1980 Eagle Sport STW 258+TF998 "Silver Beast" (from Finland)

[carnuck]

And mention you're a member here. I would also look into an HEI dist like this one on that big evil auction site search Skip white or HEI DISTRIBUTOR 6511 CL (that's for the cool looking clear cap)

[HornetRWB]

I have HEI on all my other old cars so it's likely I'll get it for this one too. However the DUI (Duraspark II) that I have on the engine now seems to be in working order and new boxes are easily available since any '80s euroford box fits (Ford Sierra) and those are a-plenty around here. But ye, I'll replace it with HEI if it gives me too much grief.

I found this write-up on the set and it sounds like the solution for me.
http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f228/motorcraft-2150-ebay-guy-quo-1837498/

[carnuck]

At the very least, consider upgrading the coil. They have a habit of corroding the T terminals and suddenly cutting out and causing poor running.

[HornetRWB]

Sure, I'll consider swapping the coil as suggested, but I have tons to do before that can happen...


I've got some 30+ keys to AMCs that have accumulated over the years and I got one to fit the trunklid and managed to open it!  After this I opened to hatch on the floor and almost threw up my lunch, 3 rat/mouse nests filled the space by the spare tire. Holy it smelled BAD  .  Got some hazmat gloves and a couple plastic bags and removed most of it, after which I vacuumed the rest of the ratpoop and related items until the trunk was clean. Then I managed to take a pic for you


Here's what I found in the trunk.


Looks like I won't have to buy new belts for the engine, got a full NOS set right here

After this I used a 'scent-eater' spray all over the trunk and car and left it to sit over night and reused the same spray in the morning and kept all doors open all thru the sunny day. By evening the smell is almost gone. 


Rearside looks fairly good after more washing, but on closer look...


Passenger rear corner has flaking paint, possibly due to some deeper gashes on the metal, no real rust due to no salt used in Switzerland it seems.. It doesn't seem too bad, I'll likely just sand it off and do some light bodywork and repaint the corner from the black line downwards until the back door.


Roof used to be silver, now it's just flat grey. I'll see if it buffs up, but unlikely. Not first on my to-do list though..


Back seats cleaned up nicely with a strong detergent spray I've used previously inside the house, also got rid of all of the mold spots from vinyl. I'll use some vinyl treatment later on to soften it up a bit. As noted above, I also used the smell-eater all over everything.


In the front I've got tons of taxi related stuff, which got the axe over the weekend.


It's worked as a taxi based in Zürich, but from the documents with the car it's been a bit further up the mountain most of the time it seems.


After a lot of time removing stickers and the taximeter/logger/thingy it's starting to look like a personal passenger car again. Only one annoying sticker still to go. The grey stuff on the passenger carpet is from a fist size hole that all the taxi stuff ran thru to the engine bay, which was covered up with some sort of gluing epoxy silicone, disgusting stuff and it took me a long time to get it all off and plug the hole to the engine bay.


Oh ye, the car originally had a shelf under the dash which was probably taken out for the taxistuff, however it still has all the fastenings for the shelf. I've had hmm.. 8-9 Hornets previously and have a lot of parts for them, so in case you're wondering - yes the shelf fits from a Hornet. Got this one painted black due to the fact that it's too much of a hassle to match the faded red paint of the dash. It's going in tomorrow.


Front also looks fairly good after washing. The grille however is a mixmatch of Limited and Sport model parts - some shiny, some not and some just flaking...



First got everything disassembled, washed with handdishwashing fluid and a toothbrush (handy combo btw), then with prepaint and then flat black.


Did take my time to tape over all emblems before painting of course. However didn't flatten the chrome in case I want to swap back to chrome grille in the future. This means the black won't stay on that well but I can live with repainting it in a couple years.


Grille was fairly intact, only broken in places that dont matter so it came out good. Almost removed the Eagle emblem before paint but decided just to tape it up instead.


Driver side headlight door was cracked in the corner (needs gluing) due to the dent on the front fender. Will take that out later this week...


