Summer Job!

[Baskinator]

Thanks. It's taken care of, Dave ordered the right part for me and said they should have it in tomorrow. Now I don't have to worry about it anymore.

[Prafeston]

Can't wait for you to have everything all finished up so you can start driving this thing! You've done great so far.

[Baskinator]

If everything goes as planned (it never does ), the trans cooler lines will be installed, rear u-joint replaced and drive shafts put back in, trans fluid filled, kickdown linkage replaced, and brakes finished bleeding. It should be driveable at that point.

I may even be able to buy my new tires and wheels from Dave and give the wheels a decent paint job.

[Baskinator]

Got a lot done this past weekend.

New wheels and tires:


Before


During




After



Battery tray and mounting plate both wire wheeled and painted with epoxy paint, and I installed a new starter solenoid. All bolts were applied with never-seize and all connections applied with generous amounts of dielectric grease. Also got one shock mount off and painted, as well as my other new spring perch.

I installed the new transmission cooler lines, put both drive shafts back in, tightened and filled the trans pan, and finally got that (kind of) new rear u-joint in. After a solid three months, I was able to start her for the first time. Unfortunately, that's as far as I got because of time constraints. When I'm home for Thanksgiving break, it may be the start of welding.

Casper- we used that Precision #455 joint for the rear and it had the same problem as the other one with clips I bought. The grooves were slightly wider than my old joint and didn't allow the clips to fit into the yoke. Ended up cleaning off my old caps and just slipping them on the new joint. It worked fine and they are still in decent shape.

Question: When I started the car and went to shift through the gears, the car died in neutral with my foot on the brake. I adjusted the idle speed and tried again. This time, it idled very high and dropped about half the rpms in neutral, but stayed running. About 30 seconds later, the car started smoking real bad. I shifted back into park, as the engine seemed to be picking up the idle speed, and shut the car off quick. When I looked under the car, the smoke was pouring out of the bell housing. My cooler lines leaked a little bit in one spot, but not enough for me to think they were the problem. The trans pan had at least a gallon of fluid in it as well.

I read this could be due to the torque converter locking up when it shouldn't, or maybe the transfer case was in neutral. Any ideas?

[Baskinator]

This Thanksgiving, I was extremely thankful for air tools(among others)! It was a very productive break, and I WAS FINALLY ABLE TO DRIVE MY EAGLE AFTER NEARLY SIX MONTHS!!! 

Of course, I have a lot of adjusting to do (throttle rod linkage, shift linkage and carb idle are way off), but I feel like the trans is going to be quite manageable without a rebuild (yet). I also have to lock the front axle in 4wheel, forgot about this and only switched the transfer case. In fact, a couple minutes after I started driving the car, my rear tires sunk into the mud in the back yard and just spun . I switched to what I thought was 4wheel and it got out, but I don't actually think the front wheels pulled at all. I proceeded to drive for about 15 minutes with no problem.

I also finished installing the new coil springs, spring seats, shocks, and getting everything around there cleaned,  painted and undercoated nicely. I'm working on getting my pictures of the completed job since I left my camera at home.
Before (passenger) with rusted through spring seat:

 
There was literally no back half of the spring seat left by the time I got it out. Forgot to get a pic (D'oh!).

During (passenger), stripping upper control arm and painting:







Also put in a new temperature sensor:


I have so many more things I want to do right now, the wheels are really turning in my head! I have about $250 in steering parts I need now, including tie rods, ball joints, and sway bar links. When I can afford those, I'll probably tear down the rest of that stuff and paint it all. Maybe I'll even tear down the crossmember and paint that, along with my engine oil pan. Now I'm just getting carried away

I'll post pictures of the driver side and finished products as soon as I get them. There are many more pictures on my Photobucket album right now. The other side I decided to coat with cold galvanizing compound before topcoat and undercoat. Hopefully it will hold up well, that stuff made it look so clean under there!.

[Baskinator]

Thanks. I really do want to paint and coat everything I possibly can to keep it from rusting any further. I'll test out the 4wheel next time I can, after I get a chance to adjust the linkages and lock the front axle.

Here are a couple more pics of the driver side. Wire wheeled it down and coated with galvanizing compound, then decided to coat what's left of the rockers and floor areas.






My new painted springs, shocks, perches, and control arms:

Passenger


Driver


The undercoat makes it look brown instead of black, but it's still way better. Some of that on the springs was still wet.

[Baskinator]

My car now starts, idles, and shifts correctly, thanks to Dave He replaced a bunch of wires going to the starter solenoid which came loose inside, preventing any electricity from coming from the battery or starting the car. He also gave me a different choke horn for my carburetor, since the arm on mine was frozen, then adjusted the carb with me in the car. We also set out to adjust the shift linkage, which still needs a new bushing, and he got it set up correctly after a while.

I locked in the front axle with a hose clamp, and prepped the vacuum motor and skid plate for painting. I have a ton of parts on the way, and I have my work cut out for me over winter break. Can't wait!

Eagle and Scout hangin' out.

[Prafeston]

You're moving right along man. That Scout looks sweet too. Yours...or your buddies?

[Baskinator]

Thanks guys. That's Dave's new 1980 turbo diesel SD33T Scout (captspillane on here). He owns about 15 or so Eagles and has been helping me with mine for the past few months. He's got the "Perkiomen Eagle Sanctuary" here in Eastern PA

I should be working on the rust this winter. I was thinking of having some large braces made for the subframe, then bolting/welding them in on both sides (with as much rust removed as possible), and painting over all of it with Rust Bullet or something similar so that nothing should ever get in there again.

[Baskinator]

Haven't had internet all week, so I figured I'd update what I've done on the Eagle since I've been home for winter break.

- Removed the seats, inside panels and carpet to inspect for further rust
- Painted the rear hatch area with 2 coats of Rust Bullet Auto paint
- Cleaned the starter and installed new brushes
- Installed new strut rod bushings
- Installed new sway bar links
- Installed and greased new upper and lower ball joints
- Reattached and adjusted the throttle linkage
- Put a new bushing on the shift linkage
- Started to drill out the sheared bolt on the trans crossmember
- Expanded my muffler and put it on temporarily, working on the hangers
- Installed a new ignition coil for the heck of it
- Put in all new marker and rear light bulbs
- Greased the ash tray tracks (I'm particularly proud of this job  )
- Started to prep for welding

I still have to install my tie rods and a few other parts. I'm really getting a move on it while I have the time at home.

Strut rod bushings


Sway bar links


Hatch floor before


Hatch floor after


There are a whole lot more photos on my photobucket album.

[Baskinator]

Good idea, just changed it. The link is on the first page of this thread also, but i hardly ever look that far back either.

Pertaining to the family, they are very lenient and usually don't see me when I'm working on this lol But I try to make time for them. Took the past couple days off for the holiday haha. Since I have no job at home, I have plenty of time during break from school.

 My brother will probably be doing the welding for me, since I don't have any welding experience or a welder (yet). I have acquired a ton of tools over the course of this project, just not one of those.

[priya]

I think you've got that left hand washer on backwards for the strut rod bushing.

[Baskinator]

I wasn't sure if it was on correct or not, but the washer and bushings are one assembly. So it cannot be flipped around without flipping the bushing, and that wouldn't make sense.

[priya]

Okay, sorry I got it wrong.

[Baskinator]

No problem, thanks for the input. I was wondering why it was like that myself.