Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[CitroJim]

Excellent news Zel

[xantia_v6]

Congratulations on the pass!

From memory those rear hub pivot bearing are supposed to have pre-load on them, but they can be quite troublesome to reassemble, so don't tackle that job unless psychologically prepared for a good fight.

My advice on the steering rack bushes is not to bother with polybushes, which tend to transmit too much road "noise" to the steering wheel, but to fit shim washers either side of one of the original rack mounting bushes to reduce the end-float to nearly (but not quite) zero.

[Zelandeth]

Congratulations on the pass!

From memory those rear hub pivot bearing are supposed to have pre-load on them, but they can be quite troublesome to reassemble, so don't tackle that job unless psychologically prepared for a good fight.

My advice on the steering rack bushes is not to bother with polybushes, which tend to transmit too much road "noise" to the steering wheel, but to fit shim washers either side of one of the original rack mounting bushes to reduce the end-float to nearly (but not quite) zero.

Thanks, I did wonder looking at it whether it would be possible to add shims of some sort to take up the free play. To be honest it's not really a big deal to my mind, she's a lazy cruiser more than a tight handling track weapon...Though once it's sorted I'll probably wonder how I ever drove the car like that!

I'm not too worried about the rear hub pins either, the play there is absolutely tiny at the moment - I can't remember for certain, but isn't there even a grease fitting on them? I've only done one service going over stuff like that on this car once so far and I'm struggling to picture what's on what vehicle in my mind right now. Changing those is the sort of job that a garage would most likely be getting handed - at least I've had a couple of people recommend Jag specialists to me so I'm not flying quite so blind as usual in that regard. It at least feels like the results of the test today prove that it's not unreasonable to invest a bit of money in sorting some of the issues I'm aware of. May well even look to get a body shop to sort a couple of little bits of bodywork properly - but I really didn't want to invest potentially bigger chunks of dosh until I'd had Steve cast his eye over the car and given it a clean bill of health from an MOT perspective. Turns out he's actually had an XJ-S himself in the past as well so knew exactly where to be poking.

The bodywork list as I know at the moment stands at:

[] Patch needed (I know full well it will be a hole if I poke it) immediately behind the driver's door.



[] Offside rear wheel arch.



[] Usual hole underneath the coolant expansion bottle because Jag put a foam pad underneath it. Will need the wing removing but shouldn't actually be that much of a headache to sort. I've given this a pretty good bashing with a screwdriver and it doesn't extend any further than it looks like it does.



I'll probably do this one myself as being hidden away behind the wing and a cover it's out of sight so my scabby welding won't be visible! I can weld stuff together so it's solid just fine - pretty, not so much!

[] Rear screen needs to come out to clean up the mess around the outside. This looks strange because Vactan apparently goes strange and puffy if you don't overcoat it and it gets wet. My bad. Bit of a sand back and paint will make the world of difference here. Doesn't actually look to be much under the seal from peeling and peering under it I've done, but obviously I'd like to get the screen out and make absolutely sure there's not a huge headache for the future hiding there.



[] Manky bit where the seam between the two bits of the sill behind the nearside rear wheel have started to come apart. This actually looks worse than it is - I was expecting this to crumble to nothing once I poked it, but a lot of it looks to be solid.



Then of course there are a laundry list of other jobs too...but bodywork is always the biggie with these cars I reckon! Anything else you can sort with a bit of patience.

[Zelandeth]

Finally. Only taken me the best part of a year to actually get some photos of the Jag at sunset.











Still irked I didn't spot the streetlight in the front on shots until I got home. I know it would only take me ten minutes to edit it out, but I shouldn't have missed something that obvious when I was framing things.

On the plus side I now know that little dead end road is a good spot for this sort of photo so can head back there in future.

[Hell Razor5543]

She looks lovely like that. Everybody knows most Big Cats are nocturnal, and only really wake up as the sun sets and the moon rises. Then, when most others are asleep, the roar of a Big Cat making their presence known can be heard across the land.

[NewcastleFalcon]

............make sure you take advantage of the good days to enjoy a bit of old fashioned motoring....and interesting location "brochure-esque" photography Even the oft forgotten atmospheric lighting nightime shots, and the comforting glow of the dashboard lights.

I think your superb photographs are exactly what I had in mind when I made that comment on your blog a couple of weeks ago. It would be great if you could occasionally put one a two up on the Picture's of the Day thread, as they definitely hit that criteria. Also a there is a thread on dashboards and interiors and proper nightime shots of dashboards are a bit of a rarity, so any contributions would be greatfully received.

Regards Neil

[CitroJim]

Cracking pictures Zel

They go beyond just the ordinary photo, they are art

[Zelandeth]

A couple of very useful documents turned up yesterday.



They should be very, very useful. It might seem counterintuitive but the parts catalogue is actually probably going to be the most helpful. The simple reason being that it has nice big, A4 sized, clear diagrams like these.









