Colorado-sourced bird

[mr.mindless]

I was in Denver for work this weekend, and had had a friend check out a Wagon on Colorado Springs CList for me. Medium story short, it looked great, the price was right, and I flew out here with a wad of cash in my pocket, and without a plan to actually GET the car...

The Denver monster truck show is what had me in town, and we ended up with a same-day move-in, and sunday had a pit party two shows and strike. Long story short: zero free time. I was expecting 6:30 to midnight both days. I mildly lowballed the owner when he said there was no way he could get it to Denver for me, and he accepted. Fall-back plan: store it at my friend's for later retrieval.

We ended up wrapping Saturday's show quicker than I thought and at about 22:30 my local friend and I set out to the Springs to pick up this beast. 70 miles of heavy fog and slick I-25 later, I traded $1200 for an unbelievably rust-free 87 258/auto wagon in what I'll call well-patinad maroon. Couple dents, couple known minor issues, but starts right up and had driven well for Brian.

We set off to grab dinner and it turns into a stalling machine. Half the time when leaving a stop... I think I tip in more aggressively than he does, since that seems to be the cause - and it never did it for him on his test drive. Filled it with gas, realigned the fuel filter to put the return on top, and set out for Denver.

Stalled it twice on the way up, but zero issues at highway speeds. Cruise is present; sadly non-op. seats are SHOT and I'll be borrowing a pillow for the long drive. I have a laundry list of little stuff like headlight buckets, burned out dash lights for HVAC and shifter, hatch wiring cut, key only opens the hatch not the doors, mildly out of alignment I think, but she seems solid. Quite the choice for my first ever fly-in, drive-out!

Got it inside Pepsi Arena tonight and saw it in daylight for the first time. Paint is better than I'd feared, found a single snapped rear lug stud. No other surprises. It's got a fresh oil change and tune-up, I'm leaving on a 1650 mile trip back to NY first thing in the morning!

[eagleman]

I'd say you did well.

[eaglefreek]

Good luck with your trip. I'm heading to the Denver area next week and may be driving my wagon so I can pull a Kammback home.
 

[mr.mindless]

I'd say you did well.

Certainly better than the rot boxes I was finding back east for the same or more $!

It's not the sx4 I want, so I'm tempted to try to flip this right after I get home and keep shopping... Be hard to find another as rustless for twice the price though.

[mr.mindless]

Just got a chance to spend some quality time under the bird at Kansasland Tire. I picked up a shimmy above 70mph just past the CO-KS border. Found low air (I'd not checked them, just kicked - and failed ) and a mildly bent wheel. Re-balanced all 4 and I should be on my way shortly.

Spent a while looking everything over underneath and found nothing I'm unhappy about. Needs a full brake job, driver unit bearing, front-front, front link bushings, muffler and maybe: passenger unit bearing, Front lower spring bushings, driver CV axle. Has a couple non-extreme leaks and no rust at all...

I'll throw a few pics up at some point - probably more fitting in a project thread though since theyre not too scenic!

[Prafeston]

Awesome. Welcome to the family!

She looks to be in pretty decent shape. Only major thing I see on the exterior is the damage to the front passenger quarter. She also has the factory roof rack delete like mine. Good luck on your trip back home. Take some pics along the way!

[Ohio AMX]

That's a long drive in a strange car. You da man! 

[GRONK]

I could have picked that thing up for you and installed a carb and ignition before you came to get it.....  Next time.  I have 4 jeeps and 1 eagle in front of my  house right now anyway.  Wife is ready to kill me.

[maddog]

congrats on the new bird dude and gronk be very careful if you decide to bring another Eagle home.

[mr.mindless]

Thanks guys!
It's a long drive with non-op cruise control after 2 14 hour days on my feet! my right knee hates me.

Idling a little rougher here at low elevation. Looking forward to doing the altitude swap and checking out the accelerator pump wheni get home. 906 miles to go! Shamed don't have more time for sight seeing...

[captspillane]

Double footing is normal for Eagles. Most of the time its caused by one tiny setting that is easy to get to. If you take the tiny screws off the little cover on the top front of the carb you'll see the accelerator pump linkage. It looks like a long rod through a hallow rod. A tiny screw holds the outer rod in relation to the inner rod. That screw is the way you adjust when and how much the accelerator pump does its magic. This can be adjusted while the car is running.

The vast majority of Eagles have this setting drastically off. Few people even know its there.

I've purchased several cars advertised as bad carbs that would not drive without stalling. All of them were fixed in minutes with that single adjustment. Usually the idle RPM is way too high to compensate and that can be lowered a half turn at both screws at the same time.

Honestly the Carter BBD is a perfectly fine carb. It is capable of running very well and very efficiently in terms of fuel mileage. The problem is that its very sensitive to temperature changes and requires monthly adjustment. At the very least you need to adjust it in the spring and fall. It also has a very small bore and will restrict the amount of fuel and air available to the engine. It drastically limits the available horsepower to the engine. I've seen 28 MPG from a properly set automatic Eagle and 29 MPG from a manual 258 Eagle. I've never seen above 26 MPG from my 1992 stickshift XJ.

[mr.mindless]

Makes me wish harder that I had a tach

I'll take a look at that before I roll this morning. I don't think that my idle is up high to compensate, by sound I'd say it's 500ish. Low enough that it's a little rough here at 900' when it was smooth in CO.

So far I've gotten 19.9, 16.8, 19.1 mpg. Assuming the odo is accurate and I think it's very very close. I haven't clocked it against gps yet but the speedo is within 3% or so.

[Prafeston]

My speedo is off by like 4 mph according to my GPS. If my speedo says I'm doing 70 my GPS says I'm doing 73-75. I find it odd too as TQ is pretty much all stock.

[shaggimo]

Another one for the ny roster   , congrats on the find, and the long trip   .

[Ohio AMX]

My speedo is off by like 4 mph according to my GPS. If my speedo says I'm doing 70 my GPS says I'm doing 73-75. I find it odd too as TQ is pretty much all stock.

I recently rented 2 new cars for trips (Toyota and Nissan) and both speedos were off by about that much.