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that means i drove my mk2 the equivalent distance from london to cairo before realizing i had a cracked block. and then had to have it hauled all the back to the milan, through israel, lebanon, turkey, bulgaria, serbia, croatia, slovenia, and halfway through italy for repair. amazing! smh.
HueyH : Have faith, be positive ! this will work out just dandy for you .Everyone here is putting on the good vibes for you. You've paid your dues - now the reward is just round the corner.
Cheers !
Schmitty
that means i drove my mk2 the equivalent distance from london to cairo before realizing i had a cracked block. and then had to have it hauled all the back to the milan, through israel, lebanon, turkey, bulgaria, serbia, croatia, slovenia, and halfway through italy for repair. amazing! smh.
One of the wonderful strengths (and in some ways a weakness) of the Mk2 is that it's as tough as old boots and will continue to run even in a severely broken condition where most other cars would have long given up.
the phone has always been answered by the sister of the rebuilder and it was no different today, but when i asked about the status, the rebuilder himself got on the line! this is the first time i've spoken to him in about a year.
he said the car was on the rack, and the engine was in, they were addressing a couple of odd jobs that i requested be looked into soon after the car was delivered to them. i had previously purchased parts to replace a bad rear wheel bearing, replace the brake master cylinder reservoir bottle, replace the heater valve, and fix the excessive steering slop.
he said they would probably be testing the installation this week. yeah!
i'll call back next tuesday and see how they're doing.
At least you got to speak to the main man. I would still request a video call so he can walk you around the work he is doing and it would give you peace of mind to see the car on the ramp as he says it is. If you can see it on the ramp that is good as he would not put it up there and block the ramp unless he was going to work on it.
called today...still not done, answer was engine is installed, started and ran, but now they're rebuilding the fuel pump. odd that it ran fine the last time the engine ran in april of last year after having been driven 3500 miles across the country.
i'll be calling again next week and asking when i can book a flight to pick up the car, as i plan on flying up to idaho and driving it back home to central california via interstate 15 to interstate 5 via las vegas, so as to avoid crossing the sierras and possible bad weather and salt.
Last edited by hueyhoolihan; 04-30-2024 at 07:37 PM.
If I was you I would have a little box of essential spares with you and in that box I would have a spare fuel pump. We have talked long and hard about old SU pumps and whether you should change to a Hardi pump. Other items would include a fan belt, set of plugs, points for the distributor, a spare capacitor, a long length of HT cable as long as your longest lead with ends and a spare coil with HT lead. A spare set of bulbs if travelling at night. A small tool kit with essentials. Although you should have the original tool kit in the boot I have never used mine instead I carry an aluminium case with tools which a friend bought me as a birthday present. I added imperial spanners as it was metric.
Don't forget your flat hat, driving gloves and a driving coat. I think it was Sir William Lyons who was speaking to a gentleman who was complaining that the Jaguar heaters were not very good to which he replied."Young man just put on an overcoat". Sir William also said “It doesn't cost any more to make something pretty.” and I think that is why I own a Jaguar.
I am sure others will have things they will add to the box
i'll be picking up an inexpensive set of tools (< $100) at a walmart or home depot in pocatello on the way home from idaho, as i always expect trouble with an old car.
In over 100,000 miles and in spite of always carrying a boot full of spares and tools, the only parts the my car has required at the road side have been the spare tyre and a fan belt. Incidentally, though it may look inaccessible, our cars are about the easiest in the world for changing the fan belt. Eyes closed in the pitch dark without tools, no problem - it's done by feel anyway. If your car has the original double-V section belt, keep a spare (or two) as they aren't standard stock.
just got off the phone with the rebuilders. they have sent me the final invoice(!) and i'm now in the process of booking a flight and motel in idaho. i'll be driving it home via las vegas sometime in the next two weeks with its new-to-me rebuilt short block, head. transmission and a few other doodads, like new rear wheel bearings, radiator, adjusted steering rack, heater valve and master cylinder reservoir. and it's only taken a little over a year! *sarcasm*
they're still trying to delay things even AFTER i've been given the go-ahead to book a flight and make hotel reservations, oy vey!
i get a call from one of the rebuilders last friday (my flight to idaho is this coming wednesday) saying they are having trouble with the distributor (which was working fine for my 3500 mile trip to ohio well over a year ago, before the rebuild, BTW) and that they had substituted, to get it running, a fully electronic 123 distributor they had in the shop (i immediately, and rightly, sensed where this was going) and wanted to know if wanted to purchase it assuming it fixed the problem.
