1970 AMC Postal, A One Year Only!

Started a thread over at Pirate on the Willys forum but the postal has no love.

So, I bought this 1970 AMC postal jeep. Mostly because I am collecting 153 Chevy II motors and derivatives. Turns out motor is locked up but it has a large cap HEI already installed along with the un-obtanium rear sump pan and manifolds. In the process I've learned the HEI was on the 77-78 151 Pontiac but was redesigned in '79 to use a different distributor setup so this is the only part that interchanges pretty much betweeen the Iron Duke and the Chevy II.

1970 the only year AMC made the postal as 1969 was Kaiser-Willys and 1971 was AM General and the 153 was only available for 68-70. Not that it adds anything to it's value. LOL. Anyway, gave $400 for it and was pretty happy with that since I was about to drop 2 bills at RockAuto for a big cap HEI. But the postal is in good shape! And I can't stand abandoning something that's reasonably fixable. So with that in mind I have decided to do a "resto-mod" to it using an eclectic mix of parts that I mostly have "laying around". It's Butt Ugly with the paint that's on it but nearly rust free.







So this is sitting and I am pondering what to do with it. I will most likely use the oil pan on my 3.0L Mercruiser along with the HEI and drop in my A1 with an SM465 adapted to the Dana 18. And about this time, this drops in my lap:



1995 Hyster with 3.0 GM power on LP and I'm thinking "Hmmmm."



Got it for the fairly reasonable price of $750 because of this carnage, only the 3rd failure he had seen of this type in 25 yrs in the lift business:



So, new plan is to resto-mod the postal to look military in nature, just because. I'll bedliner the top and the floor. The floor for durability and the outside of the top to fix some pin holes and minimize future damage. Power it up with the 3.0L 4 banger on LP with a custom spare tire/LP swinging mount so that I don't lose any of the doors. I have a Suburban I bought 18 years ago for parts that has a good TH350 I'll swap in instead of the 'glide and that should improve the off-highway driveability some.

Here's a shot of the accessory drives for the (3) different variations of the 153 that I have currently. One in the 1970 Postal is a little different at least carburetor wise not sure about everything else.

1969 postal motor


1982 Mercruiser 140 hp.


1995 Hyster 3.0L LPG


Check out the idler for the fan on the LP motor! This should really help with the swap into my A1 because the F-head is so tall that when you swap another motor in the fan is way low. This might allow the stock shroud to use which should be pretty trick.

Now, if somebody can help me that would be great. The 1995 motor is a one piece rear seal and it appears to be different than anything else I can find out there. Anybody have a source for a Flexplate for this oddball? I can source a flywheel easily from many different boat parts places, but the flexplate looks to be a different story.

Hyster makes their transmissions and it uses a bellhousing mount starter and a flywheel/flexplate (torque converter on it but SUPER beefy) that is larger than 168 tooth and offset funny as well. It looks like a smaller Hyster with a different trans may be an OK source but I will have to drill the converter pattern into it so visiting with the local dealer will be my next step unless somebody else has a better idea!

 

I have a new 181 that I made adapters for to run automotive manifolds on. Haven't found the right project for it yet. Some of the best Jeeps that I have built have had a 151 in them.
Not a lot of love for postals anywhere. I use the frames and rear axles and grab the later ones for the 11" backing plates.

 

How about the steering column?
I sure could use one...

 

Yeah, the postal a red-headed step child for sure. Any ideas on the one piece rear main flexplate? Except for some port spacing, the manifolds on the forklift are near identical to the original postal manifolds. I will probably try to graft a $30 new small block pan to the rails of the front sump pan to make my own one piece rear main rear sump.

 

Yep, no love for the postal and only a little bit-o-love for the 4 bangers. The 181 would be ideal for your A1, especially in front of a 465 (well, that is if you want a 4 cylinder)

There's a forklift salvage outfit in Atlanta for manifolds; marine OMC pans can be used and they are sort of rear sump (look on ebay- the first pic and you'll understand). Summit has 1 piece seal/168 tooth flexplates.

Some guys on the CJ2A page were fabbing up manifolds and headers for the 153/181.

I agree with Daryl, the DJ is best as a parts source. last one I stripped at he PNP yielded axles, brakes, windshield glass, wiper motor and linkage, steering column and wheel, etc. Body parts up here in the rain forest are usually rusted out.

My 70 (Feb 70) was made by Kaiser. I rebuilt the motor but the block was shot so I went with a mercuriser 2.5 block. Everything bolted up to it.

I immediately ditched the doors- they are heavy and hang from the rain gutter area, making the vehicle very top-heavy and prone to tipping over. Left intact, the steel top is very strong. I fabbed up CJ style door sills and altered the swinging back door so it is gone also. I already have my A1, so wanted to try something different.

If you want some pics, pm me.

 

What years have the correct brake backing plates? There are 3-4 dj's in the local yard but are later years.

 

I'll bet Daryl would know the answer down to the year.

68-70 are 10"; I think 71 is also. Around 73, give or take, they went to 11". It may track exactly as with the CJ-5s where they went to 11" when AMC took over and built the intermediates.

And then towards the end, in the early 80s, they went to a different rear axle so maybe only the front brakes are useable.

