Best car i ever owned. 4×4 trucks couldnt go where i could in the snow. Best vehicle for snow I've ever seen. Wish i still had mine. I had so much fun on those Michigan two tracks 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🇺🇸
My dad had a 1980 AMC Eagle. We loved that car. The front hub bearings were notorious for going out on that model . Idk whether or not because it was a Full Time 4WD played a role in the bearings going bad or not but if I’m not mistaken they were interchangeable with the xj Jeep Cherokee. We owned a few of them also. We took the rims off a xj Cherokee Laredo and steering column from a Jeep Comanche dressed her up a little . I will never forget that car.
they are essentially the same as an XJ, but not exactly. The XJ uses a true unserviceable "unit" type bearing and requires the whole hub to be changed. The Eagle uses a different setup and the bearings/races can be removed and changed, but the outer hub is reused. if the hub bearings were going out it could be improper preload or the seal on the back of the unit. (it could also just be the replacement brand. the originals were Timkens though). It's an easy problem to overlook. my passengers side seal was torn and i couldn't tell until i completely tore it down. it lets dust, grit and water get into the bearings and destroy them. the full time 4wd wouldn't affect anything since the only difference between 2WD and 4WD is the the sleeve to engage the front differential would be locked. the bearings inside the diff would be affected, but not the wheel bearings since they'd be turning in either mode.
We had an 82 4x4 station wagon, red growing up. It only had an AM radio and the most interesting interior. That thing ran like a champ. We took it everywhere. I would kill to have that car still. Idk what happened to it either.
I have a few of these eagles. Way ahead of it's time. Took many into area's that jeeps would have some difficulty. Got stuck many times as well. Good times.
Utah has "the greatest snow on earth" because of its dryness. its VERY slick and makes for great skiing/snowboarding, but man its like driving on polished snot!
Rumor is that when AMC was working with VW on procuring 4-cylinder engines for the Gremlin, they were introduced to the Audi Quattro racing development in Germany (before Audi began selling its AWD models). AMC beat Audi to the US market with a 4WD wagon. The 4WD Eagles weren't cheap when they came out. I noticed a lot of parents of well-to-do kids in my high school drove Eagles in the early 80s.
A friend of mine helped develop them. he might know. he said they were designing them to compete directly with Subaru and the Brat, etc.. i hadn't head the Audi angle. Thats interesting! i wish AMC had made better financial decisions, like keeping Jeep...
I owned a two tone beige-tan 4wd changed tires to one size up all weather radial & largest gas shocks that could find her name "Bruiser" is self explanitory I refer'd to her affectionately as my Cheap Jeep! -_- Comfortable Interior & well thought out xtra storage tray under dash I'd buy another if can find one & wouldn't change a thing about her
I've had (3) Subarus and my 1981 Eagle Wagon was far better in the snow. I'd buy one tomorrow if they still made them. Plus you don't have to deal with all the Safety nanny garbage.
yep. too many gadgets and computer junk to fail and empty your wallet these days. the prices of new vehicles are insane. i saw a basic bare bones chevy pickup last week going for the same price i paid for my house ten years ago
I totally agree on your comparison to Cherokee. The only constructive observation I can give is your tires if properly chosen could even contribute to the ability of the ride. They just didn't seem to unload the snow from the tread. Just a thought.
these tires are a pretty good snow tire and are snow rated. even with the snow packing in. its hard to unload the tread very well unless the lugs are spaced really far apart, like an M/T but then they wont grab in ice. the military NDT's are a great example of that. however, the military had other tires like the STA Superlug that did well in snow and ice. the tread compound plays a lot bigger part than most realize. a harder tread compound wont give great traction, but will wear longer. this is why higher ply/load range tires either wear out fast, or just dont work that well!
Thats one cool car! Never heard of it till i watched your channel! In the process of finding one for myself! Jealous of the beautiful views ya got! Stay safe and thanks for the videos.
