So this evening I was taking my daughter to her soccer game in the eagle. The game was about 10 miles away in the next town. As I'm buzzing down the highway at about 55 I notice a blue smoke cloud following me
I knew I had a problem, look at my guages as I slow down and no warning lights and good oil pressure . Pull over and shut it off and oil is pouring out the bottom of the engine, I mean pouring!
Pop the hood (with my vice grips of course) and the oil sender for the idiot light is gushing , tried to tighten it but I knew that wasn't the problem, the part had simply failed.
Called my dad and told him the problem and he came to the rescue by bringing me the sender off his concord in his garage and a couple quarts of oil gotta pick up a new one in the morning so he can drive his car again.
We even made it to the game on time!
Moral of the story is another few miles and I would have lost my engine, and it's new! It's a shame a little cheap part like that can be responcibilty for catastrophic faulure. I got lucky and caught it in time, watch out for a blue smoke trail!
The good thing is now my undercarriage will never rust along the passenger side as I have a new layer of very oily undercoating .
Wow I'm glad to hear you avoided disaster (and even made it to the game on time).
Like I always tell my son - its good to be aware of your surroundings - obviously are aware of what's going on around you!
i had one of those fail like that as well. they can be devilish.
Mine started leaking at the seam, but not like yours. I drove it like that for probably a year. I guess I got lucky. Good thing you have more than one AMC in the family.
The wonderful thing about those is it seems that it was designed to perfectly land on the exhaust pipe so that it will produce maximum smoke.
I had a similar thing happen a couple of times, but not quite as bad a leak.
Yeah, Ive had them leak before and replaced them but never a gusher like this, and yes if it weren't for the placement of the exhaust pipe I woulda had real trouble.
Yup, its those little cheap parts that can get us. Good to hear you saved your engine with an $8 part.
Mine blew off my 282 (from a Mexican CJ that was in my '84 Eagle, then my '83 Cherokee) just as I punched it getting on the freeway to avoid a speeding semi that pulled into my lane to avoid colliding with another because his brakes gave out at 80+ mph. I just barely got ahead of him before his brakes dynamited. Didn't notice the oil puking till the motor made bad noises 10 miles later. (2AM sunday night) Topped with some 50W I had a case of for my tractor and kept dring, stopping to add, then I said the heck with it after I ran out 20 miles from home. Let it cool overnight, replaced the sender next day and it had noises. Turned it into parts for a stroker a couple months later because it was burning so much oil.