I imagine that makes it about 2000% easier to tune!
Lacking a secondary air system hardly makes that kind of difference. All the vacuum tubes and switches are still there for the EGR and evap. In fact, the AIR system (other than being physically in the way) is pretty much non intrusive. It helps the catalyst do its job, and in theory makes the exhaust system last longer - by raising the exhaust temperature and preventing condensation.

Of course, the pumps have a bad habit of falling into disrepair and seizing up. Plus they're kind of just extra crap in the way (as previously mentioned).

I'm stunned at how few hoses there are in that engine bay. Normally early 80s carbureted engines are a mess of vacuum hoses.

My '83 Dodge with the slant six had about 6 vacuum lines from the factory.

The late '80s Japanese cars that still had carbs were the ones that had about a million hoses, check valves, and other forms of nonsense.

My '83 Dodge with the slant six had about 6 vacuum lines from the factory.

The late '80s Japanese cars that still had carbs were the ones that had about a million hoses, check valves, and other forms of nonsense.

Can confirm. My '79 Toyota pickup had spaghetti out the wazoo on the factory Aisin Seiki carb. It got swapped with a Weber 32/36 DGEV 2bbl.

My '83 Dodge with the slant six had about 6 vacuum lines from the factory.

The late '80s Japanese cars that still had carbs were the ones that had about a million hoses, check valves, and other forms of nonsense.

I know, my first car was a 1987 "Chevy Nova" (a Corolla in disguise) with a single-cam carbureted 1.6 engine that was just a constant nightmare to start, especially if it was hot out. What a frustrating little car, when its transmission failed I was honestly kinda thankful.

My '83 Dodge with the slant six had about 6 vacuum lines from the factory.
Lean Burn. It was semi-computerized, that may be why.

At this point I have every vacuum line memorized. A bunch of my extra plumbing comes from several temperature controlled valves which modify the vacuum advance or enable and disable he EGR when it's cold. I actually added a new T-junction for the manifold vacuum when I ahd the intake off so now I have all the ports roughed in for the center console package. I just need to drill a hole to pass the wiring harness and bulkhead plug through and it's ready to go.

So today I finished off the upper control arm bushings and balljoint on the drivers side. This time I had the proper coil spring compression tool which sucks the spring up and into the pocket and it worked AMAZING. The parts were cleaned up and painted before being reinstalled. Ignoring the day I left the paint to dry it was a two hour job.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10003.JPG?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds (https://app.photobucket.com/u/ballsandy/a/1a5de693-3e31-4771-bb04-eae7a718980a/p/219a4613-8c6f-4d49-a27d-5c7a8acbfed4)
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I also received my replacement harmonic balancer today. I found when inspecting the old one that the rubber had swollen and was starting to come out of the sleeve and was causing screeching and nasyness like that. Turns out when I compared to the replacement my timing mark had also shifted four degrees, explaining why the car was such a pain in the ass to tune.

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lol good thing you found that timing mark issue.

I know, my first car was a 1987 "Chevy Nova" (a Corolla in disguise) with a single-cam carbureted 1.6 engine that was just a constant nightmare to start, especially if it was hot out. What a frustrating little car, when its transmission failed I was honestly kinda thankful.

We had an '84 Corolla and an '87(?) Chevy Nova. They were both total junk. Those had to be the worst cars Toyota ever made.

The Corolla ended up having a cracked engine block, and the Nova lost 4th gear in it's manual transmission for no apparent reason. We kept driving it without 4th gear, and before long, something in the valve train took a dump. They were both rust buckets, too.

And I can confirm that they had about 100 vacuum hoses.

Lean Burn. It was semi-computerized, that may be why.

Yes, it had the Lean Burn crap that controlled the ignition timing. It had a regular Holley 1945(?) 1bbl carb, though.

Huh I hadn't heard of 80 series 3a/4a powered corollas having issues like that. The one my sister had had issues with the carb for sure, and a tie rod end broke lol. I had a '91 Geo Prizm GSi (redtop 4AGE engine)for a few years and that little turd was a blast to drive. It's 5 speed was making strange clunking noises when I sold it a few years back. :scratch2:

The Nova was definitely a turd, and it sure wasn't fun to drive.

Being an automatic, the Corolla was probably worse. I say probably because I bought it not running correctly. It supposedly had a bad head gasket or cracked head. I had a known good head overhauled by a machine shop and installed it myself. It ran ok for about 5 miles, and then it started pumping oil out of the breather tube and lost all power, just like it did for the previous owner when he put a head gasket in it with the old head.

I was pissed that I had wasted all that time and money on a POS, and beat the ever loving crap out of it and sent the remains to the scrap yard.

Yes, it had the Lean Burn crap that controlled the ignition timing. It had a regular Holley 1945(?) 1bbl carb, though.

LeanBurn was really cool in concept. It even worked, too. Unfortunately, it suffered from two things. One, being that computer-ish electronics were still somewhat in their infancy, and two, they put a delicate piece of technology on top of a hot vibrating engine. Not Chrysler's finest moment...

LeanBurn was really cool in concept. It even worked, too. Unfortunately, it suffered from two things. One, being that computer-ish electronics were still somewhat in their infancy, and two, they put a delicate piece of technology on top of a hot vibrating engine. Not Chrysler's finest moment...

Mine still worked, surprisingly for being ~35 years old when I had the truck.

What was the actual benefit of it supposed to be, though? It basically read the ported engine vacuum and advanced the timing? Didn't a regular vacuum advance distributor do the same exact thing, and according to many people, do a better job of it too?

Didn't a regular vacuum advance distributor do the same exact thing, and according to many people, do a better job of it too?

The regular vacuum advance was not precise enough to produce the right setting under all conditions. Plus, spark was deliberately retarded from optimum performance on the early pollution-conscious cars. And with no feedback, the result would deteriorate between tune-ups.