Awesome, you just don't see those around anymore. My sister bought one Brand New in 83-85 not sure what year. She loved it.......for a while. turned out to be a lemon. I'm sure there not all that way. It was a BEAST !!!!
its been pretty dependable considering it sat 15 yrs. although ive put a bit of money into it, i think most of things were damaged from sitting. i know some of the early models had issues with destroying the transmission if the vacuum lines failed. it was corrected by 84 or 85.
@@ReaperRestorations Yes, I remember she had a problem with the tranny. I really thought that was a cool car back then. She just fell in love with it till things started f-in up.
Back in the 90's I had the sporty 2 door, I think it was called an SX4 and I had a 4 door. Really liked 'em both. They were so different from anything GM, Ford, or Mopar had back then. I really like the color of yours. Mine were both dark blue. I've been daily driving an '01 Cherokee Sport with 194,xxx miles for the last 3 years. Still going strong.
Great video, what size tire are you running? We have a few Eagles still floating around here in Minnesota, one of them is in completely mint condition, but he still drives it all year long. Im hoping to see a "For Sale" sign on it one day so I can snatch it up.😁
215 /75 /R15 to my recollection. she's about to get an NP229 transfer case and i'm planning to put Cherokee MPFI on it as soon as i can find an intake manifold and a few other parts
What headlights do you have installed? I need to upgrade mine on my 1984 Eagle Wagon, but I've read a lot of negative reviews about a bunch of the LED kits that people are getting on Amazon. Also...I'm envious of your properly dialed in choke, I can't for the life of me get mine working properly and between that and the huge temperature swings we can here in Canada I've made the decision to do the Holley EFI swap. I can't stand fiddling around with the air/fuel mixture every time there is a 10 degree temperature difference. LOL. Great vid and awesome job on the Eagle. Cheers!
if your car has the "fuel feedback" system you shouldn't need to adjust the air/fuel mixture once your baseline settings are done correctly (using a vacuum gauge and electronics pintle unit on the back of the carb disconnected.) the computer does it automatically and adjusts for temp and altitude. this is why your idle mixture screws are covered by little aluminum plugs. you basically set your baseline and the computer does the rest. the choke should be able to cope with the temp swings, but ensuring all the linkage is bent properly and measures the right length is critical, otherwise it can cause the choke to only open or close part way. As far as the LED's go, they're bright, but i had a highway patrolman pull me over telling me they're illegal, even though they're supposedly DOT approved. he said they have no defined beam and cant be aimed. additionally two of them leaked right away and i had to get the seller to send me two more. i have considered whether swapping to Renix fuel injection would work and what gains it'd give me, but i'd need to account for the crank sensor, and number of flywheel teeth, etc. but for now i'm going to keep working with the carb to dial it in. maybe i'll have some insight.
@@ReaperRestorations thanks for the information. The carb I’m running is the mechanical, no computer, so it’s a huge pain. I have an extra carb that has all the emission stuff and the electronic feedback laying around. I should rebuild that and give it a go. In the end I will probably end up coughing up the cash for a Holley Sniper install. But who knows. Keep the awesome work on your wagon!
yeah, no kidding. its so hard on our cars. i coated everything with chassis saver underneath, but i still need to do a bunch more work to protect it. luckily mine has no rot through except one spot where the factory drilled a hole. pretty quick and easy fix though
Very cool. Funny, I have the identical car: same year, same colour, looks like a twin. It has been my daily driver for almost 20 years. I also have an '88 (again same colour) which I have been using for a parts car. Getting hard to find parts these days (can't find rear drums anymore) -how is it where you are?
