V8 Swap '84 Eagle Wagon

[AMC of Houston]

Thanks for all the pics!!    I was wondering if the diff was hung from the engine (like the original 6-cyl), or hung from the cross member somehow.   Now I know!

[V8Eagle]

Thanks for all the pics!!    I was wondering if the diff was hung from the engine (like the original 6-cyl), or hung from the cross member somehow.   Now I know!

Could you enlighten me? Is mine hung off of the cross member now or still off of the engine? Having never looked at a stock ones of these cars I'm still learning. Thanks!

[AMC of Houston]

From your pics it looks like someone made some diff-hanging bracketry and welded it to the cross member.   The Eagles factory front diff setup was hung completely from the engine.

[V8Eagle]

Thanks! Yep that is definitely the case, I spent some more time staring at them tonight. The way that came about was quite the story... I drove the car into work today for the first time, it was kind of the maiden voyage for it. I noticed that ever since I bought the car that I got a nasty drive line clunk when I went from park to drive or drive to reverse or vice versa. Felt like a super sloppy u joint on the driveshaft, but worse. On my way home from work today I started getting some constant driveline vibration, and it was getting worse. I stopped by a buddies house to show him the car, and he heard the clunk as well. While I sat in the car and went from park to reverse, he watched the underside of the car, and lo and behold the entire from differential was rocking like 2 inches up and down! I nursed the car home after that, and dug into it tonight. What I found was pretty sketchy. 3 of the 4 front differential mount bolts were loose. I tightened those down and took it for a spin, things improved dramatically. While I was under there I also found a few other things:
1. Installed those 7/8 sway bar bushings. Definitely too small, but they fit halfway decent. We will see how long they last.
2. Right front wheel bearing is bad. How much of a job is it to do those?
3. Found the exhaust leak, it's on the passengers side header collector where it connects to the downpipe. Going to probably have to have an exhaust shop help out with that one.
4. Unfortunately found some rust. The front upper control arm mount on the drivers side (mount farthest to the rear on that UCA) on the shock tower is pretty bad. Not much metal left. Has anyone ever done a repair on the sheet metal there? I think I read somewhere that that area was a common place for rust.

Going to see a buddy on Sunday that knows alot more about carbs than I do, hoping to get a good tuneup on the ol' girl.

[AMC of Houston]

About the clunk; also check the transmission mount.  When those go south, the whole back of the tranny will jump up when you stick it in gear.

For the bearings (once you get the hub assembly out of the knuckle), its easiest if you have a small hydraulic press to disassemble/reassemble bearings and axle flange.  But it can be done (not easily!) with a big hammer and a fat brass punch.   Be sure to NOT lose the spacer between the hub and the CV joint.  Sometimes they stay with the hub, sometimes stay on the outer CV, sometimes just drop out and are lost if you don't know its supposed to be there!   Take a look at the parts manual for the hub assembly, and you'll see it (the parts manual is in the Den's Eaglepedia somewhere).   If the bearing case (the outer hub piece) is wasted somehow, Crown is repopping them.

[V8Eagle]

Another update: Yesterday I threw the car on a uhaul trailer and headed over to a friends place to give the car a bit of a tune up. This is my first vehicle with a carburetor, so I had much to learn. We wound up fixing the following:

1. Timing was ~15 degrees retarded at idle.. It was literally off the scale. We dialed it in to 8 degrees retarded, the car really liked that

2. Good news is the car makes excellent vacuum, so no real vacuum leaks to track down

3. One of the PO's installed a new distributor, thankfully it is HEI. Looks to be a GM style distributor. We opened up the cap, the rotor and points all look very good. We also checked firing order, that looked correct as well. It has both mechanical and vacuum advance. We checked the vacuum advance with a vacuum pump and it works great.

4. The carburetor is a 4 barrel Holley street avenger 600. It has an electric choke and a linkage for a Ford kick down cable. The choke was stuck partially on, we were able to rotate the cap around to block out the choke for the time being, since its not hooked up. The car also really liked this change. I also went back and adjusted the kick down cable properly. Shifts are much more natural now, feels like it should.

5. Once we were finished, the car went from an idle of like 1100 RPM (Before) to 650 RPM (After). Much more reasonable. The car is also much smoother at idle, and starts better. Overall a very successful day, and I learned a ton.

The next things at the top of my list to fix (in order of greatest annoyance lol):

A. Fix the driveline clunk that still exists. This may lead to a deep rabbit hole that involves re-designing the differential mounts..

B. Rust repair on the drivers side front upper control arm mount, with additional bracing that comes up from the frame. Replace the upper control arm bushings while I'm in there on both sides.

C. New passengers front wheel bearing and CV shaft

D. Make the dang climate stop blowing hot air all the time, even when it doesn't have any power hooked up to it..

There is more on the to-do list, but those are the big important items. Sounds like most of the front end is coming apart here shortly...

