My '82 Spirit of the Eagle

[carnuck]

It started life as a mild, unassuming '82 Spirit with 4.2L and 998 auto. The previous owner got fed up with the oil and water (headgasket) leaks and parked it in a barn for 10 or so years, then her grandson got it running (he managed to break a head bolt in the process) and sold it to a friend of mine.
   The rust in the tank was so bad he couldn't keep it running (I took the top off the carb many times to clean it out) so I ended up with the car and got it cleared up (I added a fuel injection filter and he added a sediment bowl that filled up weekly till I changed the tank) and I drove it for a year.
   We had a really bad winter a couple years ago and I couldn't access my 4x4 (it was snowed in at my cabin by Steven's Pass) so I drove this car around with surprisingly little effort except the floor kept dragging on the road. Come spring I got a wild hare and decided to make it an Eagle SX4. So far just the back is done (and I have to change the axle again) but I have the parts and hopefully a place to work on it for awhile. (I need to get my Eagle wagon's 727 done and out of there, then finish my '87 Comanche 4x4 conversion so I can access the shop)

Before:


After (so far)


I was originally only going to put in EFI and an AW4 (2wd from an XJ. It's on my for sale pile now) but decided to got the whole way and make it 4x4.

[HappyPappy]

  I hope you realize your going to have to modify the floor for the T-Case!!  Eagles have different floor pans in them

[shanebo]

Ive seen eagles get converted to a 2wd but never the other way around...Cant wait to see your project

[amc78concord]

This is interesting... You're right Shanebo, this will be a great project to see!

[rollguy]

  I hope you realize your going to have to modify the floor for the T-Case!!  Eagles have different floor pans in them

Do you think in '82 they could have used the Eagle sheet metal (floor and hump) on the Spirit as well to save having different parts?

[amc78concord]

  I hope you realize your going to have to modify the floor for the T-Case!!  Eagles have different floor pans in them

Do you think in '82 they could have used the Eagle sheet metal (floor and hump) on the Spirit as well to save having different parts?

No clue, but for sure the wheel wells are shorter than Eagle's... So some things were different no matter what

[Smitch]

Do you think in '82 they could have used the Eagle sheet metal (floor and hump) on the Spirit as well to save having different parts?

They also had to rework the seats for the Eagles on account of the floor pan. They already had the Spirit "fine tuned", so to speak, so why change it?

[rollguy]

I thought that by '82 the Spirit & Eagle would be nearly identical save the 4 wheel drive equipment.  If they were made on the same assembly line,  thy might use the same sheet metal and seat tracks.  I guess the only way to know for sure would be to compare the two.

[carnuck]

Floor is definitely different than Eagle (not that it would've stopped me) Problem is too many things are going on in my life now and I'm divesting myself of all my extra projects except my Eagle wagon and 2 FSJs.

This is now headed to the for sale board

[carnuck]

Car got saved from being sold (for now. I still have to sell my $8K value '03 E250 for only $6,000 to catch up on property payments so it can be paid off by 2015)

Sold the 2wd AW4 and 2WD ax-15 I had for this car. Still have the engine crossbar, a 290 motor and a Jeep 727/NP208 laying around. Got to get my Eagle wagon running then my '87 MJ 4x4 finished and I can start on this one again.

[captspillane]

I am converting my Spirit to an SX4. The front frame has holes drilled and tapped for both the Eagle and Spirit crossmembers. The only difference is the floor pan. I absolutely love the Spirit GT armrest and gauge cluster, so it is worthwhile to convert a Spirit. The gauge cluster cannot fit an Eagle because the Eagle floor pan has a small hump in it in front of the shifter. That brings the whole ridge up a half inch. That space is needed for an automatic shift linkage, but I won't need it because it will be a manual transmission. A Lokar shifter would also have the clearence if I wanted to make it an Automatic. When I do the conversion I am retaining the center of the floor pan and cutting out on either side of the hump. Once the transfer case is in place I will fabricate a new hump around it. I will install the drivetrain before fabricating anything since the engine is also offset to the passenger side on Eagles, but centered on a Spirit.

You could splice in a Eagle floor pan. It is not as easy as that sounds. The Eagle has support rails that connect to the rocker panels. The Spirit is missing these, and it will complicate the work alot. I'm doing the conversion because I love the Spirit armrest, so thats another reason I would never switch floorpans.

The seats and seat frames are the same between Spirits and Eagles. The difference is the two floor mounts that attach to the floorpan and the bottom of the seat frame with two half inch nuts. The inner floor mount on the Eagle is shorter because it sits on the hump.

I want to eventually buy a 1979 AMX and bring over the armrest, dash overlays, and front AMX grille. If I get good enough at fabricating I will also mimic the AMX fender flares on my "Eagle AMX."

-Dave Spillane-

[HappyPappy]

WOW!! That is going to be one heck of a job. I had a Spirit and a wagon that I was going to take everything from the wagon and put in the Spirit, went fine till we went to put the trans and tc in, well it went back to being a Spirit

[carnuck]

I am converting my Spirit to an SX4. The front frame has holes drilled and tapped for both the Eagle and Spirit crossmembers. The only difference is the floor pan. I absolutely love the Spirit GT armrest and gauge cluster, so it is worthwhile to convert a Spirit. The gauge cluster cannot fit an Eagle because the Eagle floor pan has a small hump in it in front of the shifter. That brings the whole ridge up a half inch. That space is needed for an automatic shift linkage, but I won't need it because it will be a manual transmission. A Lokar shifter would also have the clearence if I wanted to make it an Automatic. When I do the conversion I am retaining the center of the floor pan and cutting out on either side of the hump. Once the transfer case is in place I will fabricate a new hump around it. I will install the drivetrain before fabricating anything since the engine is also offset to the passenger side on Eagles, but centered on a Spirit.

You could splice in a Eagle floor pan. It is not as easy as that sounds. The Eagle has support rails that connect to the rocker panels. The Spirit is missing these, and it will complicate the work alot. I'm doing the conversion because I love the Spirit armrest, so thats another reason I would never switch floorpans.

The seats and seat frames are the same between Spirits and Eagles. The difference is the two floor mounts that attach to the floorpan and the bottom of the seat frame with two half inch nuts. The inner floor mount on the Eagle is shorter because it sits on the hump.

I want to eventually buy a 1979 AMX and bring over the armrest, dash overlays, and front AMX grille. If I get good enough at fabricating I will also mimic the AMX fender flares on my "Eagle AMX."

-Dave Spillane-

That is why I planned on using XJ trans and tcase (or Toyota if I could find a newer married unit with LH drop) because they are narrower than the Eagle setup. I was also going to do the spacer between frame and engine crossbar to lower that away from the body and allow a little more room for the trans/tcase.