardless if the engine was cold or not, which a superb transit cop atractor.

I never got to know what JETS were installed in the carburetor from the box, the fact is that I got the correct 60 spec jets and had turned them over to my mechanic. He installed them and checked the power valve was correct and in good condition, also the wired automatic choke was added to the carburetor. The carb's internal choke was the the warm-air type, which never worked correctly, some times it did, sometimes it didn't, being completely unstable and thus unreliable.

Fortunately, that is also finished now.

3) FRONT FENDERS

The largest tire specification that VAM offered in its cars was either 195/70/R14 or 205/70/R14 depending on the model.

When I bought my car it came with a neat set of 235/60/R14 tires which it still has. The car feels pretty stable with them even though every time I make a U-turn or drive in reverse the out edge of each front tire scratches the lower corner of the fenders.

The flat rods that hold the front corners of the wheel arches were moved some inches forward and pushed out that portion of the fender creating more than enough spacefor the tires to rotate freely.

SO FAR THIS IS THE PROGRESS.

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED READING THIS.

TO DO

1.- Replace the vacuumeter hose, it's worn out and frequently causes a vacuum leak to the engine.

2.- Broken alternator

3.- One of the two engine mounts is broken along with the one of the transmission.

4.- Broken and leaking exhausts and headers-exhaust joints.

5.- Missing one of the O-shaped rubber mounts where the hood lands on while being closed.

6.- Uneven pulley positions in the belt that connects the fan with the steering pump.

7.- Check the HEI electronic distributor, which seems to have a current loss at some point.

He told me to call him next monday to see current progress. The intention os to have it ready for a car show next sunday.

Please excuse my English. I hope all of this was clear to read, but technical specific terms are hard to come by in regular second-language English speakers and I don't have any knack at all for mechanics and engineering, which might take toll in my descriptions.




Edited by Rambler Mexicano - Jul/25/2017 at 2:14pm
Mauricio Jordán

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote azfletch Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/04/2014 at 7:26pm
Maurico,
Congratulations on getting the car running well.  I would love to see some photos of the VAM GT when you get a chance.
Mark
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rambler Mexicano Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/05/2014 at 3:05pm
Thanks Mark,

I MIGHT have the car back tomorrow, if not I estime it will be ready by Friday. The mechanic told me he'd be calling me by Monday.

As soon as I have it back I'll take some pictures and post them in the topic.

I have some pics available right now, but they're pretty old, I rather wait to have the car back and have RECENT pictures of it.
Mauricio Jordán

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rambler Mexicano Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Feb/06/2014 at 10:41pm
The mechanic sent me these pictures of the car, as it is right now.



Another unexpected problem, one of the many mechanics that worked on the car crammed the union between the head and the manifolds with SILICONE, as a desperate attempt of probably killing the fume leak that ends up passing through the crevice between the fenders and hood and getting inside the car through the open door windows.



Silicone encrusted alluminum intake manifold.



New exhaust portions being measured and marked for correct cutting and subsequently welding.



New X-shaped exhaust portions intercrossing both exhausts for the purposes of both sound and performance. The car originally had a single exhaust through a Y-shaped portion uniting both separate header outlets. The mechanic I took the car to years ago who I requested putting the second exhaust pipe didn't do this, and at the time I was too green, didn't even knew about it.



Mixed portion finished, all parts welded together. Notice the second set of joints in the end of the pipes. I had to have those made at a local steel factory.



Original VAM DACIA headers for the inline six engines and the fixed/modified pipe portions, all parts assembled together.



Headers and crossed section of the pipes before welding.



Busted header/exhaust joint seal rings, busted welding between pipes.

I MIGHT have the car back this week, it should have been finished weeks ago but several customers took all the time out of my mechanic to focus himself in my car.
Mauricio Jordán

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote FuzzFace2 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Feb/07/2014 at 8:47pm
Looking good. I had a a Toyota Land Cruiser with a 3+3=2 header and then into a Y then IIRC into a turbo mufler and tail pipe. You would hit a certin RPM and it would bark and everyone would turn to see what was making all that noise.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rambler Mexicano Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Feb/21/2014 at 12:16am
You know what sucks?

I got my car back last friday from the mechanic's shop.

There were mild things that don't work as they should, such as the carb's choker getting activated everytime I release the gas and having manually to deactivate every time I stop.

On top of that the rear suspension is WAY TOO HARD, almost racing-like, you feel every single tiny hole on the road, you bounce on the seat the whole time up and down, and the spare tire is jumping on the trunk floor more than half of the time.

We have to remove atleast 20% of its hardness to get a minimum of smoothness that will not make my back get pain and abnormal wearing.

The WORST of all was a SHORTCOMING in the form of a SHORT CIRCUIT that threw sparks in the driver's side portion of the dashboard, they appeared in the back and in the crevice between the dashboard frame and the steering column.