And here we go, all black and emblems untaped

Oh yes, I also managed to get a ribbed aluminum valve cover for the engine. And since I'm getting a new carb, I'll likely next start cleaning up the engine bay and engine itself. It will be red - like all my other engines... 

Still a lot to do, but getting there.

[Baskinator]

It's worked as a taxi based in Zürich, but from the documents with the car it's been a bit further up the mountain most of the time it seems.

I seriously want this as a bumper sticker

[HornetRWB]

Ye such a friendly lot the Swiss it seems 



Driver's side front corner had got a big dent on it from storage over a couple years (older pic on top)..



It was about an inch inwards right on the corner - which is the most annoying part to get back to shape. Happily my father-in-law is a wizard with hammers and by just using two normal hammers, piece of wood and 15 minutes he straightened it out almost perfectly.



I was going to do some work on it, but since the car is outside I just sprayed some paint over it..



And decided it's good enough until the car is drivable. 



I had to take apart the driver side headlight to get to the dent and while doing that I noticed almost every single one of these was broken and the headlight buckets would have fallen down on first braking tests... What a stupid idea to use plastic clips like these.  I see some on ebay, but likely I'll be replacing these with something else.

So I got around to working on the headliner. The moldy red fabric that was hanging down all the way from front to back was easy to yank off after taking off the dome light and coat hooks, that went directly to the trash bin (disgusting..).



So here's what the headliner looked like, partly moisture damage from sitting for years and some glue and some tears...



It was a much bigger process to take off than I imagined, all the plastic trip near the roof - even the side plastics between the doors had to come off before I could remove the side rails that actually hold the headliner on it's place. Oh well, it all came out fairly easy as I took it real careful not to damage the plastics, however passenger side front corner was busted already before I started... Also both sunvisor holding metals were cracked into pieces and basicly useless. So... I'll have to figure something out how to fix them up. Oh ye, I will be wirebrushing the roof and putting a coat of rustproofing paint on it.



It was fairly intact, even though not the best I've seen.



I first took a piece of cloth and rubbed out the insulating foam and excess glue. Not a lot of pressure, just rubbing off what was already almost loose.



Then some basic black metal paint, no thinner - just brush painting using a liberal amount of paint to let it 'suck into' the headliner.



After which I used some spray on coating that's usually used for frame rails and such, it gives a somewhat rubbery and uneven coating and you can paint over it. Took a bit of planning but I managed to get a fairly good look, filling in the couple holes and making the headliner look more even with the remaining gluestuff. Main point here to me is that this 'closes' the headliner and creates an even look so I can next paint over it with normal spray paint. I will likely keep it black though, and no fabric as it will just drop down in a couple years... More pics later.

I'm a bit stressed for time as my Rebel is going to the biggest autumn car show in Finland next weekend and we're already getting early morning frost (I'll need this car running soon)...

[HornetRWB]

The passengerside rear corner had some issues with it and so I decided to take off the fender flares to see what's lurking underneath.



Not much, just dents.



And very minimal surface rust. Unbelievable, I was so sure I'd find some real problems hidden away but no. It will only take some sanding and underbody work and a touch of pain. Very happy about it.

I found those headlight fastening bolts and plastic backing pieces locally, only 2 euros a set of both so about 20 euros for a full set. Not bad at all so I'll keep them stock it seems.

Oh ye, also applied a new layer of black paint to the headliner, this time the same thick paint but used a coarse roller instead of a brush. Looks quite good already, but likely I'll add one more next week when I get back home from the weekend trip with the Rebel.

[HornetRWB]

I got word from the post office that my new carb is already in their customs warehouse. Wow - that was fast shipping. Went to customs office yesterday and paid about 70 euros, so the price of the carb adds up to about 360euros now. If it is as good as it's supposed to be, I'll save the money in gasoline during this winter (yes, gasoline really is that expensive here). I'll post pics and a write-up on the install as soon as I get the box thru mail.

Those of you that missed it, this is the carb I got:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-MotorCraft-2150-Jeep-AMC-Eagle-Pacer-Carb-Upgrade-258-4-2-1-08-Venturis-/221567781767?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3396780b87&vxp=mtr

And since I got the front light fastening clips I started going thru the front end...