My dad was a Ford mechanic and later service manager. Back before mandatory smog regulations, my dad's car was ready for a tuneup, so he did it and said let's have some fun; and on a fine Saturday we took it to the Lung Association free smog check. The guy running the test did it twice because he thought his instruments had failed. My dad told me that of course, it wouldn't stay that good and would also vary greatly with weather conditions (mainly temperature?).

The regular vacuum advance was not precise enough to produce the right setting under all conditions. Plus, spark was deliberately retarded from optimum performance on the early pollution-conscious cars. And with no feedback, the result would deteriorate between tune-ups.


How was that primitive Lean Burn setup any more precise? It didn't monitor any other engine parameters like temperature, exhaust gasses, air flow, or anything else. I'm pretty sure it literally just monitored the vacuum from the same carb port that would have went to the distributor, and nothing else. The Lean Burn "computer" even had a diaphragm that looked very similar to what is mounted on a regular vacuum advance distributor. At least that's how my '83 was.

On paper it might have looked better, but nearly all people that replace it with late '70s electronic (no points) vacuum advance distributors report better performance and usually economy too.

How was that primitive Lean Burn setup any more precise? It didn't monitor any other engine parameters like temperature, exhaust gasses, air flow, or anything else. I'm pretty sure it literally just monitored the vacuum from the same carb port that would have went to the distributor, and nothing else. The Lean Burn "computer" even had a diaphragm that looked very similar to what is mounted on a regular vacuum advance distributor. At least that's how my '83 was.

On paper it might have looked better, but nearly all people that replace it with late '70s electronic (no points) vacuum advance distributors report better performance and usually economy too.

I didn't mean to imply anything about the primitive Lean Burn System, which I know nothing about, just pointing out what it was supposed to improve.
All the early smog fixes made performance worse, as far as I know, and I can easily believe that this one made no reliable improvement in smog either.

What was the actual benefit of it supposed to be, though? It basically read the ported engine vacuum and advanced the timing? Didn't a regular vacuum advance distributor do the same exact thing, and according to many people, do a better job of it too?

https://www.allpar.com/mopar/lean-burn.html

The short version is that the guys at Chrysler discovered that if they had super precise control over the ignition timing, they could run the carb super lean and still achieve the same performance as a richer mixture with a regular old fashioned vacuum advance distributor. Yes, it was motivated by meeting emissions standards, but in theory that sounds plenty better than the 'old way' and it should improve fuel economy and keep the same performance.

It was a simple system, but not as simple as you might think.

The system measured:
1. Engine speed (r.p.m.).
2. Engine load. [likely the MAP vacuum]
3. Throttle position.
4. Speed of throttle movement.
5. Air temperature entering the engine.
6. Engine coolant temperature.
7. Carburetor throttle open or closed.
8. Engine starting.
As for the old fashioned carburetor and ignition system being 'better' - that sounds entirely typical of all the grumbly old farts in the repair industry. It's not that anything is 'better' it's that they are used to something being a particular way. They all said the same things about fuel injection, front wheel drive, unibody, disc brakes, MacPherson struts, I could go on and on. I'm sure that 'many people' also thought that hand cranking your engine was 'better' than having a starter, and that acetylene lamps were better than those new-fangled electric lights. lol You could probably go even further back and some guy would've said that steam was better than internal combustion.

Computerized fuel control using Carburetors was never going to work well. too slow, too imprecise. Things only got better when Fuel Injection became the norm.

Computerized fuel control using Carburetors was never going to work well. too slow, too imprecise. Things only got better when Fuel Injection became the norm.

GM dragging their feet on fuel injection compared to Ford and Chrysler really was pathetic.

This weekend was just more odds and ends work, mainly tightening hoses and oh, fitting the instrument package.

When I was working on the car I added a T-point on the port for the oil pressure switch to add an electronic pressure sender and on the intake manifold replaced the single vacuum port with a dual and plugged it off temporarily. Today I pulled out a box of parts I salvaged from a donor car which had the full package. The pressure sender, the wire and hose harness and bulkhead plug and the console package itself. The idea is you knock out one of the ports int he firewall, route the harness through, everything just plugs into awaiting connectors and the package fits around the automatic shifter.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10032.JPG?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds (https://app.photobucket.com/u/ballsandy/a/1a5de693-3e31-4771-bb04-eae7a718980a/p/677165ca-eafa-454c-b067-98c34e1a113d)
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https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10034.JPG?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds (https://app.photobucket.com/u/ballsandy/a/1a5de693-3e31-4771-bb04-eae7a718980a/p/60c3cf33-c8d1-4ef7-bfa2-889f0324c1c3)
https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10035.JPG?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds (https://app.photobucket.com/u/ballsandy/a/1a5de693-3e31-4771-bb04-eae7a718980a/p/56bec180-7779-468e-9e4e-1a2b816bff9b)

Initially it did all work great, then after a few hours the oil pressure reading dropped off and I was able to determine that internally a seal had failed and it flooded with oil, so a new sender will have to be purchased. Again, they seem to be really simple devices used by a number of manufacturers so another one will be readily available.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10038.JPG?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds (https://app.photobucket.com/u/ballsandy/a/1a5de693-3e31-4771-bb04-eae7a718980a/p/be00d32f-42bf-4b53-8c73-4e5a50e9af83)
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My new hurdle however is this interferes with the mounting bracket I fabricated for the car phone and the satellite radio controller, so I will need to fabricate something new to fit in its place.

Vacuum gauge? That's interesting. When you said you added a tee to the vacuum port, I thought maybe it would've have a fuel economy gauge. Same thing, I guess lol.

This whole project reminds me of my Chrysler LeBaron. Which I got beat up and bone stock, I went to a lot of junk yards and scavenged a lot of LeBarons to get just about all the factory options.

