AMC Eagle

[MIPS]

Re-hose complete. Vacuum, emission, cooling and fuel lines have all been replaced. Swapped in new fuel filters, PCV and new hose clamps all around.



The result is the engine has not been idling as rough at a warm stop anymore and the coolant flush and refill has burped the air from the heater core.



..and yes if you spotted it, I doubled the hose clamps on the core because I screwed up twisting the old hoses off and kinked the ports on the core.... They straightened out okay but leaked a little, so they were double clamped because screw pulling the entire goddamn dash out to swap a core that's not leaking in the air box.

Edited: Also new speakers!






I specifically hunted down speakers that would far better match the car than the aftermarket black Kickers in the front and a pair of trashed Audiovox cones in the back. These white 40W waterproof speakers were decently priced and had a grille that looked close to what one might expect. They were painted with a plastic bonding nutmeg spray paint.

[MIPS]

And today the vacuum reservoir for the Cruise Command finally arrived. It does not have an internal check valve (I'll have to buy one) but with this final piece installed I plugged the Yellow Control Box in and now have Cruise Control just in time for the summer.

[MadMan]

Nice! The speakers look right at home.

[MIPS]

This weekend consisted of testing the new impact sockets and dropping the tank for maintenance and cleaning.





The mounting hardware is all in good enough shape to be reused and after the tank was drained and left int he sun to evaporate the last of the gas it was charged with carbon dioxide and then vacuumed out. The pickup sock looks like new.



The rollover check valve on the vapor line does not. Both stems have rusted off and it is not an easy to source a replacement, especially since the closest aftermarket valve is from Delorean. It had to be carefully dismantled, cleaned and new stems welded on before being sealed again.

[MadMan]

At least you're being cautious with the gas tank. It honestly doesn't matter how dry you get it, it can still catch fire easily.

[mr_rye89]

Rollover check valve? Does it keep the tank from pissing gas out the vapor line if you end up upside down?

This is starting to look like a restoration project. great job!

[MIPS]

Yep, that's all it does. For some reason however a liquid rollover check valve was not a thing for the 82 model Eagle at least, but was for the Concord.
This completes the refurbishment of the entire cooling, vacuum, fuel and vapor control systems. The tank and mounting hardware will be reinstalled tomorrow once the rust paint dries.

Originally Posted by MadMan

At least you're being cautious with the gas tank. It honestly doesn't matter how dry you get it, it can still catch fire easily.

At a previous job we used to charge chemical barrels with nitrogen during empty storage and transportation to both inhibit corrosion and prevent a combustible atmosphere.

[Titan1a]

Very fine work! When I was younger, before I got congestive heart failure, I wanted to do something like what you've done. I wound up doing vintage radios. I could only wish...

[MIPS]

New paint, new hoses and hey look, a rebuilt valve! Suddenly my tank pressure system works again.

[MIPS]

Carburetor rebuild is completed. It took about 11 hours and aside from a few instances where we had extra parts left over (for the NON-feedback model) there were no issues with the rebuild.





There WAS however problems found. The vacuum port for the PCV and canister purge was mostly plugged, the accelerator pump adjustment was incorrect, the choke pull-back actuator is leaking AND not adjusted correctly and to top it off, some beaner had the low and high idle screws installed in reverse. Once that was all set it was much happier.
Unfortunately the weekend fun ends there. With the vacuum, fuel and ignition systems now rebuilt it was safe to test the timing system and then reset the timing and THEN reset the idle speeds. There are two advance systems (distributor centrifugal and vacuum advance) and one retard system (computer operated). These were all tested separately with no issues found and then the timing was bumped down from the 22 degrees the previous owner set to 15 and as soon as we put in the low idle the missing stopped and the smell of gas left the tailpipe.

But it no longer revved or took a load without stalling or misfiring. IT seems that right when you are needing vacuum at the distributor vacuum advance, it falls off a cliff, so either there's a leak somewhere or worse......for some reason the timing is wrong.....somehow......It's been suggested the harmonic balancer has slipped.

Edited: Or it might just be a vacuum leak. The only thing between the distributor and the vacuum source is the Coolant Temperature Override switch (otherwise known as a Ported Vacuum switch. This dual-mode thingy disables the EGR when the engine is cold and runs the distributor off manifold vacuum for improved cold starting and driving. When the engine gets hot enough it activates the EGR and switches the vacuum advance to ported vacuum. While I don't know how entirely sealed it is supposed to be, something tells me if I plug all the ports and pull a vacuum on either the ported or manifold port I shouldn't lose my vacuum relatively quickly, else that's a vacuum that isn't reaching the distributor when the engine calls for it. I'll have to order a new one. Again, the CJ series used the same part so they are relatively inexpensive.

[MadMan]

Nice work. Some vacuum valve thingies are intentionally vented, however it's usually fairly obvious by looking at it, and it would only vent the thing getting vacuum (say, the EGR) and not the vacuum source. However, I don't think this one is vented, because it's switching the vacuum source (right?). Anyhow, you could simply bypass the valve - since you know the vacuum path and all the functions of it - in order to see if it fixes the problem you're having.

[MIPS]

That was basically my idea. If this is the cause of the timing advance issue when hot (and in ported vacuum mode) then bypassing it, setting the timing and then driving it while still hot should yield in a running engine. If it doesn't....that only leaves one thing left.

[MIPS]

Finally found a #*$&@!? 1 1/4" wrench to replace that bastard CTO switch. God damn that thing is in an awful goddamn spot and requires removing a ton of vacuum lines, the fuel lines and the coolant temperature switch to finally reach it.



While I was in there I also investigated the Coolant Temperature Switch itself. Unlike the 83 and later this is a three wire device that controls the computer and the manifold heater. In my case it read open on both outputs both hot and cold, meaning that the manifold heater didn't work and the computer never went into Closed Loop because it thinks the engine is still cold.



While the two internal switches are adjustable, removing the calibration pins found they had both corroded up. This switch after three weeks of looking is unobtanium so it will have to be dismantled, cleaned and recalibrated.

Meanwhile I took advantage of the hot weather and drained coolant to remove the heater box and replace various foam gaskets that were buzzing or spraying foam everywhere every time I turned the heat on. In the process I discovered a leak in the heater core, so the car is gonna run for the next week or so without any air box at all because I'm not putting that thing back in, only to remove it next weekend. It's easy on the eagle, but still not enjoyable.

[MadMan]

Unobtainium, indeed.

Isn't the 'intake manifold heater' that flimsy tube that comes up off the exhaust manifold to feed the air cleaner warm air when it's cold out? I never got those. It's like, let's use air from around the exhaust manifold when it's cold as balls outside, and the engine is cold, so we warm up the air charge to better carburate the gas. Except when the engine is cold, and it's cold as balls out, the exhaust manifolds are cold too, and won't warm up appreciably until the engine has been run a few minutes, but by that time, the engine is running already and warming up so what's the point?

What I'm getting at is that I don't think it's entirely necessary. If you find a 2 pin temp switch that fits the hole and switches at the correct temp, you could just forget about the manifold heater thing.

[MIPS]

Nope, that's the heat stove. The idea there was that it warmed up the air cleaner and carburetor for improved cold running. The Thermal Air Cleaner switch uses a bimetallic diaphragm that opens once warm and simply drops a door over the inlet port once it's warmed up. The Manifold heater is an electric heater below the carburetor that helps the intake manifold warm up when cold, otherwise you run a risk of fuel droplets forming on the walls of the manifold. I ended up just rebuilding the whole thing. There's a how-to over at the Eagles Den forum.