i was more than a bit put off that they hadn't had the car out on the road and sorted this issue as soon as the engine was installed, but the truth is that i intended to install a 123 distributor anyway (and so i didn't immediately lose my temper) as i had installed one last year in my '53 MG before its recent 3500 mile trip to ohio from california without incident and have found the unit much to my liking. so saved me the trouble. although i fully expect to some some sort of "installation" line item WRT the distributor on my final invoice for it! smh.
but that was not all, they also found a rattling lifter that needed to be sorted, so they said they'd be coming in on monday to address it, and might end up swapping out the cam!!! what?
and because i now knew that the car had been driven, i asked about the excessive steering slop (some call it 'lash') and whether or not it had been successfully addressed as i requested when i initially visited their shop over a year ago. he said something about not being able to do much and then offered a thought that maybe a toe-in adjustment might help. this is a MAJOR PITA when driving at speed, as one is constantly turning the wheel quite a distance, back and forth and back and forth to stay in the lane.
so now this annoyance i must suffer on the two day journey home and then will be something that i will have to have done locally, i guess. ...pretty disappointed about that.
never again will i have major work done on one of my cars in a location so distant as to allow me to REGAIN my composure before personally confronting the object of my frustration.
Last edited by hueyhoolihan; 05-26-2024 at 01:06 PM.
The clacking/rattling lifter may be the result of them grinding the seats too far.
This moves the valve stem into the bucket lifter too far and there is now a shim not thin enough to get the correct clearance.
So what is done to correct this is too grind down a shim and/or remove material from the end of the valve stem.
This can create a serous problem where the valve spring collar comes in contact with the underside of the bucket lifter (tappet).
The sound is coming from the collar momentarily releasing the "keepers" each time the lobe comes around.
Also, one may think that proper clearance is achieved with this method, but because the spring collar is now hitting the bucket lifter, the clearance is essentially too large, this creates much noise.
This can be corrected by mounting the collar in the lathe and removing a small amount of material to gain clearance between the collar and the underside of the lifter.
One has to be careful here not to remove too much from the collar as not to weaken it.
Sometimes installing a new valve will gain adequate clearance.
A possible cause of the racket, that should be checked before blaming the camshaft.
Take note that this should also be checked that if the keepers should come out all together, the valve could fall into the combustion chamber and cause serious damage to the piston and connecting rod, and even the crank.
There was also an early rubber top coupling or narrow CV joint. Same roller wear problem Or the rubber Guibo joint has failed. These were only on early cars.. Steering box play itself usually. requires shimming. Some are worn beyond repair.
Last edited by Glyn M Ruck; 05-26-2024 at 06:20 PM.
If they can't give you a decent walk around the vehicle on Zoom, Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams, Skype etc. and display the issues ~ climb on a plane and go and truck the vehicle home. Use somebody local. There is no magic in a Jaguar. They are no more complex than an ALFA. etc. When I was a 16 year old kid I could do any job on an ALFA. From Engine rebuild to 5 speed gearbox to rear axle.
Today I would take on a quad cam V6, V8, V12 bi-turbo without a worry in the world.
Last edited by Glyn M Ruck; 05-26-2024 at 06:56 PM.
not sure what kind of steering arrangement is on the car, when i first spoke (over a year ago) to the shop about the steering slop, the mech peered into the engine bay and said it looked like it might have a rack and pinion from a later model jag. and said he could do something. so i'm not really sure WHAT i've got in there.
if it's rack and pinion, i would think that remounting the pinion gear on it's shaft 180 degrees from where it's at would be remove about half of the slop. whether or not that's possible? i don't know yet. if it's a box i think i read that there's an adjustment screw and locking grub that can do the job. again, i have no real experience.
i've got a plane ticket to idaho leaving on the 29th may. staying one night and plan on possibly driving a hundred miles or so around the area before heading back home. a two day drive.
Last edited by hueyhoolihan; 05-26-2024 at 06:47 PM.
Even with play in the steering a Mk2 should track well and hold a stable line. It's not a car that requires the driver to saw at the steering wheel. I'd suspect a geometry problem as well as wear. It's easily checked by one of two methods: a shop with a Hunter machine or at home with string, tape measure, and mobile phone.
04-03-2024, 03:34 PM
