the flight of kiyreagle

[68AMXGOPAC]

WOW, you all are sure going through every bit of problems that could happen.Hats off to you !!That is alot of frustrating and hard work.I did all the brakes on my wagon when I first got it,front and rear, and the shocks.I ended up just getting the rear brake springs kit,and replaced all the harware,along with the shoes. I also replaced the E-brake cables, front to rear complete.Most of mine was missing, so I had to even find the piece where the front cable ties into the "T" metal piece that attatches to each cable that goes to each side.I found that at an online Rambler link, I think we have here on the nest....
Good luck , I am hoping your repair venture ends soon, and you get to enjoy it more times, than fixing.

[68AMXGOPAC]

I think if you got in a jam, those hanger bolts,can be made up out of threaded rod in a pinch.  I might have a set from a prts car, but it was an SX/4,not sure if they would fit.  Can someone comment on that?? If they would fit?

[pradtf]

Did you find the leak(s) Prad?

not yet - we haven't looked since we've been very busy with all the other things.
i was originally thinking of trashing the gas tank, but now we're thinking of one of the following:

a) find and fix the leak, then see if someone on the nest can use it. the trouble is that it is pretty rusty so i don't know if this is a useful exercise.
b) keeping it and cutting it up so we have some free sheet metal. parts of the tank are bound to be ok.

we didn't put the front stone shield on because we don't see such a thing on any of the other vehicles here, so i imagine that just provides extra protection when going off-road, which is not something we plan on doing. we cleaned it up so though it is rusty it may be useful or we may just use it as sheet metal.

[pradtf]

WOW, you all are sure going through every bit of problems that could happen.Hats off to you !!

thank you very much 68amxgopac! since we don't like to drive, i guess this is one of the ways we can certainly enjoy the car

we've been lucky with the weather the past 3 days too - the rain in fact held out for us right till the evening when we put everything together and the car started without any complaints!

then we noticed there was gasoline leaking - not from the new tank, of course, but from the old return fuel line. we can replace the whole thing, but it is pretty close to the hose that connects to the tank, so i think we'll just cut the line and put in a longer hose. i don't know if these lines should be flared in anyway or whether just a screw-on band clamp (don't know the technical name for them) would suffice.

our brakes all work nicely now though the main parking cable sticks. we had some problems bleeding the rear brakes because the bleeders from the brake cylinders were of different sizes which we found to be very strange considering the cylinders are simply mirror images of one another. it took us a while to figure out that our bleeder hose wasn't going to fit 

what we are finding is that we aren't too bad at recognizing problems and figuring out solutions. however, our methodology and technique need  improvement, because we are inefficient at noticing certain things right now. i guess that improvement will come with more experience.

[pradtf]

I think if you got in a jam, those hanger bolts,can be made up out of threaded rod in a pinch.  I might have a set from a prts car, but it was an SX/4,not sure if they would fit.  Can someone comment on that?? If they would fit?

that is very kind of you to consider this!
however, we have managed to solve the problem by with a die. it was the first time i used one and i must say this is a very enjoyable experience. new nuts turn effortlessly now. we cleaned up and oiled the bolts too so they actually look pretty nice now too.

we also added about 10 washers on each bar so that the nut is within reach of a socket and we won't have to use a wrench to get at them anymore.

should the nuts be 'locked' somehow eg should they be lock nuts or have a lock washer or even use locktight? i was thinking of putting a second nut under the top one as security.

[pradtf]

Oh, hey, if you don't want that skid plate I'll happily take it off your hands! Since I do tend to off road Pepper now and then, it would make sense to give her some kind of protection (a welcome change of pace for the ol' girl).

fantastic! it's all yours!! i mean it's pepper's 
email me for a time when you can be around.

[68AMXGOPAC]

Lock washers would be acceptable, if you thought it might come loose.I usually add them just in case.

 Your comment about not driving much,and getting to enjoy the Eagle by working on it is priceless .

