AZ AMC Restorations

10/27/2026

I am trying to track down David Reed who has an AMX that he gave a deposit for us to restore. Unfortunately, his deposit check did not include a phone number. Does anyone know who David Reed is?

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10/26/2026

I repost this AMC Oiling system hints and tip guide from time to time to provide an oiling system hints and tips for followers of this page. It has helped many AMC a Jeep owners avoid pitfalls of unknowingly using defective parts on their AMC V8 engines and to build a bulletproof oiling system. It is also listed as a downloadable file at the top of the AMC Questions and Answers Group.

The only real issue in the oiling system was that some blocks did not have the rear main bearing oiling journal drilled all the way through which caused starvation to the rear mains and rods. But that is easy enough to check by turning the block upside down on an engine stand and shining a light through the rear plug opening for the camshaft and looking up into the rear main journal to see if it is the same diameter all the way through. And it is always a good idea to smooth and enlarge the factory drain holes in the heads and block and well as debur and smooth sharp edges in all oil journals in the block and front cover. Some folks put chain oilers in the front cover or drill a small .040 hole in the plug behind the timing chain so it will sq**rt oil on the chain but if you do that be sure to put some drainage reliefs on the bottom inside of the timing cover.

Also, AMC engines were actually designed to have five quarts of oil in the pan PLUS one in the filter but AMC did not want to be the only manufacturer to require 6 quarts of oil so marketing forced them to say it only needed 4 in the pan plus 1 in the filter so that AMC oil changes would not cost more than their competitors. Nearly all the other issues are parts or builder related such as follows:

• After market timing sets made incorrectly where the oil groove on the back of the timing set's cam sprocket is too tall allowing oil to sq**rt out rather than go to the cam and distributor gear.

• the timing set's cam sprocket oil chamfer stops in the wrong location and prevents enough oil to pass to the cam and distributor gears

• after market cam and distributor gears are made incorrectly with the oil hole in the cam gear too far rearward cutting off oil flow to the distributor gear

• after market cams having too small of a hole on the front of the camshaft resulting in low oil volume going to the cam and distributor gears

• after market timing covers made incorrectly with the distributor hole drilled on an incorrect angle causing the oil pump shaft to bind on the bottom of the distributor when rotating

• after market timing covers made incorrectly with the flat surface at the end of oil pump cavity milled on an angle causing a variation in the pump gear clearances

• flashing around oil journals in aftermarket front covers

• flashing around the oil journals on aftermarket pump cover/oil filter adapters

• incorrectly drilled pressure relief plunger holes on aftermarket pump cover/oil filter adapters preventing the pressure relief plunger from seating all the way which allows oil pressure bleed off or jamming and blowing out the filter

• after market pump gear kit gaskets being .0105 - .011 instead of the correct .0075 causing cavitation under the oil pump gears • oil pump/oil filter adapter covers being convex or concave causing variation in pump gear end clearances

• rod bearings lacking the little notch that allows oil to sq**rt up on the wrist pins

• rod bearings having too thin shells resulting in excess rod bearing clearances of .003 or more on .010, .020 or .030 ground cranks

• excess resizing of rods closing off the little notch in the rod caps that is also there for lubricating the wrist pins

• oil restrictor disc lacking in aftermarket anti pump lifters

• oil restrictor discs being installed upside down during lifter assembly resulting in excess oil pumped up through the pushrod and flooding the cylinder heads

• after market lifters being too small for our lifter bores. Lifters used in AMC engines should be no less than .90374. We have seen some name brand lifters come in at under .903.

• after market oil pan pickups having the screen tucked up tight against the internal pickup tube. The screens are not flat and they are sometimes assembled in the pickups with the screen oriented to be concave instead of convex.

• bottom of factory oil pans slightly pushed in resulting in too little clearance between the pickup and the bottom of the pan. The button on the bottom of the pickup helps but the head of the pickup can get bent to one side resulting in the amount of oil it can such up from the bottom of the pan to be greatly reduced

• and one of the most common issues we have found is how AMC crankshafts are ground. AMC bearing clearances require an extra .001 clearance on the rear main. We see an alarmingly high number or crankshafts with the same journal size front to back as well as really poor chamfer on the edges of the rod and main journals on lots of crankshafts we pull out of previously rebuilt engines

• incorrect bearing clearances and piston clearances on a rebuilt engine. These are not SBCs, Fords or Mopar engines rather they are AMC engines yet WAY too many engine shops treat our engines just like any other engine which results in premature engine failure that people are all too eager to blame the oiling system. The reality is that the engine failure was the fault of the engine builder not paying close enough attention to the AMC engine build specifications and/or using incorrectly made replacement parts.

