If a car has a somewhat legendary reputation for its off-road prowess courtesy of an four-wheel drive system – and that system no longer works – what are you left with? That’s certainly the question you might have looking at this rare 1983 AMC Eagle SX/4, which is a limited production version of the classic AMC hatchback, offered with several recent repairs and fresh paint – and, at least when it left the factory, functioning four wheel drive. The seller doesn’t disclose exactly what is wrong with the drivetrain, but he isn’t fixing it. Find the car here on Facebook Marketplace for $17,000.
That asking price made me look back a few times to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. There’s a chance the seller entered the asking price incorrectly, but once owners go down the slippery path of restoration and taking on bigger restorative efforts like a respray, it can be difficult not to start tallying up the investment and hoping that the sale price will recoup some of those expenditures. The listing notes that the interior benefits from new “seat covers,” which look to me like completely reupholstered buckets. Door panels look quite nice, still, but that steering wheel cover has to go.
Under hood is tidy, and thankfully comes with the preferred inline-six cylinder mill. A four-cylinder was offered, but that’s not what you want in a bruiser like this. The SX/4 actually enjoyed some motorsports success, both on dirt and on pavement. The concept of a hatchback with a lifted suspension and inline-six is a still a novel one, and these occasionally do pop up with the elusive manual transmission. Still, the most desirable cars will have working four wheel drive, which leaves this one with a big question mark about the price given the rest of the package looks pretty clean.
I love the old-school AMC license plate, and of course, the factory-style Marchal driving lamps (get some stone shields on those, pronto!) The front end looks fresh, and the seller notes that the grill and headlight bezels have been restored. The bumpers look good as well, with no obvious fading of the plastic. In addition to the non-working 4WD, the seller reports that the gauges do not work and that the car runs rough when cold. Overall, there’s a lot to like here, but given the work that still needs to be done, $17,000 seems like a heavy ask.
I agree the person found themselves upside down in restoration and want to cut their losses. The fact that the 4wd is not working and no description is given could mean anything from a electrical issue to missing driveline components. At least it has the inline 6. Most of the SX’s I have seen had the iron duke. I think the owner will have to concede to a much lower price or keep the car and see the repairs to the end.
Jeff, when the 4WD breaks on these cars, they will travel in RWD only, not FWD. My brother in-law had half a dozen of these. The most common reason to lose 4WD is a little vacuum canister on the front axel that is connected to the switch on the dash.
Hard to imagine how anyone with even cursory knowledge could think that a transfer case vehicle, such as this or any other Jeep, Land Cruiser, or pickup, etc, would default to FWD when the drive system “not working”. A little knowledge goes a long way.
Most crossover vehicles like Toyota RAV4, Honda CRV, Ford Escape and Subaru would revert to FWD if the AWD goes down.
My Escape isn’t four wheel drive and is front drive only. My AMC Spirit wasn’t four wheel drive but was rear wheel drive. Coincidence?
Yes those, and others, use transverse engine/drive-trains and have a FWD based AWD systems. Some only activate drive to the rear axle when the system detects wheel spin up front. The are night and day different from a “traditional” longitudinal engine/drive-trains as used in this Eagle and other Jeeps, Land Cruisers, etc.
Funny that you and a couple others bring up the issue of accuracy in the article. Usually when I see this I autocorrect in my head knowing the author might have known but slipped up with a typo. Rarely will I make comment on accuracy and if I choose to its done in a non confrontational manner. I think in today’s society with all the social media discipline and filters have been pushed aside. I like this forum because it remains light hearted.
and . . . that’s what you would do, and think, and you had to tell us about it.
The authors lack of knowledge (it’s not a typo) is almost completely inconsequential in this case.
That said, the concept of understanding the difference’s between drive systems in cars and trucks is pretty elemental. BF is a special interest automotive site, light hearted as you say, of some renown and it would be helpful for any author to be knowledgable about the subject of their work.
Had one of these back in ’84. Mine was black with a 5-speed IIRC. These things are absolutely fantastic in the snow. AWD system is vacuum operated so troubleshooting the system is likely a bit easier than an electrically activated system. $17k seems very optimistic to me.
Always thought these were one of those “so odd it’s cool” type of cars.
A kid in my high school had a black sx/4 with a manual and a 304 swapped in and have always wanted one since.
But not at 17,000, it would need to be a lot nicer for that price!