And quickly realized that the 'euro-conversion' done to this car in 1980 was not done well and the wires to headlights/blinkers/side markers are all a hackjob, also realized there's no relays to the headlights? Is this still true? I'm a bit surprised as it is an 80's car already?



Whichever the case, I'll be replacing all the wiring and connectors to the lights and adding relays.



So I popd into a local store and got a box full of goodies.

But while I was zooming the electrics I also went thru the front bumper with some fine sandpaper and degreaser, removed the rubber mouldings (which were done anyway, see above pics). Then first put 3 coats of flat black, waited it to dry and decided didn't like the look. So I added a couple coats of clear black which really came out well.



I was thinking of adding a chrome moulding in the place of the original black one, but I'll see how it looks first without it.



I would gotten all the front electrics done yesterday, but the car is still outside and it started raining heavily (one of those autumn rain storms). So I cleaned the garage instead and moving cars around to make room for the Eagle - hopefully tomorrow she'll be indoors...

PS. We got a very strict road inspection process in Finland, so the car needs to have pretty much everything working as designed before I can get her on the road. AND I need to get the car inspected before I can drive it to customs to know how much I'll have to pay to get it on the road with Finnish licence plates (and I can't drive with Swiss plates). This is why I'm doing a bit of everything at the same time to find out what the total damage is, but it will all go back together soon. My tight budget also really doesn't help..

[HornetRWB]

Hornet moved from storage spot 2 to garage spot 2, Rebel moved from garage spot 1 to storage spot 2 (it's now in hibernation), Eagle moved from outside to garage spot 1 AND there's still room for the wife's XJ in storage spot 1 (in front of the door, so easy access during winter). It went well, other than the fact that the Eagle isn't yet drivable and it is HEAVY to push. We almost gave up with a friend of mine and the distance was less than 15 meters.  And of course it was raining...   



However I can't really complain - they all fit indoors even if it's cold storage. But anyway, the Eagle is finally now in the garage and I can take apart a bit more of the engine to get it cleaned and painted along with the engine bay (and also do some underbody work on that passenger side).

AND I picked up my brand new carb from the post office yesterday. That thing is a beauty and the setup looks completely bolt on. And if it's a remanufactured carb, it is the best I've ever seen but I'd bet that it is indeed new (it's got Motorcraft stampings and model number 13 on it). Once I got everything painted it's going to it's place and I'll post a writeup of it. 

[HornetRWB]

Weekend flew past quick, I started to go over the engineroom with my little bro helping out (I guess I should say younger bro, since I'm likely the shorter one).

We started off with cleaning detergents and then moved on the brakeclean (heavy duty degreaser). Rags and wire brushes were also plentifully in use. It was a positive surprise again that no real rust was found, just tons of grime and dirt - and underneath those a good and shiny paint. 


Here's a pic, washed but still dirty after which brakeclean took out the problem spots and then more cleaning.. And wire brushing here and there..


Slowly and surely, taking one piece off and going thru it and re-installing it the engine room was starting to look better. If I couldn't remove it I'd just go thru it where it was, which took typically more time due to time spent using masking tape...

Color choice is what I have in all my engines, red engine enamel, which I like much better than the greenish blue that they typically are in passenger AMCs. I used heatcoat flatblack on the exhaust manifold and the battery tray got an acid treatment and then 'paint-over-rust' type antirust paint (Miranol Metallack).



So why is the VC still rusty and ugly...? Well I scored an aluminium valve cover from a club mate which I'm putting on. Only thing is I'm thinking whether or not to get it shiny by soda blasting it or should I paint that red too.. We'll see..

Also I started on the electrics by going thru the ignition and alternator electrics one by one. Found some interesting hackjobs - for example the thick wire running from alt to battery was made of three different wire of different thickness and joined together by abico connectors.. Yeah...



I snapped all wires off the front lights and routed new wires. I used the original high/lowbeam wires for the relay wakeup signal  in the engine bay new relays.



