THE EAGLE PAGE
Real Four Wheel Drive
My Eagles and other Cars
Well a lot of things have
changed in the last few years. I know I haven’t updated this site as much as I
could have, OKAY I haven’t at all. The 1986 Nissian is long gone. I drove it
for a couple months and sold it for $300. It was a good car. Ran really good for
having 200k on the clock. The guy I sold it to drove it for a few more years.
The good ole Kammback is down with a blown motor. It was ultra reliable except
for two axle shafts and a head gasket. I guess the old motor couldn’t take all
the hard treatment I gave it. The oil pump went out and I think it spun a
bearing. But I plan on rebuilding it this spring. I took the thing on many an
off-roading adventure. It did very well. The thing got excellent gas mileage,
like 30+ mpg.
I bought another 1983 brown Eagle Wagon
during October of 2001. I drove it for two months and then the 258 six blew up
at 175,000. I wasn’t too happy. Upon taking apart the motor I discovered a
burned up piston. I also realized that the intake bolts were finger tight and
the intake was about ¼ of an inch away from the head. Seems to me that some
knuckle head doesn’t know how to tighten bolts. The extra air must have been
what did it. I took the motor out and the car sat for a long while.
I drove the Kammback until that blew up in August 2002. Poor thing. I drove it
all the way home with no oil pressure. It made it home and hasn’t started
since. It still will turn over. Oh well. I also drove a 94 Plymouth Acclaim off
and on for a while. My parents bought me the car for the princely sum of $500.
They said it would be a good car to take to college. Or so they thought. It was
a solid car but after 3 deer hits it started to shake a little. Then the tranny
started to go. Pretty soon only reverse and first worked and then the motor
blew a head gasket. It did have a lot of power though. My dad sold it for $50
to some guy that was gonna put a tranny into it.
After the Kammback blew I really needed a car so I started looking around. I
wound up buying a 1977 Ford F-100 truck for $300. It was a two wheel drive with
a 3 on the tree and a 300 six. It ran excellent but had tons of problems. I
wound up replacing the entire ignition system. It left me stranded a few times
because of the ignition. It leaked plenty of oil but didn’t burn any. It was incredibly
rusty. The fan sliced through the radiator hose twice because of a warped
pressure plate. The guy put in new clutch but never bothered with the pressure plate.
I wound up replacing everything. The shifting linkage was messed up and I wound
up getting another column. And the master cylinder went out. I drove it most of
the winter. Two wheel drive trucks in the winter can be very interesting. I made
it through with only one stuck. It was a stripper model. It had no power brakes
or steering or even a radio. But it got me around.
This is my old Truck
After a few months of driving my truck I found an 84 Eagle.
I talked to the owner about it. He said
it was his son’s car. Unfortunately his son took his own life about year ago.
Since selling the car meant that the money from it would have to go to his son’s
probate the man just gave the car to me. I think he was happy to see someone
else get some use out of it. I drove it for a month (I think it was around
January of 2003) but my driving of the Eagle was cut short by hitting the curb
with the rear axle. It totally bent the axle shaft. So I put the Eagle in
retirement and started driving the truck again. I drove the truck a few more
months before stumbling upon a 87 two door Chevy Spectrum for free. It was suppose
to be for my friend but it snapped a timing belt on the way home. I fixed it
and since my friend had no money at the time I just drove it. It got great mpg
and never took over 9 dollars to fill the tank. It looked like a rolling heap
though. The front end was really messed up. The bumper was missing and two
trailer lights were mounted as turn signals up front. To top it all off one was
red! It had bolts holding down the hood and no heater. But it ran really good.
I sold both the Spectrum and the Truck in April. As far as I know they are both
still on the road.
The Spectrum has turned out to be pretty reliable. I see it everywhere. I also picked up a 1986 silver extended cab long box Mazda B2000 truck for free. The motor was sized and it had a busted frame. I fixed the frame an unseized the motor with some diesel fuel. I never drove it though. It was around May of 2003 that I started to drive the 84 Eagle again. I drove it for a few months until my dad traded off the Mazda for a 1982 Celebrity with 92k. It had the iron duke four and ran really good. But it got poor mileage for a four, about 18 mpg. When I sold it in September of 2003 I finally discovered the leak.
