Recorded a short video on my way to work this morning.
Found a set of Crown Vic wheels and picked them up last night. He already sold the tires separately so I got them for $100. Not sure what i want to do for tires yet. I might even have a set kicking around in my basement that might work for now.
The other thing I picked up a few months ago was a used MS3. It's not budget friendly but I got a good deal on it. Still i'd like to mess around with it and see if i can get it working with the stock crank trigger. That would open up some more ignition options. I can always switch back to the MS1 for the challenge.
Nice score on the wheels.
Slight setback on the wheels. The AMC hub is 72.5mm and the Ford whel bore is 71.5mm. Since the difference was only 1mm I decided to enlarge the bore. Center caps still fit too since where they mounted was already a larger bore.
Next setback was i started to mount the 16" tires I had in my basement and realized the 4th tire was not the same size and was junk. Not sure what happened to the right one. I kinda remember grabbing a tire to put under an engine in the back of my truck once. For now I put on 2 wheels and tires to see how they fit. Also the battery died from some random drain so the car is stuck in the front yard for now.
Front fits great and there is alot of room in the back. The 8.8 axle I was going to install is 3" wider then the AMC one. Maybe I won't have to narrow it afterall.
Yesterday I made a trip to the junkyard and picked up a pair of tires so hopefully i can get those mounted this week and start driving it again.
Those look really good on there 
Man, that house paint we rolled on the driver's side fender and front valance in the Best Western Gateway Grand parking lot 3 years ago still looks fantastic! Must have been the paint curing process, AKA leaving the fender and valance in the back stairwell of the hotel overnight. 
I can say with certainty that the Explorer 8.8 rear in a spirit will match the front track width perfectly with the same offset Wheels front to rear. Watch for driveshaft clearance it gets real tight in the back.
I've been thrashing in hopes to have the car ready to drive to NH last weekend but the AMC had other plans. Everything had been going well and I drove it to work last Thursday to get some more tuning in.
It ran great on the way to work and on lunch break but when I went to leave it didn't want to stay running. It would fire then stall out immediately. For some reason it wanted more fuel so I upped the cells around idle till I could get it to run. Idle cells went from 30 to 150 which is a huge increase. During lunch it was getting fuel cut in turns so maybe it was too low on gas even though it had half a tank. I added a lot of fuel to the cells around idle and was able to limp it to a gas station. Filled the tank but it made no difference so I limped it home.
I thought maybe Megasquirt was corrupted so i reflashed the firmware and every old tune i had but they all didn't work unless i added more fuel. I then tried checking fuel pressure with a rented gauge from AutoZone but couldn't get it to hook up to the fuel rail. Next dumb idea was to pinch shut the return line after the regulator to see that changed how it ran. Thought was no bog would be low pressure/ bad pump and bog would be pressure was fine. Well it did start to bog but then the fuel filter blew apart, lol. It was now 9pm and the parts stores were closed. All I could do was remove the pump and filter and inspect them.
When I pulled the hoses off a bunch of junk started coming out and when I opened the filler it was full of gray stuff. More crap and rust came out of the pump. Not good since I've only run 3 tanks of fuel though this filter and pump. At this point I called it a night.
So I might have to do my fuel system upgrade a little early. I picked up a free Cherokee tank which has baffles for EFI and I just ordered a sending unit and pump from amazon for $19. Only problem with the XJ tank is I need to relocate the filler neck.
Dropped the tank and it was spotless inside. Not even a spec of crud or rust floating around. I did noticed that the sock on the pickup did have a hole and some evidence of sitting for a while. If there was anything in the tank at one point its now in the pump and filter. It's also possible that the sock itself is falling apart and being sucked up into the pump.
I also used the pump and clear hose to drain the tank and noticed it would pump fuel clear for a couple seconds then foam up.
So after thinking about a couple options I decided i'm going to install a Cherokee fuel tank. It lets me run an intank pump and has a small baffle. It's close in size to the stock spirit tank but i need to move the fill hole and cap the old one.
The stock spirit filler neck is rubber and didn't come apart nicely so I grabbed a metal Cherokee one at the junkyard. The tank has been empty for a few years but I rinsed it out and filled it with soapy water before cutting some holes in it. I still need to weld everything up but so far so good.
Think winter is finally over so I can start working on the AMC again. I welding up the Cherokee tank but ran out of shielding gas right at the end. Hopefully I can get that finished up next weekend then figure out how to relocate the mounting straps.
I ordered a bunch of fittings to convert the Cherokee sending unit to AN. I cut off the hose barb end and slid on a compression style AN fitting. I've seen a bunch of people doing this on old muscle cars and trucks without issues so hopefully it works for me as well. It then goes to 90 degree fittings so I can run the hoses over to the frame rail. Still need to find a cheap AN fuel filter that does suck then adapt the stock lines over to AN as well.
Thought I did a decent job welding this but I was wrong. Spent last night welding up all the leaks only to find out the old side filler neck was soldered in and the heat from welding made some of the solder drip out.
Glad to see you’re working on it again.
Welded up all the leaks around the new filler neck and resoldered the old one. I couldn't get the cheap performance pump to fit right so I'm going to run the one that came with the new sender then sort it out later.
One strap bolt broke when I was removing the tank so I made new ones out a carriage bolts from home depot. $2 vs $35 for a new set. New ones are also a longer which helps since the new tank is a little bigger. Tank is a tight fit with the current exhaust but its in. I removed all the old terrible lines and will be running a new feed right to the engine. Just waiting on a fuel filter and fittings to show up in the mail.
Made some small progress. Started to run the fuel lines down the driver's side but still didn't like how close they were to the exhaust. Also the would need to go under the rear seat pan which then made them the lowest point on the vehicle. Decided it would be safer to run them on the passenger side. I got the fuel filter mounted and the main feed line mocked up. Still need to run the return and mount the lines with something other then zipties.
Pulling the plug on this project. The floors and inner rockers are getting bad and with the damaged A pillar I’ve decided to move on 
. I’ll be pulling the engine and turbo stuff then parting out the rest of the car.
The XJ-R has been sitting for a while so the engine might end up in that or another Lemons XJ.
I could use a few parts for my own Spirit project when you decide to part it out.
In reply to Cooter :
What parts are you looking for?
I know I definitely need taillights. Maybe the rear sidemarkers, as well. I need to look at the car closely to be sure what else.
Strange question but, where do you live? If the rust can be repaired, I might be interested.
Car is located in Hanover MA.
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