A vacuum gauge is pretty handy as a diagnosis tool but otherwise it will normally just wander between 20 and 5 inches of mercury most of its life as you accelerate and coast. Don't knwo why they settled on a 40 inHg scale. You'll never even touch 30.

https://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/29/13704.gif

The more head scratching thing is the package includes an analog clock, but if you already have the digital clock in the dash there's not a lot of purpose to it besides it just whirrs away constantly.
One thing that the harnes DOES help with in that matter is it adds the tachometer wiring which goes in the place of the digital clock. I have a salvaged one but they are apparently prone to failure. Mine on inspection seems that the adhesive that fastens the needle to the coil has failed and the needle is decoupled from the actual gauge. I'll need to work on that at some point but installation will require pulling most of the dash trim and the cluster out.

https://www.allpar.com/mopar/lean-burn.html

The short version is that the guys at Chrysler discovered that if they had super precise control over the ignition timing, they could run the carb super lean and still achieve the same performance as a richer mixture with a regular old fashioned vacuum advance distributor. Yes, it was motivated by meeting emissions standards, but in theory that sounds plenty better than the 'old way' and it should improve fuel economy and keep the same performance.

It was a simple system, but not as simple as you might think.

The system measured:
1. Engine speed (r.p.m.).
2. Engine load. [likely the MAP vacuum]
3. Throttle position.
4. Speed of throttle movement.
5. Air temperature entering the engine.
6. Engine coolant temperature.
7. Carburetor throttle open or closed.
8. Engine starting.

As for the old fashioned carburetor and ignition system being 'better' - that sounds entirely typical of all the grumbly old farts in the repair industry. It's not that anything is 'better' it's that they are used to something being a particular way. They all said the same things about fuel injection, front wheel drive, unibody, disc brakes, MacPherson struts, I could go on and on. I'm sure that 'many people' also thought that hand cranking your engine was 'better' than having a starter, and that acetylene lamps were better than those new-fangled electric lights. lol You could probably go even further back and some guy would've said that steam was better than internal combustion.
The v8s might have had all of those sensors, but most slant sixes did not. It seems that only the very last couple years did. My '83 didn't have most of them. As I said, it had the Lean Burn box on the air cleaner, but it had a normal 1bbl carb with no sensors attached. And no, the truck hadn't been altered. It matched up exactly with the emissions tag on the inner fender and the rebuild kit that I bought for the carb, and no wires were cut up.

Like I said, that system might have looked good on paper, but like most of those abortions that were created as a stop gap between regular carbs and fuel injection, they didn't work well in reality. Especially as they aged.

I was eventually going to ditch the Lean Burn setup for a regular vacuum advance distributor, but I sold the truck after hitting a deer with it.

The v8s might have had all of those sensors, but most slant sixes did not. It seems that only the very last couple years did.
I mean, I don't have much experience with them, but they kind of need 'all' of those sensors to work. By modern standards, it was very rudimentary, didn't control the carb in any way.

Aaaand we got oil pressure again.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10045.JPG?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds (https://app.photobucket.com/u/ballsandy/a/1a5de693-3e31-4771-bb04-eae7a718980a/p/7972fa7e-379f-4a86-97c8-a915ed6d802e)
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So it seems that for some reason an 80psi pressure sender is not a common part anymore. The Borg Warner catalog only lists a sender rated for 100PSI for the Eagle and pretty much every other car made by AMC, Jeep and International Harvester going back to the 60's. TSM doesn't specify anything either. It also doesn't list the scale resistance and at the same time I've never seen a factory oil pressure gauge on any car for that matter that was scaled for 100psi. Only the aftermarket stuff.
Anyways, lets assume that the variance in range resistance between the 80 and the 100 is about 12%, so with a reading of 63psi I should be seeing around 50psi which for a hot idle should be excellent and if I compare to other people on the internet, should be fine for quick visual indication and MILES above all these randos seeing stuff like 13psi at idle.

I wonder if you could just put a resistor in series to adjust the reading. Might want to get an oil pressure gauge (like, you know, a hydraulic gauge) to get an accurate reading for a baseline. But hey, it is working now.

Also, are you sure a 100psi sender would not be used for the 80psi gauge? Could just be the maximum pressure rating, not necessarily its usual top end.

I'm driving down the highway going 100 and my needle just sits at 75psi. I mean in this application that should be fine but I straight up don't believe my bearings are in that perfect of shape.
I actually can't really find a spec for the gauge or the sender. If it drives me crazy enough I'll, have to dig out the dial-an-ohm, find the upper and lower limits on the gauge and start seeing what other 80psi senders have the same range.

As long as it's accurate at Zero you're fine.

Oh here was an interesting failure.
I took a pothole on the highway and the engine went totally dead. Couldn't restart it. I had to call to get some tools brought in and found out I lost my TACH. After a bit of investigating I determined while still on the side of the highway that it vanished after leaving the ignition module.

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If you don't know what this is, these are great. I might of mentioned it before.
So points-type ignitions suck and require a TON of maintenance and I'm sure anyone old enough to know points will tell you how much it sucked. the Duraspark system however replaces points with a hall effect pickup in the distributor and electronic amplification system that generates the TACH instead. It's all solid state and requires no maintenance.
Anyways, you can potentially forget it's in there from how little you will need to touch it and mine has been in there so long the connectors have become brittle. One such socket had split repeatedly and the electrical connections had pulled themselves out through the back of the connector.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10069.JPG?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds (https://app.photobucket.com/u/ballsandy/a/1a5de693-3e31-4771-bb04-eae7a718980a/p/753f0f27-0762-465e-bee9-1a09698b72e6)

Note the green wire in that harness. That's TACH. The bump must of slipped it out and that was my issue, so a ziptie and pushing the pins back into the plug and I was off and running again.