 

So the 4 banger uses a different flywheel than the V8 and V6. Because they are removed the counterweight when they went to one piece seal it is incorporated into the flywheel. So the 4 banger is a unique zero balance flywheel with a unique bolt pattern that matches nothing I can find. My neighbor is a boat mechanic with a pile of spare parts and we compared both V6 and V8 flywheels with the torque converter flywheel from the fork lift and the bolt circle is different.

As I mentioned before the forklift flywheel is bigger in diameter than the 168 tooth flywheel and can't be used other than with the forklift trans which was ridiculous beef probably out-weighing the engine 2-1.

Yes, 4 banger and granny 4 speed is exactly what I want! 180 lb/ft vs. 112 should be a big improvement. I have a Clifford manifold that I plan on running the marine Rochester 2V carb on. Contemplating a Comp Cam for it as well. They make two smaller grinds for the Chevy II motor.

Weird things going on with postals in the early 70's with transition from Kaiser-Willys to AMC then with postals being manufactured by AM General from then on. Looks like the 71 postals got the AMC 6 before the Intermediate CJ5's were ready to be released and that's when they kicked the grill out and they never bothered changing to the intermediate fender/grill setup probably because it wasn't part of the original transfer to AM G and they would have had to buy or license those parts however crazy corporate accounting rules work.

I would guess that 71-72 was PROBABLY when the transition to the 11" brakes happened, but that info outside my knowledge base.

 

My understanding of the flywheel options is limited, but the way I heard it, the one piece seal indicates a change in engine balance- going to external balance. Is this the problem you are facing? When I went from the powerglide to a manual trans, I used a 168 tooth flywheel for internal balance and there was no problem. Sounds like the forklift version of the 181 crankshaft might be different. My engine is the 153, 2 piece seal.

By the way, the 181 is a stroked version of the 153 (bored out a little too). I am pretty sure the cranks are different.

 

I have seen 10" rear brakes all the way to 74. Fronts seemed to be 11" all the way back to 69 on some. The postal were worse then normal jeeps in being Just Everybody Else's Parts. You can never say never with any Jeep though, and don't forget the resourceful mechanics that maintained these things over the years got really good at swapping stuff around.

 

I have (2) 181's as you can see in the picture. One a 1982 Mercruiser 140 hp that has the conventional 2 piece seal and it will use any zero balance Chevrolet flywheel or flexplate because bolt pattern is same as the V8. But in 1995 when they went to the one piece rear on the 181 they had to have a unique zero balance flywheel but with a reduced diameter bolt pattern. So they made a new one completely. And a flywheel is easy, just buy one for a post 1995 181 boat. But a flexplate is a different story since don't put this in a car. Brazil, maybe S. Africa could be a source, but not sure.

I think I can use a Hyster flexplate from a smaller forklift than the one I bought that use a block mounted starter instead of the bellhousing mount starter but it will have to be drilled and shimmed to use a GM converter. The indentations for the bolts that the converter pads sit on doesn't appear to be on it.

I'll bug the forklift guy when I get a few minutes.

 

I haven't done any looking at the brakes yet. Will be interesting to see what I find. Because they were service vehicles, who knows what could have been replaced in the repair shops with all sorts of parts swapped around.

 

11" brakes were on DJ5D, F & G. Those models correspond to the previously mentioned years. The F and G models have a hanging brake pedal. The F and newer have a different heater which allows for the hanging pedal on the lhd. I can't remember what the rhd master cylinder looks like and i dont know if the heater is better.

There are many interchangeable parts between the DJ and early-intermediates. Wiper knob and link arms fit Early's with the bottom, outside mount motor.

If you find a lhd it is a good source for a steering column and Saginaw steering box. Obviously the fenders will work on Early's with a little trimming. Not a bad source for a dash, but no glove box.

You can identify the model by the vin and dash tags.

Hope this is accurate. Please ding me if I'm off. Hope to post news about mine soon. My wife has been keeping me busy.

 

I used to work on a local DJ5 that had a Porsche 924 engine from the factory. That one was real expensive to keep running as it was still being used for local mail delivery, even though privately owned.
-Donny

 

That's called an Audi engine by AM General, though it was used in several vehicles, including some AMC cars.
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/20...979-am-general-dj-5g-with-factory-audi-power/

Of interest to me, because its TF 904 should be a cheap way to mate a VW diesel to a Dana 300. Parts.

 

Fox engine

 

The Audi motor pretty much destroyed the reputation of 4 cylinder powered jeeps to say the least.

 

I believe that Audi engine only made it 1 year (1979) in postals. Originally put in because of the gas crisis (in lieu of the AMC 6 cylinders), it proved a piece of ****. I think they put in the GM 151 right after that and finished the DJ line out with the AMC 150.

For some reason, I have stripped more '79s than any other year. It's the only year I saw that engine.

 

My 79 seemed to run fine. I heard of many problems tho. The PO put a header on it. I understand the exhaust manifold was problematic.

I remember it had a plastic fan and the blades were cracked. Always worried it would explode but it never did. To get engine parts I always had to shop for a similar vintage AMC Spirit. I replaced the frame mounted ross steering box with a Saginaw (RHD). It seems the Ross box on the RHD was prone to wear out at 100K.

When my daughter wrecked her car I traded it in on a neon. I liked it over all and it started my interest in finding non running jeeps and putting them back in service.

 

With that in mind, best jeep EVER!

Looking forward to working on mine, not sure when I'll get started though. Hopefully I can figure out the flexplate thing without too much difficulty.