I had to PULL OVER and kill the engine in that very instant. That happened around 10:00 PM.

What a pain the culo that was.

I had an appointment with my mechanic tomorrow morning. Fortunately, I called him and he answered, having his phone still on at that hour. I already told him the situation and we already planned a course of action tomorrow morning with the help of my brother.

We are planning to temporarily cancel out all the wiring of the dashboard as long as we can START the car and drive it all the way to the mechanic's shop AGAIN.

I might end up killing two birds with one stone.

I do need to take down the dashboard to fix some rain water leaks in the drip rails under the cowl vents for the built-in physical ventilation.

I might have that done already.

Let's see what happens, I'll stay in touch about the progress.

Mauricio


Edited by Rambler Mexicano - Feb/21/2014 at 12:26am
Mauricio Jordán

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rambler Mexicano Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Mar/18/2014 at 9:52pm
At a session's end.

The restoration of my 1981 VAM Rally GT has reached another checkpoint.

Fortunately, the short circuit was taken care of in a few days. My father helped me to unplug the electrical connection of the interior of the car and we were able to link the distributor to the battery and both terminals of the starter to fire the car up.

We drove the car home, two days later I brought the mechanic to start it up again now that he had the time to work on it. We took the car to the shop and he began to work.

He solved an issue with the carb, the choker getting started everytime I touched the gas, he removed one of the four sheets of the rear suspension as it became extremely stiff. Finally, he solved the short circuit, it happened due to cables being pressed by the pedals against the firewall, mainly by the clutch.

I started driving the car in a relatively daily basis to have it checked for any other potential issues as well as possible warranty claims for the mechanic.

Despite all the work that has been done to the car so far, a problem persisted.

The flow of gasoline was excessive and it's been like that for a couple of years. My lack of engineering and mechanical skills has helped to feed the problem.

The exhaust had a high tendency of releasing white smoke, which means unburned or partially burned gasoline. Also my spark plugs ended up completely blacked out, charcoaled to the max.

Thye original carburetor of the 1981 VAM Rally GT is a Holley 2300 two barrel with a 350 CFM flow.

This carrburetor was missing from the car when I first bought it. I bought a brand new unit and it was until four years later that I discovered that the unit used in VAM engines incorporated number 60 jets.

I made the mistake of taking for granted those were the standard carb jets included in my unit, and just two months ago I discovered they were actually number 53 jets.

I was able to find the correct 60 jets for the carb and had them given to the mechanic the day I took the car to the shop.

He installed them and the gas flow got stronger in general, including the excess of it.

I started asking some VAM fans that are friends of mine and I got a lead on another VERY IMPORTANT aspect of the carburetors, the POWER VALVE.

I asked my mechanic about it and he said he left the original unit in place as it was in perfect working condition, he told me.

My acquiantances insisted that the problem of the excessive flow was due to the power valve, the unit I had installed was not the correct one for this engine.

With the help of one of my friends, I took the car to another mechanic to have the valve replaced, as I found out the correct power valve for VAM engines with the Holley carb is the number 75 unit.

We had the original valve removed and found out it was a number 65 unit, unsuitable for VAM applications.

The correct 75 number unit was installed and the spark plugs were cleaned.

The excess of gasoline flowing through the car finally came to an end.

All the work done on the car so far makes it FINALLY SUITABLE por regular use and I would say daily driving if it wasn't for the gas mileage.

I have still a long way to go.

I still have to replace the stock camshaft in favor a high performance one close to VAM's original 302 unit.

The HEI distrutor will be modified for higher acceleration and higher voltage.

I have two water leaks to fix, one in the rear hatch gasket and one behind the dashboard.

I need to have the steeering wheel reupholstered in leather as it originally came.

I need new tires, three at least.

So far, so good.


Edited by Rambler Mexicano - Mar/18/2014 at 10:11pm
Mauricio Jordán

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Mauricio Jordán

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Mauricio Jordán

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote FuzzFace2 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Mar/19/2014 at 7:41am

Good to hear you are getting the issues worked out.

On the power valve besides being wrong size 7.5, old 6.5 new, it could have had a pin hole in it and that would let fuel in and run rich at idle and at speed, black plugs.

 

The new jets of 60 will make it run richer (black plugs) when at speed. I would start going smaller working back to the 53 jets. Start off going 2 sizes smaller to 58’s and see how it runs. If it runs good but plugs still look black go 2 more down to 56’s. Keep going down to where it still runs good and has good power but the plugs look light gray and the MPG comes back up. You may find that the motor likes 56 jets not 54 jets and that is fine.

 

That carb is half a Holley v4 so if you can find someone that knows and has parts for Holley v4 carbs that would be good.

My son runs that same carb (500 cfm) on a 258 cid Jeep and other than low MPG works great.

I also have a 500 cfm carb on a 304 v8 Gremlin and it works great too.
Dave ----
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