Okay, so if the module has bunk connectors, why not just replace the module?
So, Duraspark and Duraspark II came in a number of variants for different types of vehicles. They were normally identified by the number of connectors they had, plus the color of the grommet. An AMC Eagle uses a module with three connectors (distributor pickup, harness wiring and computer electronic retard) and a yellow grommet. Most people sell a version with only two connectors and a blue grommet. Even other eagles I've salvaged from did not have their original module because if you do the Nutter Bypass you don't need the OEM unit, therefore a blue grommet version was cheap and easy to get.
While you can get replacement plugs on the harness side, the sockets on the module side seemingly are not sold separately, so I'm waiting for a chance to get a beat module with good sockets I can steal and splice those on. No point replacing a module that isn't defective.

lol most old mechanics piss and moan about electronic ignition in much the same way as they do about LeanBurn and anything else computery. I guess they'd rather clean their points every 100 miles. MUCH easier.

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/american+motors,1982,eagle,4.2l+258cid+l6,1003262, ignition,ignition+control+module+(icm),7172
Here you go, yellow grommet on the 6H1016. Likely both are the same. Interestingly it's only for 1982. I wonder if they only did the electronic carb in 82 or something. Or rockauto's listings could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time.

Also I love the AMC sticker on the Motorcraft-branded box lol. Nothing to see here, folks!

Old Mechanic here, Points usually didn't abruptly leave you stranded miles from anywhere, Electronic Ignition did that twice to me. One was a GM HEI that I had retrofitted into my 68 Nova 6 cyl, the other was an 87 Toyota Pickup, died on the 10 Freeway in heavy traffic while passing.
I used to see a lot of those Ford modules fail back in the 80's, the 90's distributor mounted modules also had a horribly high failure rate. I wouldn't go anywhere with an early Electronic system unless I had a spare module and the tools to change it.

Newer systems are much more robust and redundant, one driver per coil on the newest systems with individual coils, of course the Crank Sensor could fail, but that seems to be a very rare event.

I didn't know AMC used Duraspark. Just Everyone Else's Parts lol.

I killed the ignition module on my '79 Toyota, Good luck finding another one for sane money. It got replaced with an MSD Streetfire box, which works great for about 5000 miles before it won't let you rev past 1500. Replaced that with the Autozone $20 HEI module mounted on a heatsink AWAY from the engine. Still worked when I sold it.

I also had the Briggs Twin I/C in my lawn tractor running an HEI module. Using an ABS sensor off a Ford pumpkin, HEI module, GM dual tower coil pulled from a W body. Works good but disables all the safety switches.

Old Mechanic here, Points usually didn't abruptly leave you stranded miles from anywhere, Electronic Ignition did that twice to me. One was a GM HEI that I had retrofitted into my 68 Nova 6 cyl, the other was an 87 Toyota Pickup, died on the 10 Freeway in heavy traffic while passing.
I used to see a lot of those Ford modules fail back in the 80's, the 90's distributor mounted modules also had a horribly high failure rate. I wouldn't go anywhere with an early Electronic system unless I had a spare module and the tools to change it.

Newer systems are much more robust and redundant, one driver per coil on the newest systems with individual coils, of course the Crank Sensor could fail, but that seems to be a very rare event.

I love how you swooped in an proved my point. Another reason newer systems are more robust is simply down to delicate electronics being very old technology now. It's very well-understood and failure points have been learned by now. Manufacturing defects have been ironed out. High quality parts are widely available and cheap now. Etc, etc.

It's still neat to hear from the other side. I already knew that equivalent systems are still not permitted in most aircraft due to the fact that points will gradually fail while an electronic ignition will instantly fail. Personally myself I've yet to seen one fail (mind you, I'm currently using my only one) so sometimes experience counts.

Old Mechanic here, Points usually didn't abruptly leave you stranded miles from anywhere, Electronic Ignition did that twice to me. One was a GM HEI that I had retrofitted into my 68 Nova 6 cyl, the other was an 87 Toyota Pickup, died on the 10 Freeway in heavy traffic while passing.
I used to see a lot of those Ford modules fail back in the 80's, the 90's distributor mounted modules also had a horribly high failure rate. I wouldn't go anywhere with an early Electronic system unless I had a spare module and the tools to change it.

Newer systems are much more robust and redundant, one driver per coil on the newest systems with individual coils, of course the Crank Sensor could fail, but that seems to be a very rare event.
My last Ford, an '88 4 banger Mustang, left me stranded when the TFI module on the distributor took a dump. Between that, rust, and several other problems it had, I sent it to the boneyard.

I think the ignition module was on it's last legs in my '91 Ranger when it went to the boneyard due to rust. It was one that was a 4 banger but had 8 spark plugs. Sometimes the tach would start reading half the RPMs it was actually turning. I never checked, but I suspect half of the plugs quit firing at the same time. Shutting the ignition off and turning it back on always caused it to go back to normal.

The only other ignition failure I've had was a coil pack on a POS VW Jetta. That whole car was one giant failure, though.

I would never even consider trading modern electronic ignition for points, though.:no:

I had a neighbor who told me a story. He had an old Ford Bronco, not sure how old, he made it seem like the 80s, but probably the 70s, hard to say. He no longer had it when I heard the story. He used to drive 200 miles to work and back every day. He had to stop halfway (both there and back) and clean the points!

I'm sure it's an extreme example, but I would take one or two failures (needing a tow truck) over cleaning my points twice a day, I'll tell you that much.

Okay well now that I've played with the timing a bit it's apparent that the Eagle isn't liking the diet of 86 and both sea level and high altitude (above 3000 feet) driving. You can tune for above or below and 90% of the time it will be behaved but the variance in air density means somewhere along the line you're gonna get some wicked knock.
This is fixed starting in 1984 with a redesigned (okay, internally it's the same microcontroller) computer that includes a knock sensor, but I'm an 82, so no knock sensor. Of course, there's a fix for that.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/Carter_EKE.png?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds (https://app.photobucket.com/u/ballsandy/a/1a5de693-3e31-4771-bb04-eae7a718980a/p/a927cf6a-90eb-43e4-a557-f4c909108145)

They don't normally come up for sale often but it's great for adding a knock sensor to a non-equipped engine and it supports almost every ignition type. Popular Science positively reviewed it in 1984 and yesterday found one for the equivalent of "half price" in 80's dollars...but it's going to a PO box int he states so it's unlikely I'll be able to install it for a while.