I'm using a 'keep it simple' wiring diagram I made some time ago for the Hornet. All colors match the Eagle which was a nice surprise. Although I got unlucky in the electrics store and just found black, red and blue wire of the bigger gauge I needed so I swapped white (highbeam) to blue, green (lowbeam) to red and kept black (ground) black. I also routed the battery-to-relay (+) wires with new red wire using a small fusebox before the relays. I also had to replace some blinker/parking lamp wiring with new normal gauge wire.

At this point I also took a break and installed cleaned up fairly new spark wires and a new distributor cap and ignitor.



I put in the new H4 connectors and joined them to the new wiring by first pressing them together with a metal clip designed for it, the soldering them together with lead and after which I heat shrinked protection over them and then finished off by taping them to protect the whole set from the elements. It should hold for then next 30 years or so.



Thought about testing my connections, but decided to go ahead and put everything back together and get the wires taped. We'll see tomorrow how much I have to take apart... 

Soldering was getting boring so I swapped the focus back to the engine bay and got new ground wires for the battery and put in grounding points for the lights (you see them in the pic here and above) on both sides of the radiator (just a bolt thru the metal and using loop connectors to get all ground centrally to these and routing a wire direct from the battery negative to both). These eliminate a lot of useless wiring and make sure ground is OK. I'll use electrical clear coat over them when I'm done.



And here's where I left the car, surprisingly my daily driver sold on Saturday so I'll have to get this one working soon... Positive thing is that I now have the cash I need for the new BFG tires..

[eaglefreek]

Wow, making some progress. No relays were used on the Eagles headlights. It's my recommendation of what should be done next after getting an Eagle running properly. The Motorcraft will make your car run much better if the stock carb was in bad shape. They seemed to have a little more power after the Motorcraft install, but a perfectly tuned Carter will get better MPG. But, unless you're an engineer or scientist, it's almost impossible to tune them.

[HornetRWB]

Thanks for the feedback However I really do not care about MPG (see my other cars)  If I did I'd be driving some 1.1L eurobeater like most my mates do. I'm actually expecting a lot from the Motorcraft 2150, I've had one in my Hornet (way back when it had a stock 304cid) and I really liked it.

But hey, another day - another update:

I mentioned this alternator to battery wire previously...

I mean wow. wtf. etc. They've chained up abico connectors to the main electics line of the whole car. The whole thing was taped up with electrical tape which had melted around the connector, must have been well heated...  (you can see the battery feed cable already updated in the pic to a finger size one).


And here you'll see the new connections and the (dark grey) new thick alternator to startersolenoid cable (and from there the other red thick cable carries current to battery, this is the way it's been from the factory I assumed?)


And due to lack of space on the passenger side I put the headlight relay (it's actually a twin relay) to the drivers side where I have plenty of space due to removal of that carbon canister thingy. You can see all the wires hanging out here, but they'll be taped together and protected today. Then I've got the washerfluid reservoir and coolant overflow reservoir to install, plus the power steering pump (once it's painted).



Then time for testing. I connected the battery and watched for smoke signals, didn't get any so turned on the juice. Blinkers work, parking lights work (after swapping one new bulb back to an older one that read 'Made in W.Germany') 

Then the headlights, all 4 light up as planned on lowbeams and highbeams first didn't come on but quickly noted that the footswitch has gone bad (I gotta pull it up after pushing it down for it to work), but highbeams also worked well after. All in one shot, I am happy 

Still got some details to sort out in the engine room (plugs to exhaust manifold holes, some painting, some installations) and then the carb install ->>> Then I'm off to my testdrive without firehazards in the engine bay.

Got the new tires ordered (white letter BFG AT 215x75/15) and they should arrive by Friday, hoping to get the car inspected as soon as possible and then continue with the details. 

[HornetRWB]

and on we go... 


The grille is now together again and even though it's the somewhat uglyduckling first year one with the raised moulding on the hood I think I'll go with this thru this winter at least. 


I've still got some adjusting to do as the pieces do not quite fit yet. I started to doubt that the entire front end was skewed but I noticed that both of the plastic headlight frames have about half a centimeter of adjustment in them (the holes are somewhat oversized) and I got the opposite adjustment on different sides.. So it'll have to disassemble for at least once more...


