My First Car: A 1986 AMC Eagle Wagon Limited

[TwoEaglesForMe]

Joe how are things going?  I haven't heard from you or your Dad in a while.  Hope you car is still running good.  The Jeep wheels are still here for your taking.  Come get them and you can check out my new toys while you're here.  Enjoy the summer

[EagleJoe93]

Here is a bit of an overdue update on my Eagle, which I'm pretty sure  I'll be naming Rosalind. I got the wheels and other things from a wagon TwoEaglesForMe was parting out and I got some touch up paint in the Olympic White color as well as a spray can of the Moca Brown color on the flares. I will be leaving for school at the end of august and I have a few things I'd really like to have done before hand. Those are putting the wheels on my car with my tires, fixing the sagging headliner (and install the Grand Cherokee overhead console while I have the board out), fully upgrade my audio system (anything special I should know for removing the DIN style radio?), give it a few really good coats of wax and rubbing as much Leatherique conditioner as I can into my seats. I haven't been able to do too much since I was in a show in July. The muffler sprouted a rust hole or two in the past few days and I've ordered the parts to replace it so it doesn't sound like a rice burner. If I can manage it I plan on writing up a how to relating to emblems which I hope will be found useful.

[EagleJoe93]

Here's a current update for my Eagle, which I have decided to name Rosalind.

One night I was driving home after helping out an an event at my church and when I was about half a mile away from home I heard a loud thud from under the car. My first thought was that one of my tires blew out. When I got out to see what happened, I saw a metal part in the road a few feet behind where I pulled over. I look at it and it is covered in fresh grease, so I know it came from me. I checked the rear axle to see if it came from there, but it looked fine. Came to the front and when I got to the drivers side wheel, I found the entire wheel well covered in grease and the CV joint somehow managed to loose 5 grade eight bolts and sheer the head off one. It was probably replaced by someone before me that didn't tighten the bolts very well. I called my dad and he was able to drive the car home at 15 miles an hour with the emergency flashers on with me following behind. In a way this was a blessing in disguise since we found that the passenger side CV joint formed a large rip in the boot and needed to be replaced as well and that this happened when I was close to home and before I am to go away to college this Friday. Rosalind now has some brand new (not re-manufactured) front CV Joints. 

I have also been prepping her for when I leave for school. The past few days I have been repainting the steel wheels in a gloss white so I don't have to bring the original wire spoke wheel covers with the risk of loosing one or someone walking off with them. The white on the wheels is a true white while the car is more of an off white, so they don't match as well as I would have liked, but I think they give her a 60's stock car look which I think is pretty cool along with the new chrome AMC lug nuts I bought recently on ebay. Either way, the painted steels are a temporary thing while I prepare the Jeep alloys I got for her the way I want them and done right. Also, does anyone know where I could get some center caps, wheel spinners, or whatever they are called that aren't too expensive?

Other things I hope to get done are the headliner, the Jeep overhead console if possible, align the headlights, vacuum the interior, and give her a nice wash and a good coat of wax.

[EagleJoe93]

Here is a current picture of Rosalind. The white on the wheels doesn't match the white on the body as well as I had hoped for, but I think it gives her that old stock car look. The wheels are temporary while I prep my Jeep wheels the way I want them when I am back home and/or have time.

[OverKnight]

I'll bump this up to the top, because I was going to ask the same thing about the center caps.

From my own searches, there appear to be four kinds of caps: snap-on, push-through, screw-on and bolt-on.  Feel free to correct me if the following is incorrect.

• I think the snap-on kind are either proprietary, or require rims with center holes large enough for the snap section to fit between the hub and wheel.
• The center holes on the stock wheels of the Eagles appear to fit snugly against the hub, which would leave insufficient clearance for the push-through type.
• The screw-on type look like threaded holes in the wheels are needed to install this type of cap.
• I'm guessing that the bolt-on type are fastened with the lug nuts, which if all I've written is correct, are the best type for stock Eagle wheels.

I've been unsuccessful in finding the bolt-on type.  There are plenty of the push-through type; am I correct that these won't work with the stock steel wheels?  I guess the wheels could be drilled and tapped for the screw-on type, which I can do, but I'd like to be a little more sure that this is how these are mounted before I purchase these and start drilling and tapping holes in the wheels.  Has anyone else found center caps that work with the stock steel Eagle wheels?

Thank you.

[captspillane]

The stock steel wheels were never intended to be used with center caps. They are snug and do not have room for them. The stock steel wheels did come with a bunch of different hub caps from the factory however. The hub caps press in around the outer edge and cover everything. The nicest hub caps were the wire wheel style, then you have two generic plastic styles, and then you have a very rare option that is polished aluminum. That style is much more common in 14" on 2WD cars, but a 15" version did exist.