You could probably make one with an ordinary knock sensor and a Raspberry Pi. Old Chevy knock sensors are tapered pipe thread that fit in the block's coolant drain.

This sucker is clean.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1988-American-Motors-Eagle/224172921217?hash=item3431bf5181:g:l-gAAOSwqmJfVQ4T

Ran into a small fire. Nothing too serious.

For those who have grown up with cars where the headlamps are contolled by a relay, in the days before that was a thing you had both battery voltage and the full draw of the headlights coming right up to the dash and getting routed by a switch. Doing it this way did work but put a lot more stress on what was otherwise a combination switch. It's a common issue for the switch or the connector or in some cases even the harness to burn up from age related wear.

In my case it appears my switch has been replaced previously, however the housing later cracked and the main headlight output terminal came loose. The resulting resistance burned the wire and spade clean through the connector.
Note the two marks where the spade was just sitting loosely on top of the terminal.
https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10213.JPG?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds (https://app.photobucket.com/u/ballsandy/a/1a5de693-3e31-4771-bb04-eae7a718980a/p/3349f65a-363e-45f7-9d61-63ebcf38edb4)
https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10214.JPG?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds (https://app.photobucket.com/u/ballsandy/a/1a5de693-3e31-4771-bb04-eae7a718980a/p/8d504f80-4d54-4b5d-8381-bee81b6e23fb)

So better now when it's getting colder and there's less daylight to pull the cluster and replace the headlight control and dimmer switches. Thankfully my local parts shop supplies both.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10212.JPG?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds (https://app.photobucket.com/u/ballsandy/a/1a5de693-3e31-4771-bb04-eae7a718980a/p/0afe624f-b839-436f-b443-86227bcd50b1)

You know they sell the plug, too, right?

Yes but I needed the car tonight and the plug would of not come in to my supplier until Tuesday. I just snipped the old crimp off, crimped and soldered in a new one and now it's all good.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10215.JPG?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds (https://app.photobucket.com/u/ballsandy/a/1a5de693-3e31-4771-bb04-eae7a718980a/p/2ced9757-7260-42e7-866b-c1c0d8934bb8)
https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10218.JPG?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds (https://app.photobucket.com/u/ballsandy/a/1a5de693-3e31-4771-bb04-eae7a718980a/p/b7bac1fa-932d-45c9-a531-b989d0678950)

Nice improvisation.

Dammit, but now the speedometer cable chatters. :sigh:

That cable was a pain in the ass to separate from the cluster. It's right above the column support and the end is plastic, not metal so it's really easy to snap off and you pretty much have to crawl under the dash and reach in with one arm and one eyeball clearly seeing where your hand is while you hold a flashlight in your mouth. You barely get enough space for a finger and thumb to grab the knurl on the cable, unthread it and pull it two inches back to remove the cable.
Anyways I did get it out and even before I pulled anything the cluster had an annoying habit of developing a "sque.........eek" that came and went, so I took a drop or two of 3 in 1 to the speedometer port and shot some lithium grease down the cable.....yet somehow I made it even worse.

Sounds like it needed graphite or molybdenum.

The cable sleeve may simply be damaged internally, and you made it worse by disturbing it. Just a hypothesis.

Eugh. I had a suspicion that would be the problem potentially but I really cannot spare any enthusiasm for a job like that. Fun quirk about this car is that because it has dealer installed cruise control and not factory, you have to be careful when selecting a replacement cable and sleeve or you will end up with one too short.

I mean, the cable and sleeve replacement kits are not hard to find and they are cheap but I would rather not deal with that crap now that we're dropping below freezing at night. :no:

Okay nevermind. Turned out to just want a bit of oil.




*phew!*

Nice, I have two Eagles on the road. An 86 wagon and an 82 SX/4.

I had knock and temp issues for years with the 86, even with the knock sensor active.

As anyone might of notices, mechanically the car has been pretty quiet for a while now.
AND THEN THIS MORNING.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/IMG_1376_s.JPG?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds (https://app.photobucket.com/u/ballsandy/a/1a5de693-3e31-4771-bb04-eae7a718980a/p/d8517a11-6275-4d94-a984-bdd427574c69)
https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/IMG_1379_s.JPG (https://app.photobucket.com/u/ballsandy/a/1a5de693-3e31-4771-bb04-eae7a718980a/p/22306059-8b30-4680-a182-347f62f3efa7)
https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/IMG_1378_s.JPG?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds (https://app.photobucket.com/u/ballsandy/a/1a5de693-3e31-4771-bb04-eae7a718980a/p/a6430466-5805-4d3e-9a47-2d7ac8474358)

Driving home from the night shift on mainly dry roads when the rear passenger axle snaps. After calling BCAA and getting it hitched up (ironically, it was the same person who towed me way the hell back when the transmission failed so he remembered me :) ) and dropped off at the shop with a jack stand under the axle I didn't get to bed until 3:30 this morning.
So what happened here is I'm pretty sure it's nothing I did that caused this. I'm still hunting down the bulletin but for a short period someone didn't have their torque driver set right and the rear passenger axle nut was overtightened. It's apparently very common for cars that missed the bulletin back in the 80's to snap their axle inside the hub and then strip out the splines. Eagles use the AMC model 35 axle which is derived from the Dana model 35, but they are not the same so in the middle of winter I have to head out into the snow and see if I can dig out another axle shaft in the dead of winter.

Well, if you're completely SOL, there's a specialty machine shop near me, I'm pretty sure they specialize in making special driveshafts and stuff like that.