Given there's so much on this car you can't see because stuff is in the way so you need to assemble or disassemble by touch having these diagrams showing how stuff actually fits together should be really helpful.

[CitroJim]

Cor! Proper old-school drawings Zel

Huge clarity and rather beautiful

Such magnificent diagrams are a rarity these days

[xantia_v6]

The Jaguar Parts books of the 1970s and early 80s are works of art. They are generally very accurate, I am only aware of about 2 errors in the whole book, one being on the page that shows the transmission mount, which shows the components assembled in the wrong order, and perhaps one spacer completely missing, and I think that there may be a washer missing or too many where the steering arm mounts to the front hub.

The workshop manual itself suffers from poor editing and proof-reading, with some sections copied from earlier models and thus misleading. This is compounded by the decision (by BL) in 1980 not to update the manual any more, other than by the insertion of annual update pages in the back of the manual which are written in a different style, and not really indexed.

[Gibbo2286]

I always found that a good parts book with that type illustration was far more useful than a wordy workshop manual.

[CitroJim]

I always found that a good parts book with that type illustration was far more useful than a wordy workshop manual.

Agreed, and better than the photos in the Haynes BoL any day

[Zelandeth]

We've been blanketed in pretty thick fog here for the best part of a week so not exactly ideal weather for driving around in a tiny three wheeler with only basic lighting from 1973. However the weather finally broke today so I was able to get TPA out for a run.

Used my highly technical exhaust gas extraction system to prevent the garage (and then the house as it's poorly sealed) from filling up with exhaust fumes while she warned up while I was playing automotive Tetris to clear the access to the garage.



Glad to report that with my revised distributor condenser in place (but far from tidy) running has been vastly improved. There never used to be a hugely noticeable difference between 70% throttle and 100% aside from a bit more induction noise. You can actually feel the difference across the whole throttle range now and she just generally feels smoother.

It's very obvious that it's done something by virtue of it having brought the idle up by about 350rpm. Still low enough the clutch doesn't start to drag though, so at this time of year I'm inclined to leave it alone. A bit of additional heat into the cabin and keeping engine speed high enough for the generator to actually be on charge are both good things.

I didn't actually take a note of where the throttle sat at 60mph before, but it feels like it's less far open now.

Temperatures were hovering around 1-2C outside and while it didn't get it up to feeling warm, the heater was able to keep up sufficiently that the cabin wasn't uncomfortably cold.

A couple of opportunities for photos were spotted while I was out so I took the opportunity to grab a couple. I know 99% of the photos I have of TPA are just sitting in my driveway or just in a supermarket car park so I'd like to fix that.

Think I've done a reasonable job of keeping things which allow you to immediately identity these as photos taken from 2020 out of frame.















Generally seems to be running well. Only gripe today was the indicator stalk coming loose again. It's just a bit of a poor design, held onto the bars by large self tapping screws into the bakelite of the switch assembly. Rotation is stopped by a peg in the centre, but it's a very loose fit. As such even with the screws as tight as you dare it can still wobble a bit. Over time it then works loose.

The proximity of two terminals prevents you using a nut and bolt as it would cause a short. So I think a little bead of Sikaflex under it and on the screw threads will be employed this time. I think so long as it's secure enough not to wobble around it'll be fine...just needs a bit if help to get to that stage.

The alternative I'll look at first will be to see if I could use a non conductive washer or spacer and a nut and bolt...but I'm pretty sure I already tried that when I fitted the first one to KPL and discovered that the answer was simply "no." Can't remember for certain though and my fabrication skills have improved a bit since back then.

Despite the indicator switch making a bid for freedom this was the first time I've been out in this car and quite distinctly decided "No, I'm taking the long way home as I'm having a nice drive and enjoying myself."

Think the first time that happens is a nice turning point in the ownership of any car. Have largely stopped worrying about what every noise is or what's going to fall off next, and just had a nice drive out.

Economy on the last tank came back at 33mpg, so we seem to have pretty solidly settled in the low-mid 30s. Which sounds about right to me... I'd expect high 30s anywhere else, but MK is murder on economy so I always expect to see slightly lower than average figures elsewhere.

I'll see about dropping a couple of my recent photos into the relevant threads elsewhere on here shortly when I'm at an actual computer.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Love the location shoots Zel, Lovely pics keep them coming.

Lots of creativity possible with the Invacar in particular. How often do you see a decent "brochure setting" for photo's of an invacar? Certainly not from the manufacturers when they were launched. But now....its such a quirky little icon that it would be fun seeing it in one of those typical glossy brochure settings.... on a long gravel drive up to some ornamental lakes, or in front of a stately home you know the type of thing.

I like the "lights on" pics of bpth the XJS and the Invacar.....I think I'll give that a go myself with my point and shoot camera see how they turn out!


Regards Neil

[Michel]

Great stuff Zel, as always.

Would plastic numberplate nuts and bolts hold the indicator stalk secure?