finally got photos

[maddog]

yeah I won't lie it was a little on the scary side seeing that truck come over into my lane like that.

[maddog]

well the odometer in Eagle Eyes has finally turned over so I now have an Eagle that says it has less than a hundred miles on it.

[vangremlin]

well the odometer in Eagle Eyes has finally turned over so I now have an Eagle that says it has less than a hundred miles on it.

I'd get that thing up on eBay as quickly as you can, label it a "barn find," you'll probably make lots of money 

[maddog]

well the odometer in Eagle Eyes has finally turned over so I now have an Eagle that says it has less than a hundred miles on it.

I'd get that thing up on eBay as quickly as you can, label it a "barn find," you'll probably make lots of money 

yeah I would have a very hard time getting anyone to believe my car has less than one hundred miles on it with the shape it's in. Now if it looked like one of yours I might be able pull it off.

[maddog]

well today I installed a third brake light on Eagle Eyes from a 98 or so suburban I got it to work but I need to make a couple of brackets to drop it down far enough to clear the hatch.

[maddog]

well I finally got some pictures of the third brake light. The brackets in the pictures are only temporary until I can make some better ones.

[vangremlin]

Looks good, really looks nice when its lit up!

[maddog]

thanks vangrimlin I was happy it turned out as well as it did. Eventually I hope to move it to the hatch on a set of pivoting brackets I just haven't figured out all the design details for them yet.

[maddog]

So I decided to rebuild the front end on Eagle Eyes since I'm working on building a stroker motor for and found out while tearing it apart that 1. I really hate spring compressors (those things are scary), and 2. That one of the lower ball joints I replaced in 2013 has decided it like moving a little more freely. I also found that both of my outer tie rods have torn boots but still feel tight. So I was wondering if anyone might know of some good replacement ones for them, as I have not had good luck finding good ones for my S10, much less for a car hasn't been made for almost 40 years.

[89 MJ]

I think RareParts is the only source for lower ball joints. The outer tie rods, I would just look for something made in USA. I just noticed that you and I have the same color scheme on our wagons, mine is just an 86. Cool to see a first year car and a car near the end of the run that look similar.

[vangremlin]

Are you looking for lower ball joints, outer tie rods, or both?  A guy just came up with an improved solution for the lower ball joints, he sells a plate to attach to the control arm and you use Jaguar ball joints.  I think the outer tie rods are relatively easy to find.

He is making and selling the plates he talks about in the video, the link to his website is below.

https://youtu.be/CEIfWU6lXBg?si=ECSkUgnQVAKNA9lM

https://www.theeaglestore.com/

[maddog]

Are you looking for lower ball joints, outer tie rods, or both?  A guy just came up with an improved solution for the lower ball joints, he sells a plate to attach to the control arm and you use Jaguar ball joints.  I think the outer tie rods are relatively easy to find.

He is making and selling the plates he talks about in the video, the link to his website is below.

https://youtu.be/CEIfWU6lXBg?si=ECSkUgnQVAKNA9lM

https://www.theeaglestore.com/

I have actually already been talking to him about the lower ball joints, but I really don't want to replace the tie rods if they don't need to be replaced, I'm just looking to do the boots as that's all that's wrong with them.

I think RareParts is the only source for lower ball joints. The outer tie rods, I would just look for something made in USA. I just noticed that you and I have the same color scheme on our wagons, mine is just an 86. Cool to see a first year car and a car near the end of the run that look similar.

Yeah I haven't seen too many silver and maroon Eagles. And honestly Rare Parts wants way too much money for those ball joints.

[maddog]

So I got my driver's side front suspension taken apart and I found that the lower control arm is missing the steering stop and has a small dent in it. So now I'm wondering if I need to get another driver side lower control arm.

[maddog]

So I found that I needed to replace the rag joint in Eagle Eyes and when I went online to look for one I couldn't find any. Well I decided to see what other vehicles used the same steering box as my Eagle does and found that I have the exact same steering box as a 1988 Chevy Camaro and I decided I would try the rag joint for one of them and I found out that the Camaro uses the Lares 200 rag joint. I looked up the price at the parts store and it was over $50, summit on the other hand had it for more than half that. Well it got here the other day and I tried it out on the steering box and the piece that it attaches to on the steering shaft and it bolted right to both. I will note that this rag joint is listed as a replacement part for other AMCs like the AMX and Javelin but not for our Eagles.

[89 MJ]

That is good to know.