On Monday, April 26, 2021 at 9:20:46 PM UTC-4, wrote:

I had a '70 AMC Gremlin. That really should have been Car of the
year. They made more money on parts than the car. It _had_ to be
profitable.

I had a couple friends with AMC cars - they seemed to have the
weirdest things break - a Gremlin was the only case that I have ever
heard of a seat breaking - drivers seat-back - the car wasn't
abused and no extra-large drivers.

I had a 1966 Rambler Ambassador 990.

Weird thing to have break: The vacuum booster pump that was mounted
to the top of the fuel pump, causing the windshield wipers to stop working.
I solved the issue by pulling the hoses off both sides of the pump and
connecting them to each other. It worked great as long as you didn't mind
the wipers stopping mid-wipe when you accelerated, like you might do
while getting on a highway. :-O

The same thing happened to my buddy's AMC Javelin while we were driving
from Cleveland to NJ in a 40° rain storm. In that case the wipers failed in the
up position, but would come back down if we turned them off via the slide
control. Off brought them down, On sent them up - until the cable inside the
dashboard broke. That's when we tied a wire to the wiper arm itself so the
passenger could pull them down and then let them go back up. If you don't
think that that is a thing, ask the Marines:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyPI438nGjI

Then there was the time I had to replace the starter on the Rambler. I went
to the parts store and found out that there was 3 different starters used
on that car. The only way to determine which one I needed was to bring in
my old one and match up the bolt pattern. AMC designed body styles
but used parts from various manufacturers, so you never knew what
you'd find while working on them.

Oh yeah, then there was the vertically mounted AM radio. I wanted to swap
a AM/FM stereo into the Rambler so I started taking the OEM radio out. Turns
out that they needed to make room for the AC ductwork, so they used a radio
that was tall and shallow vs. the more normal short and deep.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/plwAA...T88/s-l300.jpg

The rolling greenhouse Pacer
was said to be a nightmare for getting parts - mid year model
changes & a parts/supply chain that couldn't cope

I knew a guy that was an auto mechanic and also plowed snow as
a side job. He built a plow truck by mounting a Pacer body on a 4x4
truck chassis. He said he wanted the extra visibility provided by the
Pacer's expansive glass. Funny looking vehicle, but it got the job done.