wheres all the grand wagoneers?

Ive had mine like 6 months and have done alot of reseach and repairs If anyone out there needs some help.

Hey roc,
Maybe you can help me then. I have an 86 Grand Wagoneer that I have neglected for far too long now. So my situation is this: 3 years ago I bought my wagon on ebay. It arrives in nashville and immediately upon delivery the car is having problems starting. However, I get it started and take it to my mechanic. First thing i find out is that it needs a new carburator and some other various things. I have the carburator replaced. Then...it runs great for about 4 months before it wont start again. This time I needed a new ignition and some other crap. I wish I really knew what they were doing to my wagon, but I'm really not sure. All I know is that the last time I took it to my mechanic because it wouldn't start, he replaced the start solenoid. So the wagon worked for about another 3-4 weeks before crashing again. At that point, the problem was that when I turned the ignition, nothing would happen at all. A mechanic friend of mine looked at it briefly and thought it was the starter. I was so frustrated at that point that I said screw it, and so I saved money to buy a used subaru outback.

Now. The wagon has been sitting for 1.5 years and I want to get it running again. Will a battery die after sitting for so long without being used? I'm thinking about starting by replacing the battery and the starter. If I do that, I would need a tutorial on how to do both of those things. Do you have any advice? After a vehicle has been sitting for so long, what else might go bad? Thanks for listening...

Sincerely,
the yetisalmon

Yeah the battery is prob dead. Pepboys will put them on a charger for free or used to.At lest have it tested. I also went thru the same miriad of problems with my wag.The motorcraft 2150 are okay carbs I went thru three from advance beofre I finally got a good one.It is late when I got your post so I wont go into much detail tonight if you are really ready and are inclined I will help you as much as I can.IFSJ is a great resource for tech archives on the wagons,Wagoneers.com and a few other sights if you google grand wagoneers are good resources too.couple questions and ill get back to you tommorrow, How many miles,Did the mech do plugs, wires, ect...,Is there any oil showing up in the air cleaner housing, Thanks Tony

I've got an '85 that I'm restoring. I've had problems getting it to pass emissions. It was previously in a county that didn't require emissions testing. I've had the catalytic converter replaced, and the vacuum system looks to be ok, so that leads me to think I need the O2 sensor replaced, but I have no idea where it's located. Can ya help me out? (I also have a leaky carburetor that i'm going to try and rebuild from a kit... and I've not done extensive work on cars before...)

no o2 sensor on your model, you can buy a rebuilt carb for like 200 at advance auto, thats the route I went,and make sur all you tune up stuff is done, air filter plugs, cap, button ect,If all ellse is okay just retard the timing some and try again but p[ut it back right after

Thanks for the information! I'm going to try and rebuild the carburetor myself...i figure what the hell for 40 bucks... If that doesn't work, I'll fork over the 200+ for the rebuilt carb. A friend of mine mentioned that there are 4 BBL carbs that only operate 2 at a time for better fuel consumption. Do you know anything about that?

to go to a 4 barrel youd have to change the intake, what do you mean by leaking carb?you can probaly rebuid it just need basic tools and some drill bits to set clearances,but to set idle and choke youll need a tach or engine anliser. there 40 bucks at sears, sorry i dont spell very good

Well, as far as I can tell there's oil coming up from some kind of break in a seal...it's a pretty diffuse leak, so I can't really tell exactly where it's coming from. I haven't examined too thoroughly. Maybe I can take a picture and show ya. Btw, I took it to a mechanic to put a new catalytic converter on and he told me there was a leak. Otherwise I'd have never known.