1985 AMC Eagle wagon build

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The Dark Side of Will
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Re: 1985 AMC Eagle wagon build

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

Dorked around with this a bit today. My dad had the engine on the chain fall instead of the engine stand. I was able to play with the Jeep exhaust pipe. I think I'll have to tweak the diff snout bracket a bit, as well as install the O2 sensor somewhere else.
This downpipe is so difficult to get into place that it's going to have to be a part of the powertrain assembly when it goes into the car.


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Re: 1985 AMC Eagle wagon build

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

The Dorman PN for Jeep 4.0 flywheel bolts did not have the correct parts. The Dorman kit has 7/16-20 bolts, while the real deal is 1/2-20.

NO ONE MAKES JEEP 4.0 FLYWHEEL BOLTS. WTF?

No one except ARP. ARP's kit on order for a few times what a kit of normal bolts would cost. I don't know why this is a weird thing. Does no one else build manual transmission 4.0 drivelines? I'd rather not dork around with facing the heads of standard grade 8 bolts down... just get the part that's made for the job and move on.

My dad is putting an (old) LT1 in an Eagle. I'm working with him to get the mechanicals for that car done so we can get it out of the F@#%ing garage.
We set the engine up relative to the extra crossmember today. I know how I need to make the mount adapter plates.

Here is some basic information to support design of those plates:
https://www.diyautotune.com/support/tec ... templates/

http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/chevy-m ... post276323
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Re: 1985 AMC Eagle wagon build

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

SLOWLY getting everything together. I had to order some shims from McMaster to get the output shaft end play correct. Those are in and the measurement looks good relative to spec. Spec is 0.003 to 0.012, with a target of .006. This ended up at 0.003, so I'm happy. Pulling a 0.005 shim would have resulted in 0.008, so whatev.

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Need to install the shaft seal in the tailshaft housing, then break out the anaerobic goo and do the final installation. I have a new rubber splined sealing washer to go on the end of the shaft, after which I can install the yoke and declare that the rear output is complete.

I have a seal for the front output... I should probably just pull the front yoke and install it, but it's not nearly as easy as the rear yoke. It'll be way harder in the car, so on the bench if the obvious place to do it.

I'm deciding whether or not I want to yank the stock vent fitting and tap it for a pipe fitting (and then to A/N plumbing?). It already rotates while installed, so the sealing of the fitting to the tailshaft housing is questionable at best.

Edit: testing fixing images

I'm going to run all the vents from all four gearboxes (trans, T-case, front diff & rear axle) to the PCV system so that I can ford modest water crossings without worry. The road to a friend's house flooded more than I'm comfortable fording in a Fiero a few years back, so I want to be sure an event like that doesn't stop me again.

All Eagles (& a lot of Jeeps?) use a 36 tooth speedometer gear with 3.54 axle ratio. My dad found a guy who had one and bought it. I will probably use a DRAC or the JagsThatRun VSS adapter to provide a VSS signal to the ECU, while retaining the mechanical speedo, for now. I'd like to swap to an electronic speedometer eventually, but the Eagle instrument panel is really hard to remove, so that has to be more carefully considered.
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Re: 1985 AMC Eagle wagon build

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

Found all the case half and tail housing bolts and torqued up the tail housing. The torque spec is 23 ftlbs. I used Loctite 518 anaerobic sealant.

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The vent connection is loose. I'm not sure whether to try to seal it back up, or to pull it out and tap the hole for 1/8 NPT. I will plumb all of the vents (trans, T-case, front diff, rear axle) to the PCV system so that I don't get water inside those units if I ford a stream.

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At this point I just need to install a new sealing washer on the end of the output shaft and install the yoke. Then I need to pull the front yoke to replace the seal and sealing washer and it'll be all good.
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Re: 1985 AMC Eagle wagon build

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

Being originally from an automatic vehicle, my engine did not have the pilot bearing carrier pressed into the back of the crank. A pilot bearing and carrier came with my clutch kit, so I tried to install it... no dice. The micrometer said that the bore in the crank was 1.8138 while the OD of the carrier was 1.8158. Holy balls Batman, a 0.002 interference on a diameter less than 2"? WTF? That ain't going in without a ten ton press.

I used the brake hone trick again to enlarge the crank bore to 1.8140... and wore out a set of stones. That wasn't going to be productive, so I had a machinist friend turn the pilot bearing carrier down to 1.8145. The result was that the pilot bearing carrier was down from 0.002 interference to 0.0005. It tapped in lightly and seated.