As the front end is starting to come together I managed to get the carb project started too. First I took out the bolts from the intake and went thru the intake sealing space with a sharp carpet knife.

The on goes the new gasket and the aluminum adapter plate which came with Gronk's setup, that bolted on with 'hideaway' bolts to the original holes.

In the pic you can also see I managed to find plugs to fill the extra holes in the exhaust manifold, it's a common pipethread so they were plenty available in chrome, steel and then the brass onces I got. They tighten well and should hold up well under heat.


Then on goes the new Motorcraft 2150 carb with bolts and nuts thru the adapter plate. Complete bolt on, only thing I had to adjust a bit was the intake outlet for the brake booster hose. So it was a bolt-on add indeed.


Then popd on the original spring and linkage without issues and tested the action - works just like it was made this way. No adjustments needed.

Then I noticed I don't have a new gas filter or hose available in the garage so I'll have to get those sorted today and fire her up. Also as the original air cleaner (which was horrid anyhow) doesn't fit, I tried out my Rebel's original aircleaner which is a bolt on - I'll likely use that once it gets below -20C, but for now I'll get one of those chromed freeflow airfilters.

Then spent about an hour going thru the rest of the places that needed a touch of paint in the engine room (it's getting too cold to paint in the next days, about -5C expected). Continuing with the re-installation of the power steering pump with it's belt and alternator belt as well (they were OK, so I'll save those NOS belts for now). All went on fairly easy once I realized how the power steering pump belt adjustment works. 

I'm getting the aluminum valve cover glassbead blasted tomorrow at a local mechanics school (I just called them up and asked if they did that sort of thing and yes they do..). Then I'll have to get PCV valve for that and rubbers and hoses plus the breather to the other hole. Then it's time to install the (hopefully cleaned up) reservoirs and the vacuum hose for the distributor and other smaller details.

The two remaining mystery hoses also are more clear now, please correct me if I'm wrong:
- The first one you'll see it in the pic on driver's side - the one sticking up from below with the plastic breather cap. I believe that's from the front driveline and it's likely a breather hose for the front diff?
- The second one (and third actually) is the one that's looped right beside it, I think those are gasoline tank breather hoses? Should those connect to the front/top of the carb or should I just leave them?

[HornetRWB]

And the aluminum valve cover I have doesn't fit. I just had it glassbead blasted and it looks brand new but it's for 1981+ 258cids, not 1980. Great.   So I'll sell those then I guess...

So.. I ordered a chrome valve cover instead from Ebay, actually bought two to cover the shipping costs a bit more (selling the other one).

Any ideas where to connect the gas tank ventilation and diff vent, or just leave them vented in some bottle..? I can connect either one to the carb top front connection?

[HornetRWB]

So valvecover off, It's dirty enough for several quick oil changes in the upcoming travels, but clean enough so no real worries. It's got an sticking oilring in at least one of the pistons so those oil changes will likely ease that one back into action as well. And I've been reading on this forum that you can get away with just using good quality RTV for the gasket, instead of putting in a cork one. If I find a cork one by the weekend I'll definitely put it in, but if not it'll be a good bead of  RTV.

So to the main course of the day. My tire guy delivered as promised. I could have gotten two rounds of tires for the same price but I like these more... BFGoodrich All Terrain KO and the size is 215/75-15. They're indeed brand new (manufactured 4 weeks ago) so I'll drive these thru winter.


I was reeeeaaally anxious to get these under the car so I had to step back and look after the first tire already. The Eagle looks like it's about to take off.. 


And 'Ta-daaa!' It now looks like an Eagle, and not just a Concord. A true 4WD should have 4WD tires and now it does. Wheels are Cragar Daytonas and they're direct from under the wife's XJ since she just got studded winter tires back on with winter wheels. I'll "borrow" these a bit... 


Plenty of room in the back and in the front to roll the car and suspension travel.


But, can't turn the wheels enough. It hits the front corner of the fender so there'll be some trimming upcoming over the weekend. Hoping to just cut metal and bend plastic, but we'll see. I was hoping they'd fit to avoid cutting, but there's no way I'm going back now...

Really love the look now. It's an