Here we go again! A 1986 Eagle.

[eaglescout526]

I didn’t think I was gonna be fixing a lot of mistakes and lack of maintenance on this car. However! I found something that eases my mind on the head gasket situation. 
 

 

Thats a Chrysler/AMC part number. Now the J in the front tells me the head gasket has been done once.

 

 

Otherwise the gasket is blown at the coolant passages and was able to mix in with the oil. 

[eaglescout526]

It’s officially ours!! Let the fun begin!

[eaglescout526]

 

BUILD SHEET!!

[89 MJ]

Going to clean it up and make a photocopy of it to display at car shows?

[eaglescout526]

6 minutes ago, 89 MJ said:

Going to clean it up and make a photocopy of it to display at car shows?

You know it! 

[eaglescout526]

 

I forgot to add that I found a second build sheet right behind the drivers front door too! Even the guys at cactus cruisers were baffled that I got two build sheets with the car. 
 

I also painted the steering wheel back to its factory color and did the armrests as well. 

[eaglescout526]

Timing set time! Picked up a cloyes timing set. So I got most of the way through that today. I was at the point where I could take the timing cover off and realized I left my harmonic balancer at my grandmothers with the Firebird. Doh!

So I went a picked that up. 
 

Here’s the original AMC balancer

 

Not in bad shape. It will need replaced in maybe about 60k. But right now it’s in good shape to put it back on. 
 

Here’s the timing chain and it’s slop

 

And here’s the timing cover

 

Decided to paint it closer to AMC blue vs black for the later years. Sanded the paint off the numbers and logo and it looks pretty good. Now im ready to start getting it back together. 

[Eagle_SX4]

1 hour ago, eaglescout526 said:

Sanded the paint off the numbers and logo and it looks pretty good.

Sand the paint off the timing marks as well it will make it much easier to see when you get it back in the car.

[eaglescout526]

57 minutes ago, Eagle_SX4 said:

Sand the paint off the timing marks as well it will make it much easier to see when you get it back in the car.

Wayyyy ahead of ya! Haha. I actually thought the same thing while I did the number and logo. That and the look of the numbers standing out looked pretty cool, two birds with one stone. 

[eaglescout526]

Everything is buttoned up and back together. Still a very healthy engine and still haven’t broken the $6k threshold on this car. Probably still very well under it too. Didn’t expect this one to turn into a budget build haha. 
 

Merry Christmas everyone! 

[eaglescout526]

Get an eagle they said. It’ll be fun they said. No one said anything about fragile as hell plastic parts!

And my bane is the lower dash vents for the AC. 

 

Little red is serving as my work bench for this piece. But those two metal straps and the plastic jbwelded in plastic is where this piece mounts and is mostly supported from at. By using the straps screwed to the duct itself, it should help with support and not solely rely on just the plastic itself to keep it mounted and in place. It shocks me that AMC didn’t think to add some sort of reinforcement to this so it wouldn’t break. On top of that it’s also screwed in at the sides. Which yeah not much support there either as I broke one of the ends off the other night and had to JBweld that and hot glue a popsicle stick as it’s support to prevent another breakage. Luckily my repairs will mostly be hidden, but damn, this ain’t fun kids. 

[Eagle_SX4]

13 hours ago, eaglescout526 said:

Get an eagle they said. It’ll be fun they said. No one said anything about fragile as hell plastic parts!

I am running into similar problems. The dash in my car is broken in several places I found one that was in better shape in the junkyard and pulled it only to find a bunch of hidden cracks and issues. It will be a few months before I can find enough time to fix it well enough to swap it into my car.

[eaglescout526]

21 minutes ago, Eagle_SX4 said:

I am running into similar problems. The dash in my car is broken in several places I found one that was in better shape in the junkyard and pulled it only to find a bunch of hidden cracks and issues. It will be a few months before I can find enough time to fix it well enough to swap it into my car.

Its disheartening to know that the plastic is super fragile and I could be spoiled by my MJ and XJ, though the XJ A pillars on mine are super fragile as well and could be made of the same plastic AMC used until the later years. Honestly though, this lower dash and the A pillar by the dash are the only two pieces on the eagle that’s broken and cracked. I’m sure I’ll find more….I don’t want to though. 
 

But at least the lower dash you found has hidden cracks and can’t be as bad as mine. The previous owners had the thing held in the middle with thick 3” long metal strips to pinch it in place. Kinda crazy. I’m hoping this will be a more solid and cleaner fix. 

[Eagle_SX4]

9 minutes ago, eaglescout526 said:

But at least the lower dash you found has hidden cracks and can’t be as bad as mine.

The lower section is called the parcel shelf. I will be replacing the entire dash and adding AC at the same time. So I will replace the heater box with an HVAC box and add the additional ducts that are not present in the non AC cars. I will also be making a bracket to mount the AC compressor on the bottom instead of the top so I can keep the alternator up top like it is on the non AC cars.

[eaglescout526]

13 minutes ago, Eagle_SX4 said:

The lower section is called the parcel shelf. I will be replacing the entire dash and adding AC at the same time. So I will replace the heater box with an HVAC box and add the additional ducts that are not present in the non AC cars. I will also be making a bracket to mount the AC compressor on the bottom instead of the top so I can keep the alternator up top like it is on the non AC cars.

Parcel shelf, that makes a lot of sense, it does hold a good amount of stuff. 
 

I look forward to seeing you do that on your build. That’ll be fun. 

[89 MJ]

Eagles are great, as long as you love being tortured.