Depending on what type of rack you have, that slop is very common on the "Series" XJ cars, and it is the result of the rubber mounts wearing out. Jaguar mounted them so the rubber was in shear, which is a bad thing to do with rubber. Over time the rubber breaks away from it's steel collar in the mount and the rack itself moves within it's brackets on the front subframe. So turning the wheel simply moves the rack back and forth, rather than moving the wheels.

 

understood...

at this point i'm not sure what kind of steering system i have; rack and pinion or some sort of steering box. i'll soon find out though! but if i have what you're describing above, i wouldn't think it would be too difficult to find a solution.

 

Not difficult at all. There are aftermarket poly bushings, they work well to cure the problem.

 

I had the problem that JB describes with my DD6 when I first bought it. As he says, it's an easy fix with poly bushes. However, the only way it causes a steering instability is if you're on a highway where troughs have formed from the passage of numerous heavy trucks. Then the car will try to weave around in the troughs - it's very unpleasant.

 

This sort of "tracking" is easily fixed on cars with decent castor. 1 to 2 degrees extra castor on the passenger side vs driver side e.g. at max 9 deg driver side 11 deg max passenger side. Alas our Jags are not capable in this regard.

 

Glyn - I know it works, but somehow I'm not comfortable with the asymmetry. I've also known people who prefer their steering to pull slightly to one side on the basis of it making the response quicker or more direct. I know it can make sense, but it irks.

 

On a Mercedes the car runs straight & perfectly hands off the wheel.

 

It's even published in the WIS (Workshop information system) on a Star DAS.

 

Symmetry is a lot of BS ~ e.g. roads have camber. etc. Not only tramlines.

 

I have to come clean and admit the castor on my Mk2 was far from equal on the two sides. I don't recall the numbers, zero one side and greater than one on the other. Since the car drove fine and we weren't confident about measuring camber, we left well alone. This was half a