[OverKnight]

Thanks, Capt.  The car I'm referring to is EagleJoe93's; I'm his Dad.  His car has a complete set of the wire wheel covers, which are in pretty good shape, but I talked him out of keeping them on the car while he's away at college because 1) they're heavy, 2) they can be noisy, and 3) they're somewhat rare, and would be difficult to replace if one popped off or was, ahem, removed without permission.  As in Joe's pictures, we painted the wheels white and installed the chrome acorn lug nuts he bought for the alloy wheels we're refinishing.  Although the white is too white, it actually looks pretty good, but would look much better if we could find a chrome center cap that was held on by the lug nuts.  Because we intend to install the alloy wheels once they've been refinished, these caps are just temporary, so we don't want to spend a lot on them; that said, given how long it's taken to complete the work already done on Joe's car, it may be a pretty long temporary...  I saw a set of these on a car at a show a few years ago, but the owner didn't remember where he got them from.

Someone's gotta know where we can find these... thanks again.

[carnuck]

The steel ones were drilled to hold caps like Jeep XJ ones.

[OverKnight]

Hmmm... I don't recall seeing any holes in the wheels,  However, sometimes I don't recall my own name  ,  I'll look more closely the next time Joe comes home.

Happy Birthday, Joe! 

[captspillane]

My Spirit GT had the steel rims with chrome rings on the edges and a chrome center wheel thing with AMC on it. That would probably work on the Eagle wheel just fine but I never looked closely at how it attaches.

[OverKnight]

Carnuck, Joe's rims do not have any holes drilled in them for attaching center caps.  Maybe the Jeep wheels did, but not the AMC wheels on Joe's car.

Capt, you would have a picture of those wheels, would you?  There's nothing on Joe's rims to hold any kind of cap.  His wire-spoked wheel covers fasten around the outer rim, but there are no nubs, holes, etc. anywhere on his wheels to fasten anything else.

Thank you.

[EagleJoe93]

Hi everyone, sorry it has been so long. Going to a University of this level is very time consuming. 

Since I have been so busy with school, not much has been done on Rosalind, hence why I have not been very active on the den. Over winter break some little things were done like aligning the headlights and replacing the side marker light bulbs. Though recently a problem has risen. I went to go start her up, and...she wouldn't. It appeared that the battery was just about dead. This was puzzling since the battery is less than a year old. Since I have been very much involved with school and school-related activities, my dad looked up possible issues and has since concluded that it is the alternator, which would explain the issues we have been having with the charging system and could have caused a drain. So a new alternator has been ordered and my dad will come up and help me install it on Sunday, and thanks to my RA and his Audi, I got a jump today and went for a half-hour drive to build up a charge so she is drivable for the time being until the new part comes.

Here is a new picture I took of her after one of the big snowstorms that have hit NJ.

[OverKnight]

I think Joe has a bad diode in the alternator.  I've never been happy with the voltage shown by the voltmeter, which has been maybe 12.5 volts, tops.  A correctly functioning alternator should put out at least 13.4 volts.  My understanding of alternators is a bad diode could cause a low voltage output and a parasitic drain.  A bad diode could also cause a very high voltage output; maybe it depends upon which diode is bad.  I was going to start with the usual voltage drain test, but the chronic low voltage made me look towards the alternator.  I'll still run a few tests, but I'm betting a new alternator is needed.  If anyone else has a suggestion, please chime in.

Joe, unfortunately the new alternator won't be delivered until Monday, so let's look to next weekend for a visit and repair.

[EagleJoe93]

Joe, unfortunately the new alternator won't be delivered until Monday, so let's look to next weekend for a visit and repair.

That shouldn't be a problem, I should be coming back home for spring break in a week or so anyway.

[EagleJoe93]

So over spring break me and my dad installed a new reman alternator. She starts much better now, but the battery is being charged even when it is fully charged and is charging at a seemingly high rate. If I recall correctly, this is a GM alternator. My Uncle who has had a lot of GM vehicles over the years says this is a common thing with GM alternators. It also seems that the voltage gauge in my cluster isn't working properly.

I also recently got some headlight shields and installed them two days ago. I think they look nice and add to the classiness.  When I get the chance I'll add a picture. While installing them I noticed that some of the headlight hardware is in really bad shape. Is that universal stuff I can get anywhere or is there a particular place I can get them? I also ordered some new headlight adjusters since some of them need to be replaced.