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Re: 1985 AMC Eagle wagon build

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

More of my dad's Chevy Eagle in the making:

Got the prototypes of the next revision back; I screwed up the right side plate, so I need to fix it and have it made again. However, I was able to check the spacer pucks that get the mounts off the bolt-heads on which they overlap.

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Re: 1985 AMC Eagle wagon build

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

With a hiccup or two, my dad and I got the mock-up diff jacked into place and the two main (ie, vertical) bolts installed.
There's so little room above the inboard bolt that we had to cut a piece of threaded rod *just* right to make a stud which we tightened into the diff housing and aimed to slip through the hole in the bracket as we raised the diff on the jack. We had to put the nut in place first and raise the stud into it because there's a boss on the block that's *right* above the nut. We were able to get it fairly snug, though.

There's a bolt boss above the oil filter that my dad wants to use to help support the snout bracket. With a couple of other bolt bosses on the side of the block, we may end up building one somewhat elaborate bracket to grab all of them.

My dad wants to do a second Chevy swap and I've talked him into using the TPI 400 that came out of his old Jaguar. That engine will have plenty of torque to motivate the car even with 2.35 gears. However, based on inspection of an old 400 bare block we have on the shelf, the intermediate bosses aren't there and the boss above the oil filter is present, but neither drilled nor tapped. I think the combined bracket will have to bridge all the way from the engine mount bolt pattern to the bolt above the oil filter.

Bottom line from today is that relative to where it's shown below, the entire diff needs to move to the left about half an inch in order for both the right side mount and snout bracket to slip into position.
Moving the diff to the left will also help immensely in terms of clearance to the block and make it a LOT easier to tighten that nut up.


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Re: 1985 AMC Eagle wagon build

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

The stock Jeep pressure plate assembly weighs 15.28# and the stock disk weighs 4.01#. I didn't weigh the flywheel before I bolted it on.
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Re: 1985 AMC Eagle wagon build

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

451 lbs as shown; flywheel + clutch, intake & exhaust manifolds; accessory brackets but no accessories.

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Bellhousing and throw out bearing support/input bearing retainer on NV3550

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Ball stud for the stock throw out fork

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Spring clip to retain stock throw out fork on ball stud. Don't forget this!

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Re: 1985 AMC Eagle wagon build

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

My dad took some rough measurements over the weekend. The diff is actually already 3/16 to 1/4" to the LEFT of centered between the lower control arm pivots. I canceled production of the next rev of the diff mount, since the diff does not need to move further to the left.

This conflicts with the mount fixture that my dad made from a TF998 case on my 4.0. What we're seeing with the disagreement between the mount fixture and the measurements to the control arm pickup points could be explained if the 258 is offset slightly to the right in the Eagle engine bay.

The mount towers on the crossmember are DEFINITELY offset to the right. I *thought* that the 258 crankshaft centerline was in the center of the engine bay, and the mount towers were only offset to accommodate the bulge on the side of the 258 block where the distributor drive and oil pump are located.
Apparently the truth is somewhere in between. I'll need to take some careful measurements of the Eagle mount brackets on my 4.0 to verify.

Our mount design centers the Chevy crankshaft in the engine bay.
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Re: 1985 AMC Eagle wagon build

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

NV3550 throw out mechanism

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Re: 1985 AMC Eagle wagon build

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

Had a fun time getting the transmission mated to the engine.

AMC engine to transmission dowels have limited availability. Dura-Bond AD148 is the only part I found that does the job. Summit carries them. I snagged a pair.

At first I couldn't get the engine & trans to fully mate. The contact spring in the slave cylinder was apparently enough, in conjunction with the mechanical advantage of the throw out fork and friction in the splines to prevent me from shaking the transmission on that last 1/2".

On a hunch I unbolted the slave... it went on easy peasy.

Now 556# as pictured.

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Re: 1985 AMC Eagle wagon build

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

I bolted up the modded NP 229 T-case:

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I *briefly* had a scare about having to pull it back off for repair because I couldn't shift it, but once I understood the force required on the linkage and the order in which the shifters had to operate, it worked fine.

The above doesn't show it, but it's on a leveler as well:

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~650# as pictured. By the time I add the diff, the alternator, the A/C compressor and the air compressor, the powertrain is going to be 800#, and that doesn't even include the rear axle!

I also installed the rear output yoke with a yoke seal (It's a factory fixed yoke):

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And here's the latest on the Chevy Eagle for my dad.

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Re: 1985 AMC Eagle wagon build

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

As noted previously in this thread, the diff snout bracket is the only part that needs to be made in order to do a 4.0 swap.