[V8Eagle]

Some updates from last night:

Started tearing down the front end of the car. Started on the passengers side since it had the alleged bad wheel bearing. Tore everything down, good news is that the car does indeed have new brake components on it. It could use new soft lines however. Is there somewhere that sells those? After removing the brakes, I was able to get down to the wheel bearing. It is definitely in rough shape. Sounds like a bunch of rocks spinning around when you turn the spindle. So, I'll be working on that. I remember seeing a couple of threads that laid out what parts are necessary. I was also able to get a better look at how the front differential is mounted. It could use some improvement. Looks plenty strong enough, however I think it is dropped more than necessary for pan clearance. I think I'm going to try and raise it by about an inch for better ground clearance and to make it so that the CV shafts aren't at an upward angle at ride height, ideally I would like them to be straight at ride height. Between that and fixing the rust near the drivers side UCA mounting points I have a couple of fairly intensive fab projects ahead of me.

[AMC of Houston]

For your parts needs, RockAuto is your friend!!

[V8Eagle]

Yep, I am a frequent customer there haha. Ordered up the rubber brake lines (both fronts and the center rear) along with most of the wheel bearing parts I needed. I decided to order new outer cages and everything for the wheel bearings so I dont have to mess with trying to press out the old bearings. Thanks for the tip on the crown re-pro's.

[V8Eagle]

Alright, update is overdue.

I have been busy tearing the entire front end of the car apart lol. I removed the brakes, spindles, and CV shafts the other day going after the wheel bearing on the passengers side. Wheel bearing was definitely in a bad way. I ordered up all the parts to build up a new one, since they don't make them pre-assembled anymore.. Yay...

Here are some pics of the tear down. Tonight I finished the removal of the upper control arm, spring, and shock on the drivers side to discover the full extent of the rust.


 








Captain, there is holes in my ship!



So, a relatively unfortunate find. But, I will fix it. It is a common spot that these cars rust, due to being right below the brake fluid reservoir/master cylinder. My theory is that the brake fluid corrodes the paint and primer over time in that area, and the above happens. Thankfully the passengers side does not suffer the same fate, it is really clean. So, I'm going to go and pick up some sheet metal and box out that section to reconnect the supporting areas. There is a lot of good metal around the area, so I don't think it will be too big of a task. Timeconsuming, but not rocket science.

Other notes from the tear down, I found a couple of items. The drivers side shock mounts were really loose (seems to be the theme on this car...), the upper control arm bushings are completely shot (kind of knew that one already), and the front shocks are also pretty sad. So, by the time I'm done I'm hoping this thing will be de-sketchified, at least in the front end lol. I have a big personal trip coming up (taking the camper out to glacier and then Yellowstone), and then another 2 week work trip that departs as soon as we get back home. So, updates will likely be slim over the next month or so.

[AMC of Houston]

Ouch; that's some big open spaces!!!    Most would just recycle the whole car in this case.   You're a better man than I !!!!

[juhap]

Thanks for all the pics!!    I was wondering if the diff was hung from the engine (like the original 6-cyl), or hung from the cross member somehow.   Now I know!

Here you can see my version of that...

[V8Eagle]

Hello everyone,

Have been on a personal trip for the last 2 weeks, and now on a work trip for another 2 weeks. So, progress has been fairly slow. I dropped all the front wheel bearing supplies off with a shop when I was home for a couple of days so those will be ready when I get back. From there, I plan on installing the new front wheel bearing, and fixing up the pictured rust spot then POR-15ing that area so no further rust develops. Another thing developed when I was home for a few days, I had the chance to buy another V8 wagon of a different variety, a '94 chevy caprice wagon. So, unfortunately a member of the stable must go. Once I get the eagle back together I will be putting it up for sale, so if you are interested feel free to contact me.

[TheBirdman]

Oh man, glad to see more eagles getting some work done, but I gotta say, that CV angle is downright horrendous, if anyone wanted to gamble it like that they should bring spare CV shafts. Dropping the center section that far without dropping the subframe too is a recipe for wrecking CV shafts, and it probably doesnt help your alignment/steering problems either. Good luck on those rust spots too, like its been said, that type of front end rot is usually when someone would be looking for another eagle to transfer their parts into. Make sure you tear out any soft metal, clean it out really good, and fabricate reinforcements for everything thats no longer connected. These things flex pretty good off road as is, without massive pieces of missing structure.

Also as a personal tip, Id stay away from POR15. Any sort of rust encapsulator really, especially with rust as bad as yours, it tends to form a scab and trap moisture underneath, accelerating rust. Id suggest cleaning out all rust you can within reason, knocking off the scale, using a rust converter, like VHT rust converter or 3m mar-hyde rust converter (dont use rustoleum rust reformer, its trash), then painting over it and slathering the whole area with some kind of grease or wax, like fluid film, to keep the moisture and salt away. Ive fixed all the rot holes on my eagle this way, and I daily drive it through the south dakota winter, its held up pretty well.

[Canoe]

...
Also as a personal tip, Id stay away from POR15. Any sort of rust encapsulator really, especially with rust as bad as yours, it tends to form a scab and trap moisture underneath, accelerating rust. ...

That's my experience with POR15 too. POR15 has failed, and soon, with every application I did - except for on aluminum (carb). And that's when using their degreaser too. To use the POR15 up, I mixed it with micro-spheres, and it made a credible body filler. That started rusting too, but at least it lasted ~five years.
 
I've had a mix of works & doesn't work, with the rust converters. On the same vehicle or even just inches apart. No idea why the variance in results.

Getting great results with Fluid Film.