You bought what?? 88 Eagle Wagon - Overlander Build

[mudkicker715]

Good work. Btw i follow all threads.

[vangremlin]

Thanks for the update!  I'm sure you'll get it all done - with plenty of time to spare 

Those new mirrors look really nice!

[Prafeston]

I reluctantly need to do my front end too. Not looking forward to it!

[amarshall]

At the risk of eating my words later, so far it's going pretty smooth.  It's a big job of course, but not as bad as I had feared before starting.  It will be nice to have it 100% done, and all back together.  This is not a true restoration project, so I will clean things up and maybe hit them lightly with some paint but nothing too crazy.  I won't be scrubbing everything with a toothbrush, since it's just going back onto trails and will get mud caked again.

Of course, if something breaks again I will know for sure that it's my driving.   

[eaglefreek]

Of course, if something breaks again I will know for sure that it's my driving.   

Or Thom's driving.

[amarshall]

Or Thom's driving.

Well, I didn't want to blame my co-driver for all the rough miles on the first trip.  But he's good for half at least, hah!  I broke the front axle, but he found the hidden puddle pit that took out the control arm bushings.  I'd say it's about even.

Although, when they invented the phrase "beat it like a rented mule" they were thinking of Thom's driving.

[maddog]

good luck on the rebuild dude, by the way what are those mirrors off of.

[amarshall]

good luck on the rebuild dude, by the way what are those mirrors off of.

Vangremlin posted about these mirrors in another thread:  http://forums.amceaglesden.com/index.php?topic=46151.0

I got them on Amazon:  http://a.co/abGK8Jr

[maddog]

as soon as I get the chance I'm going to see if the mirrors from a late 80's grand marquis will work on an Eagle or not.  One of the yards here have several of them but they have a serious weed and sunflower not to mention hornets and snakes. So until I can actually get close enough to the cars to get the mirrors off one I ain't the chance of getting bit or stung.

[amarshall]

I'm still alive, though Hurricane Irma came way too close for comfort.  We are on the East coast and the forecast track was heading right over my house at one point.  We boarded up the house and ran for the hills on Thursday, went to Atlanta with the kids.  Didn't really feel the need to ride it out in Florida since we had a place to go.  In the end we got very lucky and the path went to the West coast, so there was only minor damage to the house.  Yard debris was the worst, everybody still is waiting for the city to collect all the branches and stuff.  We've got a car-sized pile on every curb int he neighborhood.  But like I said we got really lucky, there were others who are still suffering.

Anyway, that slowed down the Eagle project for a couple weeks.  But I got back at it this past weekend and finished taking out the front suspension.  No more springs (thanks Rick for that compression tool!), upper control arms, sway bar, or steering linkages.  I got cheeky and rigged up a couple 2x4's across the top of the engine and bolted down through the beams into one of the head bolts.  With this holding the engine up, I was able to unbolt the cross member and take it out too.  I guarantee that thing hasn't been out of the car since Kenosha in 1987!  The bolts were a little tough to crack , but in the end they came out without snapping or messing up the permanent frame nuts.

I'm now free to do the oil pan (again!).  I started working on the control arm bushings with a ball joint press but it's tough to get the right adaptors.  The press is a loaner from Autozone, and it only has abut a 9 inch span - too small for the job really.  I messed up one of the upper bushings, so I stopped.  I'll take the arms to a real shop with a big press and have them do the bushings, and hopefully this will speed things up too.  There is still plenty of re-assembly to do, even if I hire out the control arm rebuilds.

About the only thing that won't be new are the lower ball joints.  The only ones I can find are about $80 each from Rare Parts.  Moog and AC Delco versions are not in stock anywhere, I think they have been discontinued.  My old ball joints were fine, so I'll leave them alone until they show signs of wear.  We will see if that was the right choice after my next trail ride, I suppose.

I'll try to get some pictures soon, but right now I'm on the road for work.  Not much time left before the second leg of the journey, gotta keep moving on this stuff!

[vangremlin]

Thanks for the update!  Glad to hear you escaped the hurricane with minimal damage. 

You're going to have a brand new Eagle by the time you're done!!

Have you checked with some of the AMC suppliers on those lower ball joints?

[amarshall]

Yeah, there isn't much I haven't touched on the Eagle. Probably not making a great financial decision, but at least it's completely sensible to drive it cross country off road.  Oh...wait.  Well, at least it's fun!

I just checked the normal spots like RockAuto and the big parts stores for the ball joints.  Rare Parts has them but they are spendy.  I will just stick with the old ones until they give me trouble, and THEN pay too much.

If I find the $30 Moog ones still in stock somewhere I may change my mind though.

[maddog]

i just checked on Autozone and they show a lower ball joint under their duralast line to be available. I also checked Advance auto and one of the stores here in Colorado has a Moog one in stock.

[amarshall]

Finally had a chance to upload some recent pictures.  I took out the front springs, upper control arms, differential, starter - but no pics of that stuff of course.

I am going after the oil pan (again) and want to take out the cross member and replace the motor mounts too.  There is currently a 7/16 rod and a couple 2x4's holding up my engine.  Crazy, but the factory service manual actually describes this procedure.





With the engine supported from above, I could take out the cross member.  Some dude in Kenosha put this thing in 30 years ago, guaranteed!



Motor mounts are worn, you can see cracks from the side view.  Luckily they are shared with some Jeeps so they are available and pretty cheap.





Finally got the steering linkages and oil pan out.  Pink bike is my backup vehicle.



I just saw the underside of my engine in the spring. Here it is again!



The oil pan was leaking at the very front, I think because I put RTV across the whole front the first time.  I've read elsewhere that these fancy modern gaskets work best when they are put in dry, with no RTV.  That's how I'm going with the second attempt.



So far, so good!  I highly recommend doing the oil pan this way, taking out the front suspension.  This way the engine stays in place, and can be started to check for leaks.  I've done a couple cycles so far with no leaks yet.  The first time I raised the engine a crazy amount until the oil pan cleared the cross member.  It wasn't worth it.



I took my control arms to a local shop to get the new bushings pressed in.  I started working on them with a ball joint press, but it was really not the right tool and I managed to mess up one of the new bushings.



Old bushings versus new - on the uppers.



I'm at "peak disassembled" on the Eagle right now.  From here on out the parts pile should be getting smaller, not bigger.

[vangremlin]

Thanks for the update and the pictures.  Sounds like things are going relatively smooth, I don't detect a sense of "I hate this car, I hate this car, I hate this car" in your writeup lol.

What is 7/16" rod tied into at the bottom end to hold up the engine?  I can't really tell from the pictures.

Love the backup vehicle, although it looks like you have another one in the background of the 9th picture that looks pretty sharp.