eagle wont take flight...

[jsherrod]

I recently bought an 84 eagle wagon... i drove it a few miles and it stalled out and wont start again. Now i am not getting any spark to the distributor or the plugs..... any ideas?  thanks for the help

[eaglebeek]

OK...in any situation involving an non-starting engine the first thing I do is to check for good and clean connections throughout.

Following that, the following requires two people. Get a test light and probe the negative terminal on the coil. You will have to back-probe the wire on the horseshoe connector on the ignition coil. Connect the wire and clip to a good ground or the battery's negative terminal. Then have someone crank the engine. The light should flash on and off. If it remains on you may have a faulty module or pickup coil inside the distributor. If the test light doesn't light at all you're not getting power from the ignition switch or the coil primary windings are open. Be sure your test light is probing the coil's negative terminal and not the positive terminal or the high-voltage center terminal.

Next is to make sure it hasn't jumped time. Manually bar the engine over and line up the mark on the vibration damper with the 0 mark on the scale attached to the timing cover. Then remove the distributor cap. The rotor should point in the direction of the #1 or #6 terminal on the distributor cap. If the rotor is pointed in a different direction the timing chain has gone out.

After you've done all of this post up with what you've found and let's go from there.

[jsherrod]

Okay got the old bird started. A new ignition module and alternator, and bad ground later it runs, but stalls as soon as you shift into drive. If you get it driving it will run fine when u are giving it gas, but when u let the idle fall it just stalls ... any idea?  i thought it was alternator but it didnt fix it

[DaemonForce]

My solution to this was changing the ignition box and raise the idle speed a bit. I'm able to get my idle very very low without stalling but that was after fixing my manifold vacuum. I'm guessing you should be looking for leaks now.

[eaglebeek]

I'm not surprised the ignition module was bad. Our brown Eagle is on it's third one now. Alternators, however, are almost never the cause of ignition problems unless the battery has also drained down.

Regarding its refusal to idle: This is a common problem. DaemonForce is spot-on. First thing to do is to make sure all vacuum hoses are sound. Another place Eagles leak vacuum is the intake manifold-to-cylinder head gasket. Sometimes you can tighten the bolts holding the manifold to the cylinder head and cure this problem. This, however, is easier said than done for some of the bolts. Finally, be sure the nuts securing the carburetor to the manifold are tight.

The other cause of poor idle is too much fuel. Start the engine and remove the top cover of the air filter. If the choke is closed you may have to hold it open to see down the carburetor throat. You're looking for dribbles of fuel running down from the venturi located in the middle of the carburetor throat. If there's fuel dribbling the idle tubes are plugged. The fix is detailed in several previous posts. Post up again when you find out what's going on and let's go from there.

[jsherrod]

Sprayed startfluid around, and soapy water, but cant find any vac leaks.. when i look into the carb while its running i can see gas sitting down in it, but idk if its dribbling?   also i found another broken part and need help with the name if it. i tried to post a picture but it wont let me... ok hen u are looking at the front of the car, this piece is mounted on the very front of the carb by a metal bracket. then that bracket holds a metal/plastic piece to the driver side of the carb. ??

[mudkicker715]

Soapy water will only show a leak for pressure. not vacuum. vacuum will suck your soapy water in not blow bubbles out.

[thereverendbill]

http://www.amceaglenest.com/~iowaeagl/guide/index.php?title=Curing_Carter_BBD_Carb_Issues check this out for your carb problems.  When i had my 83 wagon 2 of the best things I ever did to the car was an HEI dist. and a motorcraft 2100 carb

[eaglebeek]

Sprayed startfluid around, and soapy water, but cant find any vac leaks.. when i look into the carb while its running i can see gas sitting down in it, but idk if its dribbling?   also i found another broken part and need help with the name if it. i tried to post a picture but it wont let me... ok hen u are looking at the front of the car, this piece is mounted on the very front of the carb by a metal bracket. then that bracket holds a metal/plastic piece to the driver side of the carb. ??

Your broken part sounds like what AMC calls the SoleVac. It's a combination vacuum-actuated and electrical device that presses on the top part of the throttle linkage to hold the engine on a fast idle. But let's get back to what you saw when you looked down the carburetor throat. The dribble will come from the venturi assembly located in the middle of the carburetor throat and will be quite obvious while the engine is running. I'm wondering if the wetness you describe when you look down the throat is caused by this problem even though you didn't actually see it.

Fixing it is fairly easy and carburetor removal is not required. You can remove the two screws that hold the venturi assembly in the carburetor and lift it out. A work of caution or two...there's a check ball you don't want to lose, and you obviously don't want to drop anything down the throat. When you're ready post up again.

[captspillane]

If you get it driving it will run fine when u are giving it gas, but when u let the idle fall it just stalls ... any idea?

This is extremely common. It’s actually quite normal for an AMC Eagle. The very first thing I suspect is the acceleration pump adjustment. It’s a single set screw underneath the cover plate on the top of the carb, the one that can be removed while the car is running. A rod running through the side of the carb goes through the center of a pipe, and this set screw adjusts the relation of the pipe around the rod. I consider that set screw the golden ticket to making the Carter carb run well.

In each and every one of my 258 automatic Eagles I've had the same problem arise where the car would run perfectly fine at idle and it would accelerate perfectly fine once the pedal was pushed, but the car would stall as soon as you touched the pedal. Specifically it would stall anytime I pushed the pedal slowly. I learned to push the brake with my left foot and give several quick thrusts on the gas pedal with my right foot to get the car past the trouble spot.

The worst time was when I would take my foot of the gas while entering a curve and then in the middle of the curve I would slowly start to push the pedal down to start speeding up through the end of the curve. I’d forget to double foot or to thrust the pedal, and it would stall out. Dozens of times I’ve been in the middle of a curve without power-steering using both hands to remain in control. [This is the biggest reason I’ve always ditched the neutral safety switch in every automatic Eagle I own. In a stalled Eagle going around a curve you don’t have both hands free to manipulate the gearshift lever in and out of neutral. On my Eagles I can reach right down and turn the key and the car will start while still in drive. I consider a neutral safety switch a threat to the safe operation of an Eagle because of how often this has happened to me].

One day I had an especially poor running Eagle sedan. The carb had been rebuilt multiple times and was in exceptional condition. I turned the idle mixture screws until the car was smoothly running very fast, approximately 2000 RPM. I slowly turned the throttle by hand as if slowly pushing the gas pedal. The Engine RPMs instantly decreased to approximately 500 RPM and then slowly climbed from there at a nice steady rate all the way back up and past 2000 RPM. To some degree I’ve initially seen the same “dip” in RPM in every Eagle I’ve owned. I learned to adjust that accelerator pump set screw until there was no “dip” in RPM as the pedal was slowly pushed in. After learning that single adjustment I have taken several terribly running Eagles and made them purr. It is the number one reason I get such good gas mileage from my stock Eagles.

[carnuck]

I had one Eagle wagon that had a bad lockup converter that would engage at idle or just off idle. The motor would stall like side stepping a clutch without giving it gas.