My initial takes on it ended up with very minimal clearance to the stock 4.0 manifold and stock Cherokee downpipe that I have.

I finally had a realization of a simple change I could make that would dramatically increase clearance to the downpipe.

Before:

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During:

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After:

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Here's how it fits to the downpipe:

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Here's how the downpipe fits around the engine and transmission:

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And how it clears the bellhousing:

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Re: 1985 AMC Eagle wagon build

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

Got to play with the first guess diff snout bracket and drop for my dad's Chevy Eagle today.

The snout drop in place. Yes, as shown it interferes with the oil filter. I've fixed that for the follow-up revision.

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Some detail on the surgery required on my SWAG dimensions in order to get it to bolt down:

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Both brackets in place, along with the transfer punch to mark how they overlap. You can see the chunk I had to take out of the upper one because my eyeball wasn't calibrated well enough when I was using a scale to lay it out in the air.

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I updated the CAD with the results of today's test fit.

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Re: 1985 AMC Eagle wagon build

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

After seeing & hearing about the way ALLTRBO's H3 Alpha w/off-road package works with a dual factory e-lockers, and the fact that it's a 5000# vehicle with an Isuzu 7.x front diff, I decided to throw caution to the wind and go for an e-locker in my Eagle's front end.

I ordered a 19817-010 from Summit. This is an Eaton E-Locker 4 for Dana 30 with 3.54 and numerically lower ratios with 27 spline axles.
I only later learned that it's an E-Locker 4, which means that it has 4 spider gears.
I bet it doesn't work with the Eagle 2.35 gears...

I pulled the cover off the Dana 30 I'd *JUST* overhauled with zero miles on it and popped the Poodle ring off the left stub axle and pulled it out. I started inspecting things to figure out how the whole shebang would go together. I had known before this that I'd have to remove the bearings from the stock carrier. I didn't think there would be a way to remove them without destroying them, and there wasn't. I'll just have to get new carrier bearings.

Then I noticed that there would be NO WAY to install the poodle ring into the stub shaft once the stub shaft is inserted into the E-Locker. Ooops.

Brother Google informed me that Jeep never used poodle rings or e-clips on the left axle. The Dana 30 was only ever used as a front axle, so it always had steering and front hub hardware holding the left axle in place. Jeep used clips on the intermediate shaft in the right side of the diff, but only as an assembly aid. The intermediate shaft goes to the disconnect box, where the outer axle pilots into it. The right outer axle is retained by the steering and hub hardware just like the left axle is. Jeep eventually altered their assembly process such that they didn't need the clip on the intermediate shaft and left it out.

Ok, so I can safely leave the clip off my intermediate shaft, BUT the Eagle stub axle REQUIRES the clip. Without the clip, the plunge in the inner CV joint could allow the stub axle to slide out far enough to disengage from the splines or the outer bearing or even the seal and dump my gear oil.

I figured out how to take the unit apart. The ring gear flange is split in its own plane. The piece with the right carrier bearing journal is a light press into the main housing. There are a pair of torx 6x1.0 screws that make sure the two halves don't separate. After removing those I noticed two other 6x1.0 holes that did not have mates in the other piece. I correctly concluded that these were for jacking screws to split the two halves.

Once you know that, taking the thing apart is fairly straightforward.

Here's the E-Locker next to my assembly:

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Here's the lube hole in the side of the main housing, and through it the tiny gap between the cross-pin block and the side gear.

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Here's the "back" of the unit. You can see both the retention screw holes and the jacking screw holes.

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Jacking screw operation... easy enough.

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First step of disassembly... On the right is the side plate and the side gear thrust washer. The marcel spring that keeps it from locking unless you want it to is at the top of the stack on the left.

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Marcel spring and side gear now on the right. On the left you can see the locking collar (darker gold), the four spider gears and the cross-shaft block (lighter gold) that supports the two stub cross-pins off the main cross pin.

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A closer look at the locking collar and right side gear

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A closer look at the 4 spiders and the cross pin block. You can ALSO see the three pins that push the locking collar into place.

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Pulling the three screws in the cross shaft block results in being able to do this:

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And now we get to the good stuff.
This is the left side gear. You can see the 8 slots that drive the dogs on the locking collar. In three of them are holes for the pins that move the locking collar. You can also see the four lubrication holes, one of which I pointed out above. Since there are three pins on uneven angles and four lube holes, one of the lube holes does not have pins on either side of it. It's the lube hole on the left in this photo. The cross-pin holes are at the "corners" 45 degrees off the lube holes.

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Since there are no pins to interfere with, I can SLOT that hole in order to have access to install the E-Clip into the stub axle.

