You bought what?? 88 Eagle Wagon - Overlander Build

[vangremlin]

Looking really sharp!  Gonna be a really nice Eagle when its all back together!!

[TEagle85]

Awesome!!!

[mo.eagles]

Great work ! Where  did you find a mirror that's not pitted ?  My head lights have filled up like that here in Mo. One had about an inch of water and you could see it in the beams shining on the road ahead of you .

[eaglefreek]

Where  did you find a mirror that's not pitted ? 

That only happens in the rust belt where they put salt on the road. I got some hatch hinges from a member, who is no longer here and when I received them, they looked like they were sitting on the bottom of the ocean for a few years. The ones that broke on mine looked like brand new.

[amarshall]

The mirrors aren't perfect for sure. That picture makes them look much better than they really are. I took some Simichrome and steel wool and hit all the trim and chrome while it was off. It's very shiny but still has some pitting.

Biggest problem with the mirrors is that they are loose. The control cables stretched so bad that they both just wobble around. I looked at fixing the cables but it was pretty tough. My quick fix will be to squeeze some foM weatherstripping around the mirror to hold it in place, but still allow adjustment.

[Prafeston]

Wow, it sure is coming together!

[eaglefreek]

I assume Aaron will start a thread of his adventure when he has some down time, but I thought I'd share a few pics. In my Isuzu Trooper, I met Aaron in NC on Saturday afternoon at the start of his Trans America Trail adventure. He had a buddy who was a codriver and two more buddies on dual sports. We put on some miles on Saturday and started again Sunday morning. They hooked up with more guys on bikes at the lodge Saturday night.  It involves as much unpaved roads as possible. I thought I would be the one to possibly help Aaron since he got his Eagle together just in time to get on the road. However, I finished my journey in a tow truck. I think it's the fuel pump.

[Prafeston]

Very cool! Sucks about the Troopy though!

[amarshall]

I'm back in Florida after a crazy week with the Eagle.  I got home in time for the 4th of July fun, barely.  Since then I've been in recovery mode, the preparation and the trip wore me out!

We had a great 8 day trip, as Rick hinted above.  We ended up doing about 900 miles off road, from Andrews NC to Tupelo MS.  With the mileage out of Florida and off the trail I figure I did about 2200 for the week.  The tally for the week includes a snapped front axle shaft, two stitches in my hand, a broken and floppy driver's door handle.  The Eagle hung in there pretty well, but you could tell I barely got it back together for the trip.  At the last minute there was a bunch of stuff I couldn't get to. Front flares are still off, the winch is complete except for the actual cable, etc etc. I had boxes of parts in the back, and I'd try to do a little more each night but keeping up with 100% critical stuff was the focus.

Clearance for the tires was a consistent problem, as we loaded way too much gear into it.  We stopped on day 1 to borrow a grinder and make some clearance in the back fenders.  The plastic flares are on in the back but rubbed pretty good on big corners or whoop-dee-doos.  The big fat 235/75-15 tires are probably a little too big but they were the smallest mud tires I could find and I think that was the right choice.  Traction was never an issue, but man those tires are LOUD.  I thought I had a rear end problem for sure, and even took it to a shop for rear wheel bearings.  They drove it and laughed, but confirmed that the crazy hum was the tires and not a rear end problem.

Another consistent concern was the transmission temp.  There was a lot of long uphills, and the coolant temp gauge would spike to the top of the "safe" level.  We talked about a stuck thermostat and some other ideas, but in the end we decided it was the trans fluid heating up the radiator and then the engine.  Coasting downhill even for a little bit had an immediate cooling effect, so eventually we just learned to manage it.  Rick and I made a run to a parts store and got an external trans cooler, but I never managed to get it onto the car during the trip.

Breaking the front axle shaft on Day 4 was no fun, but I'm pretty proud of the response.  I was coming across a washout and probably gave it a little too much gas while turned pretty hard right in 4WD.  Maybe not 100% avoidable, but I'm confident I will change my driving style in the future.  I'm used to Jeeps and the trip really taught me how the Eagle is different.  Anyway, the axle snapped and started flopping around.  I had it secured to the strut rod with some zip ties and we were rolling again in 2WD before our motorcycle buddies noticed we were gone and came back to find us.  The look on their faces when we pulled up and said "we busted an axle" was priceless - they couldn't quite figure that one out.  The shaft that broke was only about a week old, since I had a torn boot on the passenger side.  Luckily I stashed the old axle in the trunk, and we found a shop willing to put it in.  An hour later and we were back on the road, with a plastic bag "diaper" around the boot to keep the grease from splashing.