Rockauto carries the drums. i put brand new ones on my car. parts are hard to find, but i have a friend who has a wrecking yard with two of them. its not close though.
theres a TSM you can download here: forums.amceaglesden.com/index.php?topic=42544.0 theres a switch on the dash on the left. the earlier models had a pin under the switch you had to pull to put it into 4x4 and the car had to roll forward a bit to engage it. later models you can just switch it in, theres no pin to pull. if you dont have vacuum to the switch on the dash or the transfer case then it wont actuate the CAD, or the transfer case wont shift into 4wd. i'm going to be putting an NP229 into mine. its virtually the same case, but with 4 LOW. these cars do amazingly well off road for only having 4 high
Had a 82 Eagle wagon that thing was awesome in the snow never got stuck. Was able to push snow until it ran out of power and never spun a wheel. The only downside was the Chrysler transmission kept failing.
you probably had a vacuum leak. the transmissions were a modified 727. they were great until you developed a vacuum leak. it basically put it into two and four wheel drive at the same time( from what i recall) and screwed the transmission! they fixed that for the '84 model year and also made it so you didn't have to be moving to get the 4 wheel drive to hook up
yep, the 904 is a 727 variant. AMC modified for the eagle. the problem was in the vacuum system, not the transmission itself. there was a TSB on it. they also used another variant, the 998 @@Outindacold
@@marcchaffee7751 it isnt factory height. there were three factory spring heights, and add 40 years of sag and here we are. lets just say its much taller than when i got it!
I mean, it doesn't seem to do a bad job, although I feel that. I would have gone where you went with my Chevy Equinox that's AWD; I've taken that thing on Jeep trails; it was a hell of a challenge, muddy and rocky. Never doing it again is a horrible idea, but since I was a mile back, I wasn't turning around. If you don't mind, give that thing a better challenge and see if it can keep up with jeeps.
no, you wouldnt have. trust me. that trail is a lot nastier than it looks in 2d video. the eagle wont keep up with even a stock jeep for a lot of reasons. they werent made for that. it does very well for what it was built for, but keep in mind its got the same front axle as a CJ, and a one speed transfer case, and no 4 low
Too bad every example I've seen in person of an eagle has been rusted into the ground in a junk yard. There biggest strength was also their biggest downfall. Many of these saw a lot of salty northern winters in their days
I had an 85 eagle and it was awesome in snow. What I don’t like here is if something isn’t working, don’t pull it out of the dash without knowing your going to fix it and put it back in. Removing door panels and leaving them off again if not fixing and putting it back then don’t remove. The looks of the outside didn’t look bad so don’t make the inside look like $hit.
cool car or whatever its classified as lol. it will be nice to see it with the interior all back together. Motorweek youtube channel has an old video where they reviewed an eagle in the early '80s check that out if you havent seen it!
Best car i ever owned. 4×4 trucks couldnt go where i could in the snow. Best vehicle for snow I've ever seen. Wish i still had mine. I had so much fun on those Michigan two tracks 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🇺🇸
Nice. Car ahead of its time
My dad had a 1980 AMC Eagle. We loved that car. The front hub bearings were notorious for going out on that model . Idk whether or not because it was a Full Time 4WD played a role in the bearings going bad or not but if I’m not mistaken they were interchangeable with the xj Jeep Cherokee. We owned a few of them also. We took the rims off a xj Cherokee Laredo and steering column from a Jeep Comanche dressed her up a little . I will never forget that car.
they are essentially the same as an XJ, but not exactly. The XJ uses a true unserviceable "unit" type bearing and requires the whole hub to be changed. The Eagle uses a different setup and the bearings/races can be removed and changed, but the outer hub is reused. if the hub bearings were going out it could be improper preload or the seal on the back of the unit. (it could also just be the replacement brand. the originals were Timkens though). It's an easy problem to overlook.
my passengers side seal was torn and i couldn't tell until i completely tore it down. it lets dust, grit and water get into the bearings and destroy them.
the full time 4wd wouldn't affect anything since the only difference between 2WD and 4WD is the the sleeve to engage the front differential would be locked. the bearings inside the diff would be affected, but not the wheel bearings since they'd be turning in either mode.