Any one of the above issues can impact the performance of the oiling system and a combination of just a couple of them will often cause an engine failure. The AMC V8 oiling systems is nearly identical to the Buick V8 oiling system yet you rarely if ever hear about their oiling system problems. Why? Because they are usually built correctly and within factory specs and tolerances. Sadly, AMC engines are frequently rebuilt incorrectly by being outside of factory specs and tolerances and yet the engines are blamed for the failure rather than the incompetent builders. If you blueprint an AMC engine build and use forged pistons with a balanced rotating assembly it is

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10/19/2026

We will soon be offering up an abandoned 84 Wagoneer that has been sitting in our yard for nearly 4 years. What you see is what you get. It came in to have new body bushings installed during Covid but the owner has not been seen or heard from since right after it was dropped off way back in 2022. We bought the body bushing kit for it but the hardware was already removed and when we tried to contact the owner to see if he had the hardware, he never responded. We recently tried to contact him again via voice mails, text, emails and a registered letter all of which were to no avail. Next step is to put in a title claim and hold an "auction" in the amount of the balance due of a little under $6K which mostly consists of 4 years of storage charges plus a couple and a couple of hours work and the bushing kit. The body and frame are rust free AZ metal so if someone has a rust bucket or bad frame, this is a great opportunity to move over your drivetrain parts to this rust free Arizona body and frame. We can pull it out and get more pictures is anyone is interested. It should be available for pickup by early to mid November. Once I have a title, the first person to show up a couple of thousand dollars cash will own it.

10/16/2026

I have a customer looking for a 71 SC/360, preferably one that is already done but if not, one that does not need a full restoration. Must be the real deal and not a clone. Any color will likely do so this pictures is just for reference. Anyone know of one that might be available if a qualified buyer came knocking?

10/06/2026

Some of you may recall the ugly brown turd 73 Javelin AMX that had rotted quarters and a dented rear tail light panel from a year ago. It is going to a new Owner today and looks just a little bit different. We offered to replace the front springs but the new owner likes the stance so it’ll stay that way and the rear springs will settle back down the next month or two. As some of you may also recall, the car previously had the Calvert Racing mono leaf spring however which we reverted all suspension back to factory AMC Springs, which had not been on a car for a while so they will settle down over the next couple of months. Our mission and AZ AMC Restorations is to make people’s dreams come true and this car is a great example of how we do that.

10/06/2026

Some of you may recall the ugly brown turd 73 401 Javelin AMX that had rotted quarters and a dented rear tail light panel from a year ago. It is going to a new Owner today and looks just a little bit different and is sporting a date code correct fresh 401. We offered to replace the front springs but the new owner likes the stance so it’ll stay that way and the rear springs will settle back down the next month or two. As some of you may also recall, the car previously had the Calvert Racing mono leaf spring however which we reverted all suspension back to factory AMC Springs, which had not been on a car for a while so they will settle down over the next couple of months. Our mission and AZ AMC Restorations is to make people’s dreams come true and this car is a great example of how we do that.

10/03/2026

I am going to try this again. We have a customer's 68 AMX that was converted from vacuum wipers to electric but when he did the conversion 40 years ago, he left in the vacuum wiper arm transmission which barely covers enough space on the glass to make a small peep hole in the rain. I am looking for a 68 AMX electric wiper arm transmission but it must be verified do be from an electric wiper motor AMX or Javelin. Anyone have one they would be willing to part with for $$$$ or trade for something you might need for your car? If we cannot find one within the next 30 days I will have to rob the wiper arm transmission off my own 68 AMX yet again and I would really rather not do that for the 2nd or 3rd time since we restored it because one of these day, somebody will slip and scar up my own car's freshly restored cowl which is currently in beautiful perfect condition.

09/27/2026

As discussed with a few friends and followers on this page, I have been attempting to find an interesting 1953 convertible which is the year I was born. 1953 was a relative awkward time with regard to both automotive engineering and design however a couple of amazing cars stand out amongst the crowd and are timelessly beautiful automobiles with interesting mechanicals . I have always loved the 53 Skylark Convertible but the prices for nicer versions of those cars are currently very high so I recently turned my attention to lesser knows cars like a 53 Packard Carribean convertible or a 53 Nash Healey convertible, both of which are very hard to find and are gogeous automobiles from that era. If anyone knows of a private owner of one of these three fine pieces of automotive history that may be for sale, I would love to hear about them. Please note that I am getting too damn old to do another restoration project so any referrals need to be for complete and running cars that can be driveable without having to do any major restoration work.

09/20/2026

I don't normally enter my 68 AMX into judged car shows but the show I brought it to yesterday in Skull Valley, Arizona judged my AMX as the best muscle car which was quite an honor given how many other really nice muscle cars were there including the gorgeous Chevelle SS 396 right next to me. Getting the award was a very pleasant surprise!

09/13/2026

one of our customers has a electric wiper conversion from vacuum on his 68 AMX. The prior owner did not put the new wiper transmission in rather they just jury rigged the vacuum wiper transmission to the electric wiper motor rendering the wipers nearly useless. Does anyone have a spare 68 AMX or Javelin wiper transmission with the small heads available that they would want to part with? Please note that the 69 and up electric wiper transmission has a bigger head and it not useable on the 68 AMX or Javelin cowl