Hey everyone. I got my 85 eagle wagon last spring, after wanting to find one for years. I want to preface this post by saying that in the past I have had zero mechanical experience but the eagle has inspired me to start learning, I have the good fortune of having a mechanic brother who is happy to help me learn to a certain extent. This website has helped me so much in slowly becoming adequate at vehicle lingo and know-how, so thanks to everyone who has contributed. Because I was able to get such a great deal on it and I feel like it has a lot of life left in it I can afford to put some more money into it. I bought it for $400, I think I may have almost $1500 into it by now. I was hoping you guys could point me in the right direction of what are the smartest components/systems to upgrade/replace. I am hoping to increase it's performance/make it a more reliable driver. Here is some more background on the vehicle. It has 180,000ish kms on it, the shop told me that on the compression test it had 5 cylinders firing at 145 and 1 of them was lower at 125. Most mechanics that have taken a look at it are impressed by how well it sounds and fires up.
What I have fixed or replaced:
-New starter(bought the car with a broken one)
-aftermarket alum. valve cover(classic oil mess)
-replaced all belts
- new IM(stalling problems and broken wires in the old one)
-front right outer tie rod(old one was almost gone)
-accelerator cable(old one broke on me)
-Stereo Deck(previous aftermarket one never worked)
-it looks like the previous owner had a new exhaust pipe/system installed recently
What needs repair/What I have planned:
-I have a rear main seal leak I plan to do this spring, I'll end up doing the oil pan gasket while I've got it off.(I am going through more oil than I like to admit, I am leaving oil spots wherever I park, and the burning oil smell from the exhaust pipe is awful)
-I would like to do the MIU upgrade(this sounds like a no-brainer after rereading the guide, one question I have about it, I've read that people have had their pertronix coils die within a few months of doing this upgrade, can anyone tell me why this happens? Is the pertronix coil the only coil that delivers 40,000V? any certain things I need to make sure I do so that it doesn't get worn out?
-It sounds like Gronk's carb upgrade will deliver better performance(I've already spent a couple hundred dollars getting a shop to try and tune my carter carb/figure out why it's stalling and I'm still not all that happy with how it's performing(stalling is nearly all gone since new IM))
-I have some rust starting to form on the exterior(one grapefruit-sized spot on the door, lots of small rust spots in various places around the doors, hatch, hood, fender panels. I am planning to buff out the rust and spray with some sort of rust-inhibitor. I should make sure I don't have water leaks that will cause further rust so with this step i should probably fix the sagging drivers door and replace any worn(or all?) weatherstripping. I'd like to take care of the rust before it becomes a bigger problem in the future. Winters in Canada are hard on a car.
-Windshield washer system isn't functioning. Both pumps are covered in rust, probably need to be replaced, possibly new wiring and/or fuse. Going to need this for winter highway driving next winter. with some troubleshooting I'm sure i can get it going.
-Hatch window defroster.(the wire you see when you open the hatch that powers the window defroster has worn and broken in half. I'm not sure what the steps are to repairing this break, the wire itself looks old and should probably be replaced.
-After replacing my tie rod the shop told me that they couldn't get the car aligned as well as they wanted to, probably due to some bent or old component in the front end(no idea what, I can post the specifics of the alignment if anyone is interested in those details)
-*noob alert on this point* There is a small silver canister attached to the air filter, I don't know what to call it. Occasionally I get a knocking sound that seems to come from there, it will continuously emit a knocking/ticking sound and then go away, usually when I am idling. I also get a lot of blow-by, my air filter is always coated in oil on the inside. If I go with the air filter that Gronk offers with his carb I should address my current oily air filter problem and this knocking canister first? or no?
-There are a lot of things I could do to the interior(ripped door panels, torn seats, gross carpet full of holes and tears in drivers and passengers feet, saggy headliner, missing A-pillar panels. I don't want to go down this road until I'm satisfied that the mechanics of the car are taken care of.
-I have dreamed of doing a modest lift to get a beefier tire for snowy/bumpy roads, I just don't know where to start to learn about the suspension system and how much something like that would even cost/how much work is involved. This point is mostly wishful thinking although I thought that during this process I might find what mystery component is throwing off my alignment.
If you made it through all of that thanks for reading! If you have any knowledge or experience with anything I asked about I am very appreciative for any help. I know there will probably be other posts with information pertaining to what I've written here but I have been searching and learning for a while on this website and I wanted to try and get everything out of my head and organized into a post. If there is another post somewhere that explains something a link would be very helpful. I know I am more ignorant than not when it comes to this type of knowledge so if anybody can tell me if I'm way off with what I've written I'm happy to be corrected. If I have totally ignored a system of the car that should have a good look over please let me know. If there is interest I'll post photos of what I'm dealing with. thanks again to anybody who cares about my car!
Topic: The Eagle, a labor of love (Read 3057 times)