The Story of my Amby

Hi All

Just wanted to share with you all about my Amby. I thought this story about my Amby would interest you people. To start off, it is a 1964 Mark II which was bought by my Grand Father in 1966. It was registered in my Dad's name and he was the 3rd owner at that time.

The car then served its purpose very well without any problems what so ever. I've heard some very interesting experiences of our family with this car. I've used the word 'heard' just because the car was bought about 19 years before I was born.

Since my early childhood days, I was very fond of this car and it was almost like a member in our family. It was in 92 that the car really showed its age and broke down near Bhavani while traveling back to Coimbatore from Bangalore.

All these years from 1964 to 1992 it has been serving on the original OHV petrol motor and was as good as new.

Now, the investigation after the break-down revealed that the engine main bearing had given up and hence had to get the car towed back to Coimbatore.

This is where the problem really started. Now since the engine had almost come to the end of its life, we started to think of converting it to Diesel.

Everyone at home were totally against putting in the Matador since it was too noisy and we really had no other choice since Isuzu’s were never heard / available at that time. At the same time, some people who had started a new workshop only to convert Ambassadors into Diesel using the 1.9 TATA engine were really getting famous in Coimbatore and hence we too thought about it and finally it was decided that our Amby had do undergo a major transformation to bear the 1.9 TATA diesel heart borrowed from the TATA Sierra.

So, the work started and the Amby was installed with a brand new 1.9 TATA motor. The engine costed a whopping Rs. 75,000. This engine was mated to the existing column shift HM petrol gear box.

So after staying in the workshop for quite a while for the conversion process then for the AC, the car finally arrived.

The engine was really good and powerful for the Amby.

Now, the car was back to normal but slowly and steadily problems seemed to arise one after another.

Some of the problems were:

1. Engine Over heating.

2. Uneven tire wear.

3. Clutch wearing out pretty quickly.

4. Low ground clearance.

The ground clearance was fixed pretty quickly by chopping off the sump. The original was with a capacity of 7litres and was now chopped off with a capacity of 4 to 5 litres.

Though we had installed an extra fan on the grille the overheating was always a case to be worried about especially on ghat sections. Modifications to the radiator and others lead to marginal improvement but was never solved.

The chassis was changed during the engine conversion and since then the front tires never lasted more than 25,000 kms. Also, after this conversion the weight of the car increased by about 100 kgs.

Coming to the clutch, it was a niggling problem and never got settled. By this time, few years had passed and the car had run more that 70,000 kms despite these issues. Now, some friend of my uncle had also converted to the same TATA engine but with a TATA gearbox borrowed from the Sumo. They had covered more than 90,000 kms and had decided to get rid of the engine and gearbox due to the arrival of the ISUZU engines in the market and they gave us the Gearbox.

Now, it was Transformation part II for our Amby. So out went the column shift HM gearbox and in came the Sumo box along with a hydraulic clutch. Changes were also made to the interior with a new dashboard with a console box and the car also made its way to Koyas for new Upholstery.

So after these changes, the car was back to duty serving tirelessly and at the same time frequenting to the workshop for some problem or the other and eventually, my dad was almost fed-up with the expenses and they had decided to sell off the car .

I was heart broken. I was asking him and others at home not to sell it off but my request was rejected and finally the car was sold in 2002 and was replaced with a Palio 1.2 Sport.

I was in Class XI at that time but was never happy about the car being sold though I was madly in love with the Palio.

It has been 8 years since the car was sold but I was never able to get it out of my mind and was always thinking of somehow buying it back and know what? It has happened! Yes, I've just bought back the same car just a couple of days back, on the 15th of March 2010.

The car is still running on the same engine and nothing has changed mechanically. The buyers had corrected the tire wear problem by correcting the chaises and also the overheating, but the gearbox and the body are out of shape.

So, I've achieved in buying back the car but now I need to get it back into proper shape.

Hope this post has not wasted your time. Will update this thread in due course of my rebuilding process if you people are interested.

Awaiting your response or comments.

It is amazing to read that you bought back that very same car, for the emotional attachment with it. Compare this with the nonchalance in the US with which the cars are written off as total loss and compacted/ sold for parts for what would be a perfectly reparable damage in India.

This time, please do a proper survey of what mechanics are experts in handling Amby, and go to them for the repairs. The Chassis deformation in your car that used to eat up the tyres was probably a result of handling the chassis roughly in the anxiety of getting the Tata engine fit properly on to it. It is important that the mechanics/ garage who handle the car KNOW what to do, rather than resorting to the 'hammer' solution for anything seemingly difficult.

What about the registration status of your car? How is it being allowed to continue in operation? is the registration valid for just 5 years at a time now, that it is already past it's 15/20 years of operation?

Please continue to post the status of progress on the work. It looks interesting. And some pics as well. Thanks for the posts above!

Hi Krishna

Thanks for your comments. Yes now I have the right persons for the job and the car is already in their custody.

Regarding the registeration, we just need to get the Fitness Certificate renewed every 5 years. The documents of this car are perfect thought.

Best of luck on your rebuild, try and find the proper mechanics and if it is possible try and find the mark 2 original engine. It will help preserve the originality of the car.

Some pictures

Clicked in 1988.... Its  me on the car...

Clicked b4 selling in 2002

Present condition after re-buying in 2010

Anandh: Your thread had prompted me to see your Amby. Can you post some pics. Amidst, great attachment and very well written.

EDIT: By the time i had written the above, you had posted some pics. Great looking and good timing

Dear Manish

Thank you for your comments.

Planning to continue with the same engine and replace the gearbox with a better one from TATA. My concern for continuning with the same engine is due to the endorsement in the RC book.

I need to keep my documents clean.

Also, the engine has been worked on recently and is in good condition. No visible smoke from it!

Some more pics in the present condition

The engine

Interiors

Hi!

Can anyone help me in posting a link to this thread on team-bhp on my behalf . I would like to share my experiences to all Amby fans across all forums.