Rich's 83 Eagle Wagon Project

[recomer]

Couple updates. Weatherstripping on rear hatch seems to be adjusting and gate is easier to close now. Got my new tires in Friday. The Kelly Safari Trex's were out of stock and they had no clue as to when they'd be able to get them so I opted to go with some General Altimax RT's sized 215/70-15. Still got a good price on them and they are a good looking tire with good specs. Had them and the Cherokee Wheels installed today (Picture below). Only had one issue. When pulling the car out of the bay, it made a thumping noise. It went right back up on the lift and we figured out the weights on the drivers front tire were scraping against the caliper. Not sure how that happened (passenger side was no problem. So weights were pull, tire rebalanced and no issues second time around. There is some flare scraping going on on the passenger side when turning wheel all the way to left, so I see I might have to trim slightly up there. While I still need to do a good scrubbing on the wheels, definitely makes an improvement over the stock wheels and hubcaps

[shanebo]

Those rims look good...I really like those old style cherokee rims...You should have your cross bars for the roof rack in a week or so 

[recomer]

Those rims look good...I really like those old style cherokee rims...You should have your cross bars for the roof rack in a week or so 

Thanks on both. I screened a lot of Eagle photos looking for just the right look with the wheels. These gave me the look I wanted.

[recomer]

A big thanks and an Egg to Shanebo for the luggage rack cross bars. Just got them in and installed. The roof just looked naked having the rack without the bars.

Before:




After:

[eaglefreek]

Looking good! I'm on the lookout locally for a set of those wheels. I think they look perfect on an Eagle.

[shanebo]

I'm glad they got to you...they almost didn't cuz I was dyslexic and wrote the address backwards...luckily they were on the right street at least.

[Prafeston]

Looking good! I'm on the lookout locally for a set of those wheels. I think they look perfect on an Eagle.

Looking for those rims too! Guess they are a hot item for the Eagle!

Good looking car man. You're back looks like it may be sagging a bit. Those tires seem to barely fit back there.

[recomer]

Unexpected addition over the last few weeks to the list of items needing repaired. Transmission. Went out to dinner one night and had to be towed back. I could say the car ran like a top as it just stayed in one place and the engine spinned. Reverse worked, none of the forward gears did. Was about to give up on this as no transmission place locally knew anything about AMCs (Yeah they weren't smart enough to look it up) so I ended up talking to a local Jeep restorer and they told me where they farm thier transmission work out to.

Ended up with a total rebuild of the transmission and its back on the road again. Yeah it cost me a pretty penny but was worth it in the long run for all the other stuff I've done to it.

[recomer]

Had transmission shop do a check out of transmission (been 2 weeks since rebuild) and alls looking good. No leaks, nothing loose, shifts are crisp and all working great. Nice to have that out of way. Now back to regularly scheduled repairs...

[recomer]

Looking for those rims too! Guess they are a hot item for the Eagle!

Good looking car man. You're back looks like it may be sagging a bit. Those tires seem to barely fit back there.

Actually, back of car was sagging cause of having the 4 old wheels and tires still in the cargo area.

[recomer]

Ordered parts today for the TFI (or whatever its being called today) upgrade today via Advance Auto (nice that they had a 15% discount and free shipping).

Only deviatation from the norm/suggested/etc was the coil. After all the reading here (and many other Jeep sites talking about this) I ordered an Accel 140207 Coil. According to the specs, its nearly identical to the original except it puts out up to 45K and it uses the factory horseshoe connector. I wanted to go that route with stock mounting vice putting holes in the inner fender to mount the TFI coils mentioned. Will see how it does when I get it.

[ammachine390]

Since you bought the Accel coil, you are not really "upgrading" to a higher voltage coil. Pretty much just staying stock. So I would not gap the plugs too much more than what the factory spec is. You will not be putting out 45,000 Volts with this coil, you will only put on around 22,500 Volts. Stock is 18,000 Volts. The Pertronix 3.0 ohm 40,000 Volt coil fits in the original mounting location, only difference is that there is no horseshoe connector.

[shanebo]

Glad to hear the new transmission is in and running....that's the thing with these older transmissions, its not a matter of if but when they go out...some go for 200,000 miles while others go only 60,000...being as most of us are not the original owners its hard to say what kind of maintnance our cars had through the years...I've seen so many folks change oil religiouly but never even pull the dipstick on the tranny,...mine is a manual but I have a sneaking suspicion mine may be needing some attention in the very near future....

[recomer]

Glad to hear the new transmission is in and running....that's the thing with these older transmissions, its not a matter of if but when they go out...some go for 200,000 miles while others go only 60,000...being as most of us are not the original owners its hard to say what kind of maintnance our cars had through the years...I've seen so many folks change oil religiouly but never even pull the dipstick on the tranny,...mine is a manual but I have a sneaking suspicion mine may be needing some attention in the very near future....

Thanks Shanebo. When I asked the trasnmission shop what caused it to go out, the guys reply was "It was old". Even though milage was only 92k, he said he assumed the car sat unused for a bit which can cause issues. Its running like a champ now.

[rollguy]

The Pertronix 3.0 ohm 40,000 Volt coil fits in the original mounting location, only difference is that there is no horseshoe connector.

I tried the Pertronix coil, and it was not good.  I must have got a bad one, because it had a misfire after the car got warmed up.  I put the E-Core coil back on, and it runs great now.  Also, you can make a bracket to install the E-Core coil in the stock location.