You bought what?? 88 Eagle Wagon - Overlander Build

[eagleman]

Think with the white wheels with black center caps you pulled off the paint work. Looks way cool!

[mo.eagles]

OUTSTANDING!!

[maddog]

i couldn't find a drooling emoji so these will have to do. those stripes look awesome dude.

[eaglefreek]

Wow, when you texted me those pics, I didn't realize you did it yourself with spray paint. I think it looks fantastic.

[amarshall]

Thanks everybody!  I like how it turned out.  There was never anything subtle about this car, might as well go for it.  Normally I wouldn't use spray paint on a car, but the white paint job was only $500 anyway.  None of it is perfect, but I think it looks a million times better than when I first got it.

This was the first time I saw it in person.  Never buy a car online, hah!


I think this was the low point...

[Prafeston]

Love the paint job. Well done!

[trooper5707]

Just awesome work!

[amarshall]

Thanks again for all the compliments!  I got to Mississippi today, lots of fuel stops but otherwise easy. My rear axle bearings are growling pretty loudly, but I have the parts with me and there is a local shop that can get me in first thing in the morning. My motorcycle buddies are going to be waiting so I hope they work quickly and there are no surprises.

If all goes well I will be on the trails until Monday.

[vangremlin]

Good luck!  Looking forward to seeing pictures of this adventure!

[amarshall]

Well, I'm back from my big trip.  The Eagle did pretty well, but of course I did manage to get it broken once or twice.  On the way up from Florida, my rear axle bearings started growling pretty badly.  I had the parts with me and found a shop in Mississippi willing to tackle the job.

After scratching their heads a little, the shop owner jumped in and figured it out.  He claimed this was just like old Jeeps he had seen.




He had all the "special tools" that his young employees didn't know how to use.


They got my bearings replaced but in the process bent the right hub.  I don't blame them, I was right there and it was seized up badly.  They had to beat it like a rented mule to get it out.  They put it on a press and got it flat - but not perfectly in line with the axle.  The rear wheel wobbles about 3/4 of an inch side to side at the tread, which is probably only 1/16" of deflection at the hub.  I was able to run the rest of the trip with it, but it will need to be fixed eventually.

I met up with my motorcycle buddies and we loaded up the Eagle with gear.  It was never this clean again.


I managed to find some good mud.  The Eagle does fantastic where traction is needed, as long as I can stay away from the big bumps.






We put up the flag on Veteran's day, nothing subtle about this ride!


Got some great shots of the Eagle.  The days were very short so one day we ran past sundown and ended up seeing an amazing sunset.




The Trans America Trail (TAT) is getting better known.  We stopped in Arkansas to talk with Percy Kale who runs a "welcome center" for TAT riders.  HE said we were the 276th group to pass this year, and we'd probably be the last for the season.


On the 3rd day, the Eagle kept gradually losing power.  Eventually, it wouldn't even run.  There was a LOT of very fine dust in Arkansas, and I was letting the bikes go first most of the time. The air filter plugged up so badly it wouldn't even move 5 feet.  Changed the plugs (very fouled), which was a little better but I didn't figure it out until I took off the air filter and like magic it started up again.  It could have been something much worse so in the end I'm OK with that.

We had a fun trip, but too short.  The 3rd leg will be sometime May/June of 2018.  We almost made it to Oklahoma, just 12 miles from the border.  That's where we'll pick up next time.



We towed the bikes back to Nashville with the Eagle.  Not the best idea I ever had, but we made it.  Stayed in 2nd gear most of the way, 60 mph at about 2600rpm.

[maddog]

Sorry to hear about the hub getting bent dude, but I'm glad to hear that the rest of your trip went well.

[trooper5707]

I live in Nashville! Could have bought you a beer! Great story!

[amarshall]

Not sure I could have handled a beer by the time we got to Nashville.  We were on the road for about 10 hours and finally pulled into my buddies neighborhood at about 2am.  We were running on fumes and ran out of gas 1/4 mile from his house!!  Argh!  I finally had to use the fuel in my 5 gallon can, right in the middle of the road.  If it hadn't been so late and pitiful it would have been funny!

[DAVE]

if your still looking for a 3.07:1 front differential check the 80' eagles they were all 3.08/07:1
ratios

[amarshall]

if your still looking for a 3.07:1 front differential check the 80' eagles they were all 3.08/07:1
ratios

Good tip!  Thanks for the info.  I've been casually looking online, and found a couple front diffs in wrecking yards across the country, but nothing close to me.  And nothing cheap.  Replacing the axles is probably a pipe dream at this point.  I'd get more use out of a low-range transfer case I think.