Grab a coat
Grab a shovel
Grab an ice pick

I'm gonna pry that donor car's axle from its cold, stiff fingers. >:3

Success.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/IMG_1438.JPG?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds (https://app.photobucket.com/u/ballsandy/a/1a5de693-3e31-4771-bb04-eae7a718980a/p/178c399a-fe4b-4bdd-a29f-bc00d8d6fb1b)

Hrm. :/

So all has been good and happy since the axle snap and a few weeks ago I elected to complete the work on the front by replacing the tie rod ends, the pitman arm and then sending it to a shop for the strut rod bushings, the lower control arm bushings and the lower ball joints which I finally managed to track down. Save for the spring perch bushings that I cannot find there's no more bushing left in the steering and suspension left to replace. It's all new.
I elected to leave the job to a shop because I don't have the tools at the moment to spin off the CV nuts and push the CV's out so I could then drop the lower control arm. It all came back nice and aligned and felt great.

Then today I did my annual oil and filter change and on inspection I found one of my CV boots had slipped off and the other was slinging grease. At some point since I changed the tie rod ends the metal boot clamps disappeared and in their place on both sides was a black zip tie.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10506.JPG

I'm clearly going to raise hell at the shop on Monday because that would of been a very, very expensive breakdown but I don't understand why they would of needed to remove the boot straps unless instead of pushing the CV out of the bearing hub they just pulled the CV apart. That makes no sense.

Also I got a ton of flak from people because I use Fram oil filters. I've been using them for over ten years with no issues but apparently they had a period a few years ago where the build quality was not great and now they are engine-ruining pieces of trash? I'm not totally buying this but I'm curious what happened.

Well they may not have been able to get the cv axle out of the hub. So to save your hub and bearing from the destructive forces needed to remove the axle, they probably just took it apart. However, I'll never understand how mechanics seem to think that a pissant zip tie can hold an axle boot on. The worst part is that generic stainless steel tie straps are cheap and available, and there's really no excuse not to keep some around your shop.

If I were you I would give them the keys and say nothing besides: "You ziptied my axle boots on. Fix it right this time."

I got my explanation today. Kinda makes sense.

The new ball joints include a grease nipple, but it was discovered once everything was reinstalled (he did actually push the CV out of the hub and not just separate them) that on the first rotation the clamp hit the nipple and trashed the clamp on both sides. Our solution is to remove the grease nipples and put much lower profile NPT plugs in the holes, then just switch in the nipples every time I add more grease.

The worst part is that generic stainless steel tie straps are cheap and available

Apparently not. Because the grease nipple added pretty much no clearance they didn't have anything that wouldn't just break again. It took me a few phone calls as well to find anyone local selling clamps. It was weird. Like hose pinch clamps the main suppliers all only stock one size now.
Anyways its dealt with now. I'll pick up the extra bits and they'll be installing it at no cost.

Yeah the pinch clamps are not common. But basic stainless tie straps are a Harbor Freight item. Granted, theirs kind of suck, but still better than nothing.

Also, the zerk fitting is a good inch away from the clamp's travel, and it's still present in that last photo. So, um...

>_>

That's a straight fitting that was installed to replace the 90 degree elbow fitting that came with the kit. I don't have it on hand right now but they are quite a bit larger.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQZ7Q1Lshx-Boawy-0Aki72qYyGz0HPVrWLuT8cP7N39x1OTYWc46D6Yx7u0fy-yrpxAlM&usqp=CAU

I grabbed some of the cheap strap-type clamps on the way home from work but I also got a pair of the ear-type clamps from a 35 year old Superboot kit I don't trust to install because it's so old (the boot, not the clamp).

There we go. They cleaned up the grease slinging and put the clamps on for free and I built new threaded plugs that screw into the ports on the new joints. Plenty of clearance now.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10524.JPG?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds (https://app.photobucket.com/u/ballsandy/a/1a5de693-3e31-4771-bb04-eae7a718980a/p/7f28cc5a-15d3-44ce-9b98-2182430ebe4f)

RCR reviews on youtube posted a history of AMC today in which they humorously described the Eagle as "basically a passenger car wearing an Indiana Jones hat". Kind of a fitting description for something more capable than any sedan of its time, but less capable than a truck built for off road.

Roman's write-up was great. AMC had pretty much bankrupted themselves on the design, marketing and sale of the Pacer and when that failed they had to push SOMETHING, so why not rehash the last decade's worth of model bodies, but with trim changes and AWD. For as much as people say its awesome and the beginning of whatever the hell they want to call it, this was a line of cars built on "how cheap can we make this with whatever parts we've already made?"

Anyways, the headliner and sun visors have FINALLY been rebuilt. They've been out of the car since late 2019 and didn't make it into a shop due to logistical challenges. Eventually I decided it would be easier to put the headliner back in and just take it back out again as I pulled into the upholstery shop.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10851.JPG
https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10852.JPG

So aside from a deep clean and detail and adjusting a few things that rattle and clatter the interior is back together again.

"how cheap can we make this with whatever parts we've already made?" but also "what parts will the Big 3 sell us cheaply?", thus leading to stuff like GM AC compressors and Ford ignition boxes under the hoods of AMCs.

Headliner turned out nice.

I still cannot put my head around how many parts AMC phoned in. I'm STILL finding things that cross reference to The Big Three....and then some!
When I refurbished the intake manifold I discovered the electric manifold heater is a VW/Audi part. I checked my spare manifold and it is too.
When I did the alternator, sure it's a Corvette part.
Remember when I rebuilt the rollover valve?



Delorean.

The engine came out at the end of March and was sent in for a rebuild. At this point I really shouldn't be considering something costing $5000 but dammit, I'm going to stay committed to this car.
Several things were noticed.

1- While it was in for a block rebuild, it was found that even though I had the head sent separately to be rebuilt in 2020, that machine shop did a "refresh", not a "rebuild". Other than the stem seal umbrellas and redressing the valves in their seats no other work was done and it was found that the valves and their stem seals were all badly worn, so we opted to rebuild the head again and put all new parts in it.

