AMC Eagle

[MIPS]

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.




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.

[beat_truck]

Originally Posted by MadMan

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.

[mr_rye89]

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.

[MadMan]

Originally Posted by beat_truck

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...

[ESigma25]

I imagine that makes it about 2000% easier to tune!

[MadMan]

Originally Posted by ESigma25

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).

[MadMan]

lol good thing you found that timing mark issue.

[beat_truck]

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.

[Eric H]

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.

[ESigma25]

Originally Posted by Eric H

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.

[MIPS]

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.






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.




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.

[MadMan]

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.

[MIPS]

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.



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.

[MadMan]

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.

[MIPS]

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.