The ongoing story of our '84 Eagle Wagon
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The evening we picked up our '84 Eagle I had a 6:30 appointment. The plan was to pick up the car, and I would stop on the way home, and me Dawn at home. This was not meant to be. After getting the title transferred at the DMV, we drove about a mile and stopped for dinner. We noticed some antifreeze on the ground, and I just blew it off. After all, I knew the other car we took along to pick up this car had a small leak in a hose.
I was wrong. Big time. A couple of miles down the freeway, I noticed belts squealing. No big deal. Then I notice steam coming out from under the hood. That is when I glance at the gauges - the temperature gauge is pegged at full hot. Shutdown the engine (at 65 miles per hour!). Glide as far as I can, which is most of the way to an exit. Start the car back up, and park it at the first gas station I come to. I let the attendant know what is up with my car, and he states that it would be OK to leave the car overnight if needed. My wife dropped me off at my appointment, and then was good enough to go home and get plenty of water and also bought some coolant.
A few hours later, Dawn (my wife) picks me up from my appointment, and we go assess the situation. I re-fill the radiator, and put the radiator cap back on loosely. The whole drive home, the gauge is no higher than about 1/3 of the way into the normal zone on the temperature gauge. We make it to within a mile of home when I no longer have heat from the heater, indicating no coolant flow. I re-fill the radiator (with cool water - I was lucky I didn't crack the block!) and drive the last mile home.
A few days later I assessed the situation. The radiator is shot, so I use the one from my '82 Eagle Wagon (scrapped out due to an errant front driveshaft - see URL http://www.skypoint.com/~n0kfb/homepage/amc/ for details). While the radiator was out, I removed the thermostat housing. There was no thermostat! I installed a good 195 degree thermostat, and two new heater hoses that were getting oil soaked where they attach to the engine.
After refilling the good radiator I flushed out the cooling system with water. Twice. I then filled the cooling system with 2 gallons anti-freeze (good to -34 Fahrenheit - see http://www.skypoint.com/members/n0kfb/homepage/32below.jpg for an actual thermometer reading at our house!). When I started the car, and checked for leaks, everything seemed OK. When I checked the temperature gauge, it was at the top of the normal zone. Something isn’t right. So I check the actual coolant temperature with my handy meat thermometer I keep in the garage. It indicated 195 degrees when the coolant sensor showed about 240 degrees. (I'll have the temperature gauge calibrations up on the web someday....) So I march off to the parts store and get a new temperature sender unit to install. With a new sender unit, the gauge sits a little above half way.
Estimated cost for radiator work, $20, not including used radiator I had on hand.
The next big project was under the hood. The carburetor isn’t right. The choke heater is connected to the alternator; The talented engineers at AMC did not intend the choke heater to be wired this way. I found the correct wire for the choke heater and hooked it up. Now the choke never warms up, and a test light show no 12 volts at the choke with the engine running. Putting the power of deductive reasoning to work, I wondered if an oil light that never comes on could be related. Sure enough, the oil pressure sending unit serves two purposes. The first is to alert the driver to dangerously low oil pressure. The second purpose is to not allow the electrically heated choke to warm up until the engine is running. Looking at the sender unit, it is not connected. I hooked it up, and now the choke heater works properly, but the oil pressure light is still not turning on. I bypassed the sender unit, and the light comes on. Replacing the sender unit restores proper function to the lamp.
Total cost to fix choke heater and oil light, $15. This includes sender unit and special socket that makes the job a lot easier.
The car passed emissions with no trouble. The numbers are not as low as my other Eagles, but it passed nonetheless, without installing another carburetor! Now all I need to do is solve the idle problem.
I replaced the carburetor with the one on my '82 Eagle. It works great! All I did was bolt it on, and it worked perfectly. Idle speed and mixtures were set just right, just as it was set on the '82. I guess that it stands to reason; both cars have 4.2 liter 6 cylinder engines.
Have I mentioned this car needs an exhaust system? When we test-drove the car, it had no muffler (see the photo above ). A few weeks after getting it home, I went and bought not only a muffler, but all exhaust system components behind the catalytic converter. No real big surprises removing the old parts. Installing the new parts had only the usual hassles of getting everything in place and aligned correctly. It sure is nice being ably to hear the radio again. At least when it works, which is my next topic.
Replacement exhaust system cost: about $100, including all clamps and hangers.
The radio is not original. Someone has installed a nice Sony AM/FM cassette radio, but apparently didn’t know what they were doing. The speakers cut out with every bump. I’m still trying to figure out what to do about this. I would like to find a factory radio to install. Time will tell.
What a mess. Someone had run new speaker wires to the rear speakers, didn't hook up the front speakers at all, and there was nothing wrong with the stock wiring! (except for the hard to figure out connectors) I re-connected everything using the stock wiring. The left front speaker also needed to be replaced. This radio works pretty good. The AM side doesn't have the fidelity of the AM stereo radio in my '87 Eagle, but it works as good as it should.
The car originally was equipped with a trailer hitch. The evidence is the two holes low in the center of the rear bumper. I removed the hitch that was on my retired ’82 Eagle, bought new mounting bolts, and bolted it up to the new(er) car. I still need to install the trailer lighting connector.
Cost for trailer hitch - $5 plus hitch I had on hand from ’82 Eagle.
Jack - The tire changing jack that comes with the car from the factory was missing the bumper hook. I used the one from my ’82 as a suitable replacement.
They have been repaired. the story will be posted here soon
The alternator belt broke the other day, so I decided it was a good time to replace all belts on the motor. I broke one bolt in the process, but had a spare from my retired '82 Eagle. The whole job, broken bolt and all took about 2 hours. The belts no longer squeal at very high engine RPM's either!
Battery - If I don’t get the car started right away, and keep it running, the battery will die cranking the engine after about 30 seconds. Replacing the battery should take care of this.
Air shocks / Air pump. The car was equipped with a load leveling system. I’m going to take the air shocks off my ’82 Eagle, and install them on this car. (The shocks were originally installed on my ’69 American wagon!) I’m also looking for the factory air pump that fits under the hood.
Cruise Control - I finally have the adjustment of the cruise control close enough to use. The trouble I have is the unit tends to "hunt", meaning the speed tends to vary up and down about the speed at which it has been set. If you have any thoughts about adjusting the cruise control, please send me a note.
Tires - The car has worn out P195-75R 15 tires. I’m looking for suitable replacements. Any ideas?
Tachometer - I’d like a factory tach. If you have any idea where I might find one, please let me know.
updated 980824