[pradtf]

Lock washers would be acceptable, if you thought it might come loose.I usually add them just in case.

thx 68amxgopac! we'll do that.

we just solved the steering problem last night ... well actually this morning at about 2am after spending a couple of hours figuring out how to get the pitman arm off and then several more putting the new one on.

it was actually lucky that kyron figured out from the motion of the pitman arm that it would likely be the source of the problem because the tsm is a bit vague (for newbies anyway) about this. point #3 in their diagnosis has a sentence about checking the steering linkage which could involve a lot of components, but he noticed a horizontal slide in the pitman arm.

most of our woes, advice received and solutions are described here:
http://forums.amceaglenest.com/index.php?topic=24041.0

the experience was a multi-instructive one (eg we learned how to load and use a grease gun) because the difficulty putting the arm on was due to the very low tolerances involved in the fit. we were able to use a bit of brute force to get the old one out, but that was because it was slightly worn. it would not have been wise to force the new one in because we'd have likely damaged something. neither the tsm nor anything on the web mentioned the idea of going after the tie-rod on the drivers side though this was really the most logical avenue of dealing with the situation - i think we were reluctant to doing so because

a) it wasn't in the tsm
b) it wasn't on the web anywhere
c) mostly because we were frightened by the prospect of tackling yet another rusty nut, bolt and formidable cotter pin (in fact, as i pulled on the cotter pin i managed to cause the wheels to come towards me  )

the way we got the pin out was to use an awl through the loop end (since pliers just couldn't hold on) and making enough room to get a small punch in to work it some more. then eventually we got a larger punch in there since the thinner one was bending.

the other problem we encountered had been with getting the old pitman arm out - the pitman puller worked fine at the steering box end, but the other end is cone-shaped too so it sticks in pretty strongly. apparently there is a tool that looks like a two-pronged fork with both tines shaped like wedges which you can hammer in, but we didn't have one, so we stuck in 2 chisels and hammered alternately on them.

we took kiyreagle out this afternoon and the steering is excellent and very responsive! the wheel is a bit off-center, but that should likely be a simple fix possibly related to the tie-rods adjustment which would likely align the steering system more optimally.

[68AMXGOPAC]

CONGRATS !! Sounds like you have it fixed. I think you deserve an omlet, let alone an egg! It is alot of hard work.

[pradtf]

CONGRATS !! Sounds like you have it fixed. I think you deserve an omlet, let alone an egg! It is alot of hard work.

thx again 68amxgopac!
as you know by now, right after the steering issue was solved the clutch cylinder started leaking. we've ordered from autozone since there isn't anything in canada.

and, just so we don't get bored, the started relay ceased to function today. we were able to get the starter to function bypassing the relay which is why we think that is the problem. the curious thing was it all started just fine last night. i didn't think it would conk out suddenly like that, but i guess this is the way they go.

[IowaEagle]

I was going to say check your neutral safety wire connetion, but you don't have one with a manual trans car.  But, yes, they can just conk out all off a sudden like that.  I had one do that in a Wal Mart parking lot and had to do the bypass to drive over to the parts store for a new one.

[pradtf]

had to do the bypass to drive over to the parts store for a new one.

so how safe is it to bypass the connection with a couple of screwdrivers?
is this one way of hotwiring a car?

[IowaEagle]

It is fairly safe to bypass it for starting reasons -- just watch the sparks.  I use non-insulated plier handles.   Hot wiring a car differs among different types of cars.   And, for several reasons I am not going to share publicly how to hot wire an AMC Eagle.

[pradtf]

as you know by now, right after the steering issue was solved the clutch cylinder started leaking. we've ordered from autozone since there isn't anything in canada.

the clutch cylinder arrived today and i must say i'm really very impressed with autozone. starting from placing the order with a very efficient adrian mejia to working with special order problem solver kevin pore to getting the item within a week and a half! because this wasn't a standard stock item, kevin had to get involved. we kept in communication (kevin is really excellent!) as the order made it to them - and then he and his colleague called me on the day it was to be shipped to sort out a postal problem which they resolved by sending the package out via fedex (with no additional charges!). they emailed me a tracking number. as if this wasn't enough, another of their people called to let me know that the thing was on its way and gave me the eta (one day delivery, believe it or not!) as well as double-checking the tracking number.

the service is simply superb!

i'm definitely getting more stuff from autozone!!

we installed it, but haven't had a chance to test things just yet because it got dark - we'll try it out tomorrow.

[IowaEagle]

Its not often we hear of good auto parts store stories.  Thanks for that one Prad.