Nice car but a crack pipe price. The vacuum disconnect for the front axle is troublesome on these as has been mentioned, and so is the the vacuum actuator for transfer case. On one of my Eagles I used to just get under the car with a wrench and manually turn the transfer case lever as needed. The fix for the front axle disconnect is to permanently engage it, then you have a shift-on-the-fly system like the later Eagles.
As far as running rough when cold these cars have a very complex emission system with feedback carb and seemingly miles of vacuum hoses connecting all manner of gadgetry. It’s fine when everything is working well but 38 years later you can hardly count on that, and it’s very common that people would hack up the emissions system as parts failed rather than repair it properly. You really need a factory shop manual to set it up correctly.
I really like this car it’s not rocket science a day or two and your good to go but when I read the article I almost spit my drink out 17 grand oh I did it again
I paid close to $5000 for a paint job 20 some years ago, in the same area of Ca. so to me it’s pretty easy to see where a seller might think he could get away with a $17K price tag. Major issue for use in Ca. for this car is getting it to pass Smog Test every two years. There are plenty of overpriced under performing cars that people are paying way too much for, $17K may be kind of high, but not rudely priced.
I HAD a friend that we no longer communicate, because of recent political views,( his) but he bought a new SX-4 like this, only a 5 speed.It was a great car, went through the snow, and very car-like on dry roads, comfy, great heater, so-so mileage, but a nice car. Well, about a year in, the trans started howling in 2nd gear, he took it in for warranty, they had the car like 2 months, he got it back, it still whined, just not as loud. Well, that whine got louder, he took it back, this time they had it for a month, and told him they couldn’t get parts to repair it, and I think he bailed on the car, taking a big loss. I’d think an automatic would be better, you know, maybe I should go for this. Imagine the faces of these yuppie Rubicon drivers with this coming at them on the trail. Seeing what my ex-friend put these through, they are certainly stout enough. Great find,,,,except for the price, HA! Thought there’d be a post I didn’t comment on that, eh? Wrong.
Maybe your former friend no longer communicates because of recent political views (yours). ;)
40 years of friendship shouldn’t be ended with political views. It was him that just had to get his point across, and I was the monster for not agreeing. Besides, what the heck does that have to do with the car? Keep your FB comments for FB, please.
The Club and the torn steering wheel wrap don’t inspire confidence. As someone else said, crack pipe price!
I think this would be a relatively easy fix. I’m pretty sure the long CJ7’s had the same wheelbase as these…add a hemi to it and you’d be sittin’ in high cotton!
It has to be a printing mistake
Simply temove 1 zero
At $1700 it is worth it !
I had 2 station wagons and a 2 door , loved them at the time , were great in the snow and great all around vehicules , just a bit thirsty …
The last couple of cars I bought had those steering wheel covers, I simply can’t remove them fast enough. The look stupid, feel horrible, and serve no conceivable purpose unless you have a plastic steering wheel that’s returning to sticky petroleum (even then I’d replace the wheel or wrap it).
I remember the ads for these cars when new; out accelerates a Mustang GT on loose sand and out corners a Camaro Z28 on loose gravel, or something close to that.
I’m of the fix first, make pretty second, school of thought. That way I have a running, driving car that, if I still love it once its running right, I can then do the big spend on the body.
Had the same year, only problem I had was mention quite a bit. The plastic vacuum lines that shifted the drive into 4 wheel got clogged up with pebbles, rather easy fix so can’t imagine that’s the problem with all the work done already?
I have an 1981 Spirit DL with the Iron Duke and a 4 speed. A fun car! The 4wd system is easy to fix. I have service manuals for the SX4 and Eagle’s. I looked into it and its pretty straight up to diagnose unless there is mechanical failure.
You can perma-engage the 4WD (easy shop work with some loss of mileage, but the 1st ones didn’t have the flipper switch for 4 or 2 WD. I think it was an EPA mandate for mileage. A company in Michigan (IIRC) had a cable shift available for the front axle, but this was 15-20 years ago. The big six was designed before the emissions equipment was added, and runs without it. The Carter BBD carb/distributor can be set to run without its feedback system. Refer to “The Nutter Bypass” online. It was written by a Canadian named John Nutter. I wrote “The Nutter Bypass Plus” for the 2.5 4 cyl AMC engine/Carter YFA carb in ’09, both bypasses work great and give you a well running engine, won’t let you pass emissions though. Handicapped friend of mine had several of the wagons (lotsa spare parts!), great here in NW Minnesota but he got rid of them before I learned about the carb/distributor bypass. Never had any trouble with the viscous couplings either. I agree, not for $17,000 !!!
Um, I just posted some useful info here about drivetrains and carbs on these. Where did it go ?