I went back to driving the 84 Eagle. I drive over 50 miles every weekday with it. I have had two leaky gas tanks resulting in really poor mileage, new rear brake shoes, replaced but still leaking exhaust system, and electrical gremlins. I had to replace some of my wiring harness a while back but it still isn’t all the way fixed. A friend of mine tried to hot wire my car for the fun of it and that seems to be when this started. I still need quite a bit of parts but have no spare money to buy them. I need new tires, new shocks, new springs all the way around, a new rim because the one in front is bent, gas tank, carb, and possibly a ball joint. The problems don’t seem to get any worse but I would like to fix them soon.
This is
my 1984 Eagle
I also bought a 1985 Ramcharger 4x4. I drove it around the back forty for a while until I sold it in October. I have just bought 1991 Plymouth Colt two door. I am going to use this car to go back and forth to school. It gets close to 40 miles to the gallon. Driving the Eagle 50 miles every day does get expensive. At least it won’t get too rusty by sitting in the barn for the winter. I plan on fixing it up over the winter.
I finally got my 83 Eagle that I blew up the motor running again. I took the motor out of my rusted 83 wagon and put it in. It runs real good. All it needs is a little adjustment of the carburetor. I am going to sell it soon. The steering is nice and tight and so are the brakes. I bought a 1990 S-10 with a 151 four cylinder for the Kammback. But after studying the motor I discovered it won’t work. Oh well.
Two pics
of the good 83 wagon
The last time I drove
my first car (the first 83 wagon) was February of 2002. I took it on a nice
long off-road adventure. I didn’t get stuck even once. It is so stripped now
that it is no longer driveable. This is what it looks like now.
It sits both engine-less
and sans front axle. I miss driving it but the rust got to it too fast. Below
is some of the other pics of my cars. Click on them to get a massively huge
picture.
Pic of
the Kammback Picture of the Chevy S10
Pic of my good
83 wagon
More pics of my Eagles
Original
Page
The NON updated PAGE!
So what car do I drive, well unless you are complete moron or brain dead I
suppose you could figure out what I drive. I own a 1983 Brown Eagle Wagon. I
have been through fields, snow covered paths, mud, and fire roads. But there
was a limit to what my Eagle could do. And I found out that the hard way. One
day I was coming home from work and decided to take the usual short cut through
the field. Now to get onto the path through the field one has to go through a
rather steep ditch. I had went on this path several times before with no
problimo. But this time was different. The normally fluffy snow was turned into
hard rocky crap. After making it more than half way through the field I saw I
big snow drift. I just proceeded right through the snow drift and then the
Eagle came to a stop. I hadn't went fast enough. I tried backing up but it was
to no avail. It was then that I found out that the Eagle didn't have a limited
rear slip. The underside of the Eagle got caught on the snow. Finally I got my
friend to tow me out with his truck. Next time I got stuck was in my friend's
driveway. I was just about to turn around in the field when I just realized
that there was a big dip on that side (it was about three feet from the top of
the driveway to the bottom of the field, factor that in with four foot deep
snow and you get the idea). The Eagle slipped down and was hopelessly stuck. A
half and hour of pushing, digging, and using the floor mats for traction my
friends and I finally freed the Eagle. Latter that day I got stuck in a ditch
at my house. I was backing up into what I thought was my driveway only to find
out I had mired the Eagle in the ditch. My brother and Dad helped me get the
ol' Eagle out of the ditch. I got stuck in another ditch and a tow truck got me
out of that one. I got stuck two more times after that in my friend's driveway
and mine. The number one thing that got me stuck was sucky tires (since then I
have gotten all new tires and haven't gotten stuck yet).
I have learned several important things from this, never trust your eyes to
determine the deepness of snow, speed is essential for getting through rock
hard snow drifts, clean your windows, and most importantly open differentials
SUCK!!!!!
I just bought an 86 Nissian Stanza wagon for 50 dollars. It is in okay shape
and everything works. It is going to be my daily driver for the summer until I
get my Eagle Kammback up and running. The big brown beast had a little problem
with rust, okay it was a major one. It seems to me that the owner never
believed in washing his cars. The mechanicals are good and the engine runs like
new. So it will problably wind up being a parts car. I tried fixing the many
rust spots but finally I gave up. It was too expensive! The ole Kammback body
is better so I will be fixing that.
The last great off-roading adventure I did with the Eagle was running the local
trails. It did awesome! I was really surprised how it handled everything. I
went through deep sand and mud with no problem! I was thinking of modifying the
Kammback for more off-road performance but it is such a rare car that I think
I'll leave it alone. However, I found two cherry red Eagle wagons for sale.
They are in poor condition but if I can get both, just perhaps I can combine my
Eagle and the other two to make one solid off-roader.