I forgot to mention that the civilian jeep (CJ5) and (CJ7) also shared interchangeable parts with the AMC Eagle as well.
I like that better than them any modern crossover.
Always liked these
We had an 82 4x4 station wagon, red growing up. It only had an AM radio and the most interesting interior. That thing ran like a champ. We took it everywhere. I would kill to have that car still. Idk what happened to it either.
Huge AMC fan. Great vid.
thank you , sir
👍 I remember those! Always wanted one.
I have a few of these eagles. Way ahead of it's time.
Took many into area's that jeeps would have some difficulty. Got stuck many times as well. Good times.
Got any left for sale?
Cold snow is always much more manageable than wet warmer snow
Utah has "the greatest snow on earth" because of its dryness. its VERY slick and makes for great skiing/snowboarding, but man its like driving on polished snot!
Rumor is that when AMC was working with VW on procuring 4-cylinder engines for the Gremlin, they were introduced to the Audi Quattro racing development in Germany (before Audi began selling its AWD models). AMC beat Audi to the US market with a 4WD wagon. The 4WD Eagles weren't cheap when they came out. I noticed a lot of parents of well-to-do kids in my high school drove Eagles in the early 80s.
A friend of mine helped develop them. he might know. he said they were designing them to compete directly with Subaru and the Brat, etc.. i hadn't head the Audi angle. Thats interesting! i wish AMC had made better financial decisions, like keeping Jeep...
There was one in Back to the future. Jennifer Parker’s dad was waiting for her in it in the town square. 👍🏻
gotta watch that again so i can see it!
I owned a two tone beige-tan 4wd changed tires to one size up all weather radial & largest gas shocks that could find her name "Bruiser" is self explanitory I refer'd to her affectionately as my Cheap Jeep! -_- Comfortable Interior & well thought out xtra storage tray under dash I'd buy another if can find one & wouldn't change a thing about her
I've had (3) Subarus and my 1981 Eagle Wagon was far better in the snow. I'd buy one tomorrow if they still made them. Plus you don't have to deal with all the Safety nanny garbage.
yep. too many gadgets and computer junk to fail and empty your wallet these days. the prices of new vehicles are insane. i saw a basic bare bones chevy pickup last week going for the same price i paid for my house ten years ago
That Eagle is more"Jeep" than today's Jeeps!
I totally agree on your comparison to Cherokee. The only constructive observation I can give is your tires if properly chosen could even contribute to the ability of the ride. They just didn't seem to unload the snow from the tread. Just a thought.
these tires are a pretty good snow tire and are snow rated. even with the snow packing in. its hard to unload the tread very well unless the lugs are spaced really far apart, like an M/T but then they wont grab in ice. the military NDT's are a great example of that. however, the military had other tires like the STA Superlug that did well in snow and ice. the tread compound plays a lot bigger part than most realize. a harder tread compound wont give great traction, but will wear longer. this is why higher ply/load range tires either wear out fast, or just dont work that well!
snow sticking to snow is actually what gives it traction
Thats one cool car! Never heard of it till i watched your channel! In the process of finding one for myself! Jealous of the beautiful views ya got! Stay safe and thanks for the videos.
lol, geez. How old are you
36, lol! Grew up in South Dakota Farm.
Top car 👍👍❄️🇺🇸🇺🇸🥰🥰
Awesome, you just don't see those around anymore. My sister bought one Brand New in 83-85 not sure what year. She loved it.......for a while.
turned out to be a lemon. I'm sure there not all that way. It was a BEAST !!!!
its been pretty dependable considering it sat 15 yrs. although ive put a bit of money into it, i think most of things were damaged from sitting. i know some of the early models had issues with destroying the transmission if the vacuum lines failed. it was corrected by 84 or 85.
@@ReaperRestorations Yes, I remember she had a problem with the tranny. I really thought that was a cool car back then. She just fell in love with it till things started f-in up.
