The SX/4 money pit

[IowaEagle]

Getting Closer and Closer.  Soon you will be following Tom (OntarioEagler) around on his journeys.

[OntarioEagler]

Hey!  Great idea, IowaEagle!

Having a mechanic like Smitty close by would sure remove a lot of my anxiety while travelling around our great countries and hearing new noises!

Great that you have the SX/4 money pit back on the road, Smitty.

OntarioEagler

[BigChief]

Maybe we can do a "convoy" style trip one year!

[Smitty]

Thanks for the support and kind words.  A convoy sounds like fun!  Where we going?

After having time to reflect on things, the lack of pep compared to the wagon may be a factor of gearing.  The wagon has 2.73 gears and the SX/$ has 2.2? somethings.  Combine that with the 904 tranny higher first gear and it will make for less torque multiplication, hence less giddy-up.

Things I know I have to do yet:
Finish hooking up vacuum lines that I intend to keep
There are three sensors on the intake manifold not hooked up cause I can't find the wires for them
Put skid plates back on
Bleed the brakes a little more
install new tailpipe (the rest of the exhaust is all new)
Recharge AC
Remove carpet and coat floor with POR15
Install new carpet
Find out why tach does not work and fix
Reinstall guage pod
Replace drivers fender (have replacement)
Redo pinstripes
Repaint headlight doors
Find out why fog lights don't work and fix
Recheck tightness of all bolts and nuts

I am sure there will be more.  Hey, the car is 24 years old.  Show me a 24 year old car that doesn't need something

A few pics:

I thought I had this great idea for throttle linkage and wasted 2 days trying to make it work (stubborn).  Anyway, today it broke before I got it out of the garage so I just made two pieces of flat stock to convert the down pull linkage to a rear pull.  Works great.  I could have been driving this at least a day earlier if I had not been so stubborn .  But, I will make it work eventually just to prove it to myself!!



The drivers side suspension with new shock, brake lines, ball joints and halfshaft.  Each side took about a day and 3 or 4 bruises.


The tedious part.  Making sure all the little pieces are in, tight and working.


My companion for the week.  Actually I think he just liked being in front of the pellet stove   I thought I smelled his fur burning.

[IowaEagle]

Thanks for the pix.  I thought you had a new kind of suspension part then it dawned on me it was you shop light.

[Smitty]

Haha, yep, I am joining the neon crowd but I can't figure out how to keep the cord attached .  That light was a great deal from Harbor freight.  It takes a lot of abuse and works well in tight spaces.  BTW, the master cylinder was new 3 months ago but some spilled brake fluid took the paint off.  Right now I am just trying to get everything working and then will purdy it up when I feel like it.  This car is to be my driver so it has to look presentable but not be a show car.

[BigChief]

Definately diggin the dog in the "shop"!   AND the holley, which model is it?  We had huge issues hooking up a similar carb on a slant six a fwe years ago! My friend was so "stubborn" we wound up yankin the six and installing a 440(still don't now how we got there!).

[OntarioEagler]

Convoy suggestion is a great one! 

How about getting down to visit Gil next winter? 

Do part of Route 66 to get some kicks?

It would be good if we could route through as many Eagle Nests as possible.

Maybe people could jump onto and off of the convoy as time permits.

Entry fee would be some libation for Gil!  (and a donation to the AMC Eagle Nest)

It would be great if we could have some good mechanics along!

Good photographers too.

And amceaglenest administrators to keep the flow going to the Forum.

I think it would be a lot of fun!

Maybe we should start a new topic:
 
Convoy of Eagles?
Flock of Eagles?
Winter Migration of Eagles?

OntarioEagler

[IowaEagle]

But then we would all have to find OE CB units for our Eagles.

Or at least mini convoys -- or maybe some kind of relay thing.  You know something from the East Coast relayed to somewhere far, far away.

[Gil-SX4]

If only the dog could talke.

[OntarioEagler]

Yeah, some sort of mini - relay - convoy might work.   If in the winter we gotta go south.  Maybe North in the summer.

CBs or those Cobra type walkie-talkies.

We could bring our dogs along for company.
Eaglers without dogs could bring along spouses or equivalent.
No nagging or chore assignments permitted.  Hostessing encouraged.

Gil, the reason that dogs are "Mans best friend" is because they don't rat on their owners!

OntarioEagler

[Gil-SX4]

Hey all I need to do is get him to hang out at the bars with me for a while and he will be singing like a canary on caffein.
Aske Iowa Eagle why he got read of his dog. He sure turn up to be a good parts retriver, knew every place IowaEagle stash his AMC Eagle parts.

[BigChief]

We do a 66 cruise every year wuth our 66 club. They are the reason IL has posted historic 66 markers along all alingments of IL66.
First full weekend of june usually 60-70 cars/groups. First full weekend in june(also our aniversary) This year it starts in St Louis and ends in Chicago. (BTW...Which model holley???)

[OntarioEagler]

Dogs singing like canaries

IE, remind me to keep my big fluffies away from Gil, if and when I ever get down to El Paso!
Hard to imagine those brutes singing, never mind like a canary, more like a coyote!

OntarioEagler

[Smitty]

I am planning to do a better write up and parts listing with prices.  I think I will cry when I see the total though   The Holley is the 390 four barrell on an adapter.  The carb and billet air cleaner came from Summit.  I have the slip in the garage with info on the adapter but I plan to list all the parts to date and the source.  Of course, I also ran the car into the garage for a week in September to change the engine and 4 months later finally got to back it out so who knows how long it will take me to do a parts listing

The dog, Ben, sings like a canary now   He was neutered as a pup   Skeezix has had him for almost nine years and he loves to ride.  Goes to the dump every weekend. haha  For our own peace he always wears his bark collar when he is outside.

I have to run the J10 into the garage to put in plugs etc so it may be next week before I start on the rest of the items on the money pit.  I do need to adjust the choke for better cold starts as it ran sluggish this morning.  The choke is closed too much and I have yet to set the float level or mixture screws.  Oh, another thing that might contribute to a lack of pep compared to the wagon is the tires.  The size is a little larger than stock that makes it act like a 2.0 gearing.  Not good for drag racing

If I get a chance during lunch at work tomorrow I will add some more pics and maybe start the parts listing.