Avenga's 1980 Avenger wagon

[avenga]

The latest addition to my fleet of Avengers.



This one is a 1980 Chrysler Avenger wagon.

I brought it off a fellow Avenger forum member. Big thanks to @Pashy for putting up with my months of emails saying "Is the wagon ready yet?" and a big thanks to @Joker for helping out with the speedo drive gear, unfortunately the speedo gear sheared off so I will need to suss out a GPS speedo for now until I can get the other one going.

I am going to tow it back home in a couple of days then there is a small list of things that I need to get working, RPM gauge is stuck on 3,000 but I think that is just a bent needle, and I want to have a look at the brakes.

Other than that I really love the wagon. It drives really nicely. It has been lowered and certed so it looks really nice. Once I have it all up on the road I will take some more photos.

[avengertiger]

very nice richard looks cool does jared have a spare speedo drive from his wagon?

[avenga]

very nice richard looks cool does jared have a spare speedo drive from his wagon?

He did. Jared kindly sent the speedo drive to the mechanics who were prepping the car for sale and it sheared off. I will have to find what the root cause is before I try to track down another drive gear. The GPS speedo will get me through till then

[TheMechanicnz]

Ill have to see if i can find the drive gear i had, if i can find it ill let you know and could get it when you pick up the wagon? Im in warkworth.

[avenga]

Ill have to see if i can find the drive gear i had, if i can find it ill let you know and could get it when you pick up the wagon? Im in warkworth.

That would be cool if you have a spare. I will be cruising through Warkworth when I pick up the wagon.

I need to find the root cause first because I don't want to damage another speedo drive.

It is the red 18 tooth one I need, the white 17 tooth one would work but my speedo will just be a bit wrong

[TheMechanicnz]

Just had a look, the drive i have is a white 17 tooth. Still welcome to it, just let me know when you think you'll be up here if you do want it.

[avenga]

Cool. The white one will work, my speedo will just be a bit wrong.

The wagons had a 4.11:1 diff so it will the red gear and it will have 18 teeth. The most common one is the white gear and it has 17 teeth and is for the 3.70:1 and 3.89:1 diff.

I used to use a wagon diff in my old race car and that was a 4.11:1 ratio diff, all wagons and 1.3L Avengers had the 4.11:1 ratio diff and the 1.6L had the 3.70:1 or 3.89:1

Both will work gears, it would just be that the speedo would be a bit wrong. I did the maths and if you used the more common white gear then at 100KPH the speed would read 107KPH. Not a big deal, it would be good enough to pass the WOF and then I will just know that I need to drive a little slower than the speedo says, then I can hunt around for a red gear.

I'll give you a PM to get your number so I can give you a text when I am heading up to pick up the wagon.

[avenga]

Drove up to pick up the wagon in the Charger today.



Just need to do a few things to get it up to WOF standard.

Went to visit Jack @TheMechanicnz on the way home to pick up another speedo drive, need to find what the root cause of the speedo problem is. I had a look on Carjam and the odometer hasn't been working since 2010 so who knows what is wrong with it.

It is pretty damn low. I am used to how high my '75 is, which is already lowered from the stock height, but this wagon is even lower.

[JoKer]

Sweet wagon & nuts bout the speedo!

[avenga]

I know. I was gutted about the speedo gear, especially after all the hassle you went through to get it out and how rare those red gears are.

[JoKer]

no stress got it off the ground where is should be at least for now

[avengertiger]

what happened to the gear richard did it strip the teeth of the plastic gear or snap the shaft?

[avenga]

Not sure, the seller said it "Sheared off"

I'm going to have a look and make sure nothing is seized up and then try the white gear that I got from Jack.

[avenga]

Made some progress towards getting the WOF, the front brakes were totally seized which is why they felt funny when I test drove it. So glad I trailered it down.

Fixed up the speedo, that was just the needle hitting the glass.

Only a couple more things to do, all things going well, I hope to have the rego and WOF done by the weekend so I can take her for a cruise.

Some more photos

Interior isn't too bad



Back seats and boot looks good



It has a down draft 2 barrel Webber which should be a nice little upgrade from the Strumburg. I have never seen this manifold before. It has water pipes running under the plenum chamber also

[avenga]

Finished rebuilding the brakes. WOF tomorrow hopefully.