2- Bearing surfaces looked okay. They were original to the engine but there was no signs of serious problems

3 - Pistons had light scuffing, so a rebuild was indeed time

4 - Camshaft had bad wear on the fuel pump eccentric. When I measured the lobes for abnormal wear I found the lobes at the front of the engine were visibly smaller than the lobes at the rear of the engine. They were not wiped out, so I'm not sure what happened there.

I asked for all the used parts back so I could examine them myself and to catch any issues (also I wanted to save the water pump because it only has 40000km on it). As it turns out they almost threw out my pump-to-manifold coolant hose and while I found my old block heater in the box I don't see mention of a new one on the invoice, so I'll verify with them again on Tuesday because it's WAY easier to install the block heater that lives under the manifolds with the engine out of the car.

Also, what the hell is going with the price of Eagles?
When I bought in a wagon was $2000 and needed a ton of work. The community was nearly dead and Eagles were a footnote in automotive history that were even less known than the Pacer. Then as COVID Mania took over, at the same time their popularity flared up. I was seeing new articles, honorable mentions, youtube videos and their value started to creep up. $4000, $8000, $10000...
Last year a late, late '88 model that was in excellent condition and low mileage with all the options went for about $25000, which at the time was a record and kind of understandable because it was in great condition and the last of the last. Then this week an '84 in excellent condition, low miles and considerably fewer factory options than mine smashed the previous record and sold for $41000. (https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1984-american-motors-amc-eagle-limited-4wd-wagon/)

I..Wha....That's silly money. That's Corvette, Firebird and Mercedes money. I can't really explain or understand why their value is now spiking.

Maybe with the world going to hell an inline 6 that can go off road makes people feel better than a fuel hungry V8 that will scrape it's bottom off on too steep of an entrance to the grocery store parking lot.:scratch2:

So in the end the rebuild went exceptionally well. It went quite a bit over the expected turnaround time due to problems getting the camshaft bearings to ship but the work finished in mid-June and it went back to the other shop to reinstall it.
THEIR WORK I'm still repairing. It's a whole other nightmare of misrouted hoses, disconnected cables, broken parts and an exhaust leak that persists. I'll probably need to take the exhaust manifold off again to inspect and replace the upper and lower seals because at this point I lost all trust in that shop.

So with the exception of working on that and repairing my prized cruise control my goals this year are:

-Install the brackets for the console
-Install the car phone
-Replace the power seat switches
-Swap in the new 10-disc CD changer with CD-Text support

I'm starting with the center console/gauge package. Because I'm not a "Limited" Eagle with the luxuries of air conditioning or the lower parcel tray I can't have the gauge package because there's no way to secure it to the floor or under the dash. I can fix that with a bit of metalwork but it's tricky because I don't want to drill into the floor or damage the (frankly already ruined) carpet. Instead I cut and shaped a steel bracket that steals two screw studs for the floor shifter and holds down the front of the package. This was the hardest part to do because nothing else could be done until this was secured but now its done and the brackets that reach up and bolt underneath the dash can be fabricated, THEN finally after years of saying I was going to do it, I'm wiring the car phone in.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_11310.JPG
https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_11311.JPG

There's another thing I came across over the winter that I started getting curious about. Secondary Air options. Canadian Eagles initially were available with no secondary are and no catalytic converter. These days that's considered a massive plus because it means you get a serious handicap if and when you need an inspection. Later on however both became mandatory.
The classic AIR system was Air Injection which is often also called the Smog Pump. A mechanical vane pump forces air through a set of valves and lines to either ports at the exhaust manifold flange or a port on the catalytic converter. The goal was that adding fresh air to the exhaust reduced hydrocarbon emissions before it left the vehicle and helped the early catalytic converters from setting themselves on fire.
Universally the smog pump is hated. The air pumps these days are all remanufactured and their bearings are not all that great. The system adds a lot of plumbing and on an Eagle that snakes over and hangs off the valve cover and visually isn't attractive. Before the valve that determines which direction the air is going to go is the diverter valve which suspiciously looks like a Ford part. It vents the system when there is too much air pressure and during deceleration (when you usually cough out elevated hydrocarbons) it stops all air flow and stops backfiring. Overall an older system with lots of parts, but a proven system.

AMC however came out with their own thing called Pulse Air. Naturally aspirated. While I'm aware of positive backpressure being needed by the EGR to meter its operation, the exhaust somehow also creates a negative or near-atmospheric pressure that can be used to draft air in using check valves. The result is a far more simplified system that tucks all the plumbing at the back of the engine.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/PulseAir_Diagram(1).png

TECHNICALLY my car supports secondary air. The live data jig says its operating and the extra pins on the harness are present. I do also have most of the parts to add Pulse Air so if I was crazy I could add it to the vehicle and then see if using an Exhaust Gas Analyzer see if it actually works. There are however two big hurdles. One is that I do not have the upstream and downstream ports on my exhaust, especially on the catalytic converter because I don't have one at all. Just a resonator. I'm curious how the ports are plumbed into the main pipe. Is it just a hole in the wall of the pipe? is it using the venturi effect? There's not a lot of information and what information is available seems to conflict. The CeC was redesigned for the 1981-1982 model years. Some sources say Pulse Air was supported then. Every vehicle I've seen so far that still has it installed are later model years after 1983 when the computer was again redesigned. This is reinforced by my ET-501 tester's diagnosis charts clearly indicating that the two control solenoids on the 81-82 years are for "Air Control Valve" and the "Diverter Valve" (the air pump system) and 83 onwards are for "Upstream Air Valve" and "Downstream Air Valve". (Pulse Air)

Asking questions to clear this up or even scavenge parts has been relatively unsuccessful. Often ending with the comment of "You do not want to put that in your car" and "that system never worked".
Well dammit, I'm curious and I kinda want to try it. I don't have a catalytic converter but in theory putting a downstream port on the resonator will do about the same thing.

