how many Eagles does it take?

[jim]

I've been having a problem with the 83 with the new motor.
This morning on the way to work the 88 quit.  I was driving along nicely about 40 or so and it just was no longer running.  Luckily I hit a spot of light traffic and had enough momentum to coast across a lane, up a hill and into the parking lot of a deserted store.  My wife picked me up and took me to work.

I couldn't get it to start.  It turned over great.  Once in a while it would start but would die immediately.
A man in a mechanic uniform walked by and stopped.  He saw me trying to start it and said it's getting gas.  He then said he worked at a shop around the corner and let them know if I needed them.

They said they would look at it right away.  As I was leaving I saw the original man and one who was supposed to know carbs and vacuum were walking toward my Eagle.

When I came back after work the mechanic was gone for the day.  The original man said he said (don't you love that?)
it was the ignition module.  The boss said they would look at it tomorrow and let me know what they find.

I replaced the ignition module soon after getting this Eagle, but it was several years ago.  I know they can go bad, especially replacement modules.

I'm not a happy Eagle owner at this time.   I have invested literally thousands of dollars in these things.

[eaglefreek]

Sorry to hear. I was going to suggest ignition module also. I had one go bad after only a few months. Put in an MSD and never looked back.

[BenM]

See if you can find genuine Motorcraft parts, the quality has been better for me then in aftermarket ignition parts.

[83Eagle!]

I am sorry to hear about the troubles.  I definitely hear your pain.  I have spent a ton of money on my Eagle.  Seems everytime I get ready to do an upgrade something else breaks down on it.

[eaglefreek]

I am sorry to hear about the troubles.  I definitely hear your pain.  I have spent a ton of money on my Eagle.  Seems everytime I get ready to do an upgrade something else breaks down on it.

Our Eagles are 23-30 years old. I have friends with much newer cars and hear what they are spending to fix them. A friend has a 2000 Excursion with only 130k miles and he has spent several thousand dollars fixing it in the last few months. I could have bought a few Eagles for the same money.  Another has a 08 Honda Civic Hybrid with 100k miles. It's been eating left rear tires since new and they keep telling him there is nothing wrong. He's had a rear control arm break while driving, a wheel bearing fail and now he needs a new catalytic converter for $1,500. Every time I hear these stories I love my Eagle even more. I've spent some time and money on my Eagle but it is extremely reliable. I wouldn't hesitate to get into it and drive to Alaska, as long as I didn't have to pay for the gas.

[Bird-o-Prey]

I switched to a GM HEI distrbutor (after cutting the computer out of things on a TFI upgrade) and made some extra room on my inner fender.  Works like a hot darn now!

[maddog]

Our Eagles are 23-30 years old. I have friends with much newer cars and hear what they are spending to fix them. A friend has a 2000 Excursion with only 130k miles and he has spent several thousand dollars fixing it in the last few months. I could have bought a few Eagles for the same money.  Another has a 08 Honda Civic Hybrid with 100k miles. It's been eating left rear tires since new and they keep telling him there is nothing wrong. He's had a rear control arm break while driving, a wheel bearing fail and now he needs a new catalytic converter for $1,500. Every time I hear these stories I love my Eagle even more. I've spent some time and money on my Eagle but it is extremely reliable. I wouldn't hesitate to get into it and drive to Alaska, as long as I didn't have to pay for the gas.

i was at the parts store the other day pricing some parts and a guy called in looking for plugs for a Audi A6 Quattro and it was almost $200 for the plugs alone.

[IowaEagle]

I hope that is all it is Jim.  Yeah, the joys any old car are tempered occasionally by issues like this.

[thereverendbill]

Jim, if you want I can send ya the box I took off my wagon when I did the hei.  Lemmie know if your interested

[jim]

I plan to talk to the mechanic again before I make a decision.

I found my paperwork.  I bought this module from Advance  38 months ago.  It has a limited lifetime replacement warranty, whatever that means.  I paid $22 for it.  Now Advance's web site shows them out of stock.  NAPA has one for $119.  Rockauto shows 2  -  $65 and $80.

[IowaEagle]

Will they honor the warranty with a better one Jim?  I think the warranty kind of says you get one free replacement.

[AMCKen]

I switched to a GM HEI distrbutor (after cutting the computer out of things on a TFI upgrade) and made some extra room on my inner fender.  Works like a hot darn now!

GMs can fail also. In my years of AMC driving I've had just 2 pickup coils fail - 1 in a 79 Concord and 1 in an 81 SX4. The fender modules are still fine.   

[jim]

I picked up the Eagle after work today.  They scanned the engine and charged me $124 to replace the spark plugs.  Embarrassing.  However, I'm not sure that is all that was wrong.  It stalled one time on the way home.  Temp was about 90, ac running, and when I turned a corner it quit.  This time it did start right back up.  The sol vac evidently isn't working.  I've noticed a little vibration somewhere when idling with the ac running.  I bumped the idle 1/2 turn; it didn't even register on the inaccurate aftermarket tach, but the engine seemed to smooth out.
I'm going to drive it a few days and see what happens.
We're expecting our third severe storm in little over a week tonight and rain the rest of the week.  We're going to my Mother's for Easter.   I won't be doing anything Eagle not emergency related the rest of this week.

[BenM]

Heat can hurt the ignition module, and the ignition coil. A coil going bad can give you the symptoms you're talking about.

[MudPuppy]

No worries Jim. I too had an embarrassing moment with my Eagle as well. I have let it sit for a few months since it wouldn't start and the steering was "jittery". Jumped it but it wouldn't start. So just let it sit all this time. Finally today decided to pull the battery and get it tested (less than 3 y/o battery mind you and solenoid was changed out not to long ago too).
Battery was toast (luckily still under free replacement warranty), got new battery and she fired right up. And no "jittery" steering either, must have been some moisture in the lines that had frozen up causing that to happen a few months ago. I didn't even renew the tags on it in February due to these problems, since I wasn't going to be driving it anyways. And it had been too cold to mess with it much for awhile, then here lately all the darn rain and storms :/

Anyways, you're not alone in those embarrassing moments  

Stay safe during this storm, hope it doesn't get too nasty.
I hopefully have everything battened down.
Looks like that Mena/Scott storm might hit us   . It did last week as well but luckily weakened alot by the time it hit, did knock some peoples tree's down here. My mom had a big tree hit her Saturn, luckily some not-so-bad dents but it did sheer her side mirror off.