The worst problem was on the last trail day, thankfully.  We came through a puddle (hiding a pit) and took a pretty big hit to the front left.  The strut rod bushings burst, and by the time I got off the trail and back to a hotel there was tons of play in the right strut rod - about 3/4".  I think the nuts worked themselves loose since the threads are OK.  The left front tire was pushed back about an inch, eating into the fender.  I'm pretty sure something is bent, as the alignment went crazy and I had to make some field adjustments to limp back to Nashville.  It's probably the lower control arm on the left, but may be more.

I'm shipping the car back to Florida, since there is so much left to do and the front end is messed up.  Rick (Eaglefreek)  kindly offered to help but there is just so much it wouldn't be fair.  But it was great meeting him in real life, and I sure will benefit from his experience!  The plan is to pick up the trail in Tupelo later this year and keep going west.  Eventually the trail (and hopefully the Eagle) will make it to the Pacific Ocean in Oregon.

I have a bunch of pictures, but with Photobucket's recent change I want to find a better way to post them.  Bear with me!

[amcfool1]

hi, glad you made the trip there and back, but, remember, the Eagle was never designed as an off road vehicle. next time, take a @#$%%^ Jeep!  gz

[amarshall]

hi, glad you made the trip there and back, but, remember, the Eagle was never designed as an off road vehicle. next time, take a @#$%%^ Jeep!  gz

I deserved that one!  Hah!

[eaglefreek]

I figured you'd be totally drained when you made it home, so that's why I didn't bug you. The Eagle does fine moderately offroad, you just have to know it's limitations and not drive it like your racing the Baja 1000.  I don't think you need those large mud tires and smaller all terrains will work anywhere the Eagle can go. I never struggled with traction with my all terrains on my Eagle and I drove that in different terrains in many states. Since the Isuzu Trooper is IFS, also,  I've seen on Isuzu forum where new Chinese axle shafts snap in a very short time. The guys on that forum try to find OEM ones in junkayrds instead of buying new ones.

[amarshall]

Hey Rick!  I was beat for sure, that week wore me out!  Dawn to dark on the move, and camping every night tend to wear you out.  I agree with you on the driving style.  You met my co-driver, who thinks he's Mario Andretti.  I'll need to slow it down next time.

The tires are overkill, but I've seen too many videos of miles-long mud patches in the Ozarks and didn't want to get stuck.  Plus, they look so darn cool!  I will either need to work on the rear fenders some more, or maybe look for a slightly longer rear leaf shackle.  I have a 3" Jeep CJ shackle in the rear now, and the stock ones are 3-1/2".  I did find some 4" offset shackles that would let me go back to the stock hangers (I think) and would give me another 1/2" lift.  Plus, I need to lighten the load next time by about half!

I had heard that replacement axles were lower quality too.  I will try to find a boot kit for my old axle, and maybe look around for some salvage axles in fair shape.

Lots still to do, but I'm eager to jump in when I get the Eagle back home.  Last I heard the carrier was supposed to pick it up this week.

[amarshall]

Just got word that my Eagle is on the back of a truck!  I feel sorry for that Mercedes below it, hah!

[amarshall]

Time for an update, and hopefully I've got the pictures figured out.  First, a little more info about my recent road trip.  I did a lot of mileage, and recorded my path with a GPS app.  Each day is a different color, and some days we only managed 80 miles off road.



Started off nice and clean, didn't stay that way for long!



After I picked up my co-driver in Atlanta the extra weight made the rear fenders rub the tires.  A little "field modification" was needed.



We hung with Rick/eaglefreek for a couple days, but the rest of the week it was just the Eagle and two guys on bikes.



We camped most nights and found some great spots.  This was near Pickwick Dam in TN.



So now some pics of the Eagle "after".  It held together pretty well, considering we did almost 1000 miles off road.

Who had the idea to paint the wheels white?? I should have made them brown!



After we broke an axle I replaced it with an old one but the boot was torn.  We used a plastic bag to make a temporary diaper.  I bought a boot kit, but don't have any special "stretchy" tools so that should be interesting.



Hit a big puddle (hiding a pit) on the last day and messed up the front end.  Both strut rod bushings split.  They were brand new rubber bushings, so I'm planning to use polyurethane bushings this time.



The good news is that I've looked at the front end and nothing obvious is bent.  I think the impact killed the lower control arm bushings, and the control arms are both pushed way to the back in their mounts.  I can get a whole finger in the gap on the front side, and there is zero clearance in the rear.





I never replaced the control arm bushings, guess I should have done that.  I will do the uppers also.  I'm hoping that new bushings will "fix" the front end.  I've already done almost everything else in the front end, so nothing is left anyway.

The trans is leaking a little, and it looks like it's coming from above the pan.  Maybe I will chase that...



I've got a bunch of pics from the last few weeks before the trip.  There was a lot of activity, but very little time.  I'll try to get some stuff posted soon.  I'm proud of the winch setup in particular.

I want to thank Rick for joining our trip and offering help and advice.  You guys are great too, and I'm glad I found this forum.  I wouldn't want to try this stuff all by myself!