I ended up pulling the drive train on my 47 Oldsmobile to replace the transmission myself because all my guages work and I didn't want some time-is-money mechanic to cut my oil guage capillary tube or speedo cable because they "didn't have time to soak it with penetrating oil overnight". I didn't make anything worse except the exhaust leaks...The exhaust pipe and muffler are older than me and were swiss cheese before I started so I pretty much didn't mess up anything that wasn't pre-ruined.

I deleted all the smog equipment on my w250 (LA 318 w/ Holley TBI) long ago, the AIR pump was seized anyway and no smog testing in my county. I'm thinking about ditching the Holley TBI and going to a 4bbl carb/HEI dizzy/hotter cam to try to get mo' powah......

I'm seriously tempted to install it. There's no point as I'm lacking a catalytic converter but it's not like it will cause problems with it being there.....and its not like it would be hard to remove it again. I just need to find a source for the check valves that isn't $30usd each. @_@

Well that experiment went out the window fast.
I guess one of the check valves I didn't receive with this pile of parts had failed and the exhaust blew out one of the control valves. Messing with Pulse Air was going to be a minimal cost thing but even used those valves are pricy, so I'll put all that away and go back to working on the center console.

So I will admit that I've had none of my headlight alignment screws working the entire time I've owned the car. It was lousy driving at night, but it wasn't unusable.
Well this last weekend I finally dismantled the entire frond of the car to remove the headlamp buckets and replace all 8 adjusters. One of the buckets is weirdly tweaked even after I reassembled everything but with a quick alignment the beam seemed to be okay.

The other thing is that I discovered that while I have the optional two-tone horn the high-note horn has been dead the entire time as well. With the buckets out I could reach in and remove it and found it had been full of water in the past. Cleaned out the rust, burnished the contacts and blam, I got a two-tone horn!

Does anyone know the name or brand of this style of connector? I've seen it referred to for older stereo wiring but this has the clip in a different orientation and there's a notch in the other side.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_11423.JPG
https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_11424.JPG

A quick search found an expensive complete harness, which may not even have both halves:
https://www.amclives.com/products/dash-engine-compartment-wiring-harness-1969-amc-amx-javelin

What circuit connects through this? Maybe a search by circuit name would find something?

It's the harness end that connects to the solenoid manifold for the "Vacuum Switching Solenoid" (the vacuum-driven half of the Sol-Vac) and both solenoids for the air management. It's very unlikely that it's an AMC-specific part because of how much phoning-in there is with the rest of the vehicle's electrical. The hard part is finding who the connector OEM is because the connectors are being repurposed (EG: a 2-pin GM alternator connector is being used by AMC for the air cleaner temperature switch and a 3-pin Chrysler neutral safety switch connector is being used for the coolant temperature switch and yet another alternator connector variant is used for the washer fluid pump, so even trying to search pigtail ends is a challenge because it's being used in entirely different jobs)

The idea is that with further research you can technically adapt the Pulse Air solenoids to work with mechanical secondary air using two relays but I need to build an adapter that plugs in between the two parts of the harness. Instead of modifying the original harness it makes more sense to use the same connectors and then when I'm done I don't have to convert the connectors back.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/convert_S.jpg

I did a similar thing this summer while the engine was out. I replaced that pesky coolant switch with a modern equivalent but instead of altering the factory harness I built an adapter.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/AMC_82_CTS_Upgrade.png

I was gifted a replacement air control valve so now other than this and the metal air tubes that go under the car it's ready to go for the test.
Speaking of testing, I finally bit the bullet and bought myself an Exhaust Analyzer. Someone near-ish was selling a Sun Modular Engine Analyzer for $100 and I'll be going to pick it up in a week or so. I see the later model units occasionally for sale around here and they show up at auction and sell for pretty much the same price range and they normally don't sell for a lot but they're massive and this gives me a reason to replace all the stacked boxes in the garage with proper benches and shelving because it it wasn't getting obvious all these spare parts, tools and equipment are turning the garage into a bit of a perpetual mess of things stacked on eachother.

Time for another major upgrade.
The wiring harness mostly being assembled by Ford it has the same issue Ford (really everyone at the time) had with the full load of the headlamps routing form the battery, up to the dash, through the headlamp switch and back to the front of the car. Long runs meant voltage drop and that style of wiring was prone to overheating and burning up the headlamp switch and it's associated plug. I talked about this back on page 20 (gee, this thread is long...)

I had to go in and replace the switch in 2020 because the terminal had failed and roasted the switch and the main battery terminal but during the summer my headlamps started to fail again when the high-beams were on. Finally over the weekend I could smell hot plastic and the low beams would flicker out so it was time to go back in and see what failed, plus make a change.
Harness conversion kits are available that relocate the load of the headlights to a pair of relays in the engine compartment, leaving a few hundred mA going through the switch instead of many amps. You simply plug them in to an old headlamp socket, attach a battery link and grounds and you are set. They're also extremely cheap.

Usually you can get away with the packaged wire lengths as everything is nicely crimped and sleeved but the Eagle has a problem in that between the positive post and the front of the car is the battery. Either you mount the relays in the engine compartment and your headlamp wiring is too short or you locate the relays in front of the battery and extend its battery wire an extra 12 inches. I opted for the latter.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_12334.JPG
https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_12335.JPG

While not ideal because a relay issue means pulling the headlamp assembly apart, behind the headlamp bucket is a cavity which will fit a pair of relays with room to spare. I located it as high up as I could to keep water out of the sockets and then routed the battery cable through the adjacent hole, around the battery tray and up to the battery terminal on the starter solenoid. Each lamp socket gets a new ground cable which terminates at a new point on the body. Yes I ground down under the terminals to ensure a good contact. The harness tucks away cleanly in the cable path of the old headlight harness which I left in place but tied back. The white cable clamp below the relays supports the harness so it cannot unplug from the relays.
Then came testing. The new harness plugs into the 3-terminal socket of the old low-beam lamp. For some reason all three wires were incorrect so the socket had to be de-pinned and reconfigured.