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That's the biggest mod, but not the only one that has to be made.
I also need to cut a counter bore into the cross-pin block in order to allow the stub axle to slide all the way in until the tip of it touches the cross-pin (not the cervix! :wink: ) The cross-pins are the same diamter at 0.680 between the stock and the Eaton. I will also need to have an access notch machined into the cross-pin block in order to be able to remove the clip.

ALSO, I needed new carrier bearings, since I'd destroy the old ones getting them off. CarQuest could get them, but only had BCA. I first did this job with a Timken bearing/seal kit from Yukon, so I checked their website. It didn't look like they sold just the carrier bearings, so being old school I called them. After explaining my situation, the guy confirmed what Eaton part number I had, then told me that the spigots for the carrier bearings are larger diameter on the Eaton. That means it uses completely different carrier bearings, both cup and cone. Summit did *NOT* mention that in their product information. He had the right bearings in stock in Timken and sent me a pair, which arrived this week.

I won't be able to drop this off with my machinist friend until next weekend, so I went on to other projects. The big remaining question is what I'll have to do to be able to get any kind of clip, be it poodle ring or conventional e-clip in between the adjacent spider gears, AND how I'll get it back out once it's in there.

I'm also thinking of putting it back together with an upgraded intermediate shaft, since I'm going to all this trouble to install the locker.
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Re: 1985 AMC Eagle wagon build

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

I got the carrier and cross-pin block back from the machinist.

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The stub axle goes all the way in to touch the pins now.
The gap is still the only space available for a clip. I will probably have to widen it to fit a clip into it. I did not have the chance this weekend to get in there with a feeler gauge to find out how much the gear or the block or both will have to be faced in order to open up enough room for the clip to go in.

I'm also thinking that I'll have to notch one tooth on each spider gear to open up a path for the clip to go in. I already knew I'd have to mill a notch in the side of the pin block for tool access to the clip.

The outboard face of the groove is just a smidge proud of the inboard face of the gear, so I could pull the stub out that little bit in order to seat the clip against the gear.

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The stub would also have to slide outboard just a little bit from the cross-pin block in order to have the inboard face of the groove flush with the face of the cross-pin block.

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So I really need to get some feeler gauges into the groove. McMaster PN 98408A156 is for an 0.835 diamter groove in a 1" shaft, and is 0.050 thick while the groove is 0.080 wide, but holy cow it's 1.5" OD... That's bigger than the original poodle ring. The OD of the splines is 1.150, so 1.200 to 1.250 OD for the clip would be plenty.
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Re: 1985 AMC Eagle wagon build

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

Excellent! I think McMaster 98808A405 can work for this application.

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Re: 1985 AMC Eagle wagon build

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

That clip won't work because it's actually smaller than the OD of the splines... D-oh!

I just popped the stub axle and clip back into the stock diff to put some feeler gauges in between the tip of the axle and the cross-pin when the stub is pulled all the way out with the clip against the side gear. That gap is 0.042. That's wider than I thought it would be, but far from unreasonable.
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Re: 1985 AMC Eagle wagon build

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

Dropped the gear & pin block off with my machinist friend this afternoon. I have the mods to fit the clip figured out.

The distance from the end face of the stub axle to the face of the clip is 0.120". The depth of the counterbore cut into the pin block is about 0.176 to the side of the pin. I need to have about 0.076 faced off the remaining annulus of the pin block previously pictured in order to reduce the depth of the counterbore to 0.100. That means that when the tip of the stub axle is touching the cross pin, there will be a 0.020" gap between the annulus of the pin block and the clip. That means that relative motion between the stub axle and the pin block will not be able to accidentally pop the clip out.

I also need to have a spacer ring for the gear made up. I haven't done a good job capturing it in photos, but there's a counterbore in the gear that's *just* big enough for the clip to slip into. If I assembled the locker without changing that, the stub axle would be able to slide in and out almost 3/16". This is considerably more than the original 0.042 mentioned in the previous post. The spacer ring will fill that counterbore and end up about 0.010 proud of it. That reduces the end play in the stub axle down to 0.040, similar to stock.

Once those two mods are taken care of, I'll be able to pop the clip into the partially assembled locker and have the stub axle captured in a range of travel similar to stock.

THEN I'll have to provide to tool access to remove the clip, but I think I have that figured out.

THEN I'll have to notch teeth in the spider gears(!) in order to allow the clip to slip through. I think the best way to do that is probably with a cutoff wheel in a die grinder as opposed to any machine tool.

THEN I think I'll need a ring gear spacer. :unknown:
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