Back in the 90's I had the sporty 2 door, I think it was called an SX4 and I had a 4 door. Really liked 'em both. They were so different from anything GM, Ford, or Mopar had back then.
I really like the color of yours. Mine were both dark blue.
I've been daily driving an '01 Cherokee Sport with 194,xxx miles for the last 3 years. Still going strong.
the SX/4 were super cool. i just saw one sell for $6700!
Great video, what size tire are you running? We have a few Eagles still floating around here in Minnesota, one of them is in completely mint condition, but he still drives it all year long. Im hoping to see a "For Sale" sign on it one day so I can snatch it up.😁
215 /75 /R15 to my recollection. she's about to get an NP229 transfer case and i'm planning to put Cherokee MPFI on it as soon as i can find an intake manifold and a few other parts
What headlights do you have installed? I need to upgrade mine on my 1984 Eagle Wagon, but I've read a lot of negative reviews about a bunch of the LED kits that people are getting on Amazon. Also...I'm envious of your properly dialed in choke, I can't for the life of me get mine working properly and between that and the huge temperature swings we can here in Canada I've made the decision to do the Holley EFI swap. I can't stand fiddling around with the air/fuel mixture every time there is a 10 degree temperature difference. LOL. Great vid and awesome job on the Eagle. Cheers!
if your car has the "fuel feedback" system you shouldn't need to adjust the air/fuel mixture once your baseline settings are done correctly (using a vacuum gauge and electronics pintle unit on the back of the carb disconnected.) the computer does it automatically and adjusts for temp and altitude. this is why your idle mixture screws are covered by little aluminum plugs. you basically set your baseline and the computer does the rest.
the choke should be able to cope with the temp swings, but ensuring all the linkage is bent properly and measures the right length is critical, otherwise it can cause the choke to only open or close part way.
As far as the LED's go, they're bright, but i had a highway patrolman pull me over telling me they're illegal, even though they're supposedly DOT approved. he said they have no defined beam and cant be aimed. additionally two of them leaked right away and i had to get the seller to send me two more.
i have considered whether swapping to Renix fuel injection would work and what gains it'd give me, but i'd need to account for the crank sensor, and number of flywheel teeth, etc. but for now i'm going to keep working with the carb to dial it in. maybe i'll have some insight.
@@ReaperRestorations thanks for the information. The carb I’m running is the mechanical, no computer, so it’s a huge pain.
I have an extra carb that has all the emission stuff and the electronic feedback laying around. I should rebuild that and give it a go. In the end I will probably end up coughing up the cash for a Holley Sniper install. But who knows.
Keep the awesome work on your wagon!
Wasn't much of drifting but was a lot of fun!
Could you link the parts you bought to do the lift?
Гарно.
Wish Utah wouldn't salt the roads. My sits parked right now 😂
yeah, no kidding. its so hard on our cars. i coated everything with chassis saver underneath, but i still need to do a bunch more work to protect it. luckily mine has no rot through except one spot where the factory drilled a hole. pretty quick and easy fix though
Nice
What tires did you have on?
General grabbers
Very cool. Funny, I have the identical car: same year, same colour, looks like a twin. It has been my daily driver for almost 20 years. I also have an '88 (again same colour) which I have been using for a parts car. Getting hard to find parts these days (can't find rear drums anymore) -how is it where you are?
Rockauto carries the drums. i put brand new ones on my car.
parts are hard to find, but i have a friend who has a wrecking yard with two of them. its not close though.
So how does the 4x4 work i bought a 84 egale and the 4x4 isnt working and google doesn't have much on these old rigs
theres a TSM you can download here: forums.amceaglesden.com/index.php?topic=42544.0
theres a switch on the dash on the left. the earlier models had a pin under the switch you had to pull to put it into 4x4 and the car had to roll forward a bit to engage it. later models you can just switch it in, theres no pin to pull.
if you dont have vacuum to the switch on the dash or the transfer case then it wont actuate the CAD, or the transfer case wont shift into 4wd.
i'm going to be putting an NP229 into mine. its virtually the same case, but with 4 LOW. these cars do amazingly well off road for only having 4 high
Que buen vehículo
Lifted? How much did you lift it? Had a 1983 a looong time ago, great car 🥰
not enough! the springs are shot. i've got plans for it this winter. its getting new springs, MPFI, and a NP229 transfer case
Had a 82 Eagle wagon that thing was awesome in the snow never got stuck. Was able to push snow until it ran out of power and never spun a wheel. The only downside was the Chrysler transmission kept failing.
you probably had a vacuum leak. the transmissions were a modified 727. they were great until you developed a vacuum leak. it basically put it into two and four wheel drive at the same time( from what i recall) and screwed the transmission! they fixed that for the '84 model year and also made it so you didn't have to be moving to get the 4 wheel drive to hook up
@ReaperRestorations It was the 904 lock-up and it was junk.
yep, the 904 is a 727 variant. AMC modified for the eagle. the problem was in the vacuum system, not the transmission itself. there was a TSB on it. they also used another variant, the 998 @@Outindacold
Do you live in Ogden?? I swear I saw this car driving around the other day…
i live an hour south of ogden, but i know theres a couple up there.
I miss my eagles 😢
I had a wagon and two sx/4
I do still have a Hornet and a Javelin at least!
my friend has a Hornet in his wrecking yard if you ever need parts
@@ReaperRestorations does he have a functional 120mph gauge pack? my PCB is bad so the temp/fuel and dummy lights dont work
Shouldn't that be "twice lifted" as AMC had already lifted the Hornet/Concord platform for the 4 wheel drive.
once lifted, twice shy
How does it work in deep snow, maybe a foot deep?
i'm not sure yet! but i'm anxious to try it. we've been in a severe drought here so it hasn't snowed as much as usual
Why do the old cars seem to have so much more room..new cars kinda suck in a lot of ways
Wheres the lift ? Thats factory height .
th-cam.com/video/s6MK2w8gz1k/w-d-xo.htmlsi=VtszeFt9aOSu_LRF
Its the factory height , both mine are the same as yours . I wanna do a straight axle , dana 44 with leafs , then maybe 6 inch lift .
@@marcchaffee7751 it isnt factory height. there were three factory spring heights, and add 40 years of sag and here we are. lets just say its much taller than when i got it!
I mean, it doesn't seem to do a bad job, although I feel that. I would have gone where you went with my Chevy Equinox that's AWD; I've taken that thing on Jeep trails; it was a hell of a challenge, muddy and rocky. Never doing it again is a horrible idea, but since I was a mile back, I wasn't turning around. If you don't mind, give that thing a better challenge and see if it can keep up with jeeps.
try it when your equinox is 35 years old and get back to us 😃
no, you wouldnt have. trust me. that trail is a lot nastier than it looks in 2d video. the eagle wont keep up with even a stock jeep for a lot of reasons. they werent made for that. it does very well for what it was built for, but keep in mind its got the same front axle as a CJ, and a one speed transfer case, and no 4 low
Too bad every example I've seen in person of an eagle has been rusted into the ground in a junk yard. There biggest strength was also their biggest downfall. Many of these saw a lot of salty northern winters in their days
I had an 85 eagle and it was awesome in snow. What I don’t like here is if something isn’t working, don’t pull it out of the dash without knowing your going to fix it and put it back in. Removing door panels and leaving them off again if not fixing and putting it back then don’t remove. The looks of the outside didn’t look bad so don’t make the inside look like $hit.
who says i dont know i'm putting it back in? i'm obviously still working on the car. SMH
cool car or whatever its classified as lol. it will be nice to see it with the interior all back together. Motorweek youtube channel has an old video where they reviewed an eagle in the early '80s check that out if you havent seen it!
6cyl 4wd wagon, what's not to like.