AMC Eagle

[MIPS]

I mentioned a number of months back that I was looking at K-cars but someone pulled me aside, showed me this and told me to make the right choice.
For $2000 it seemed great.


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...t/CGS_8127.jpg

1982 AMC Eagle wagon. The part-time AWD car that seats six and I had no clue existed. I read over the specs and they seemed to run like a champ and score well in tests. Hell, even the commercials seemed appropriately cheesy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OHj72gFU3M

So what happened here was that I drove to the coast last weekend to inspect, start and test drive the car. It does have a few tiny rust spots and wear but for a car of its age it was in great shape and clean. The largest issue was missing rubberized trim pieces and the Select Drive system was not working and was locked into 2WD mode for safety.
I inquired with a local salvage yard and they happened to have an Eagle that came in a month earlier, so I also had a source of parts to do repairs AND almost all the missing trim pieces I needed.
I was driven down yesterday with the cash and paperwork completed and after the handshake I zipped back to the salvage yard for a three hour session on how to get almost everything I needed with a screwdriver and pliers and then back through the mountains. I now have a complete replacement vacuum line and actuator kit for the 4WD. By god, I cannot believe how many heads this turned on the highway and how many people approached me when I was stopped and asked where I got this car. Snazzy.
The 300km trip otherwise was uneventful. The car ran, handled and performed great at mountain highway speeds up to 120km/h.

Anyways after dinner last night I decided to take the car out to see how it handled and get the ropes of driving and parking a wagon. About five minutes after the above photo was taken I drove up the steep hill in town....and the automatic transmission died and dropped into neutral.
I did get the phonebook sized service manual with this car. The fault isolation matrix seems to indicate a hydraulic failure. The car itself was hopeless to shift into anything or make any transmission noises unless it was cold. The car was towed with my BCAA coverage to a transmission shop I know and we'll start learning how much more this car is going to cost me tomorrow.

On a lighter note, what the hell is the type of rubberized plastic AMC used on this thing? I cannot believe how flexible everything is after 35 years. There's stuff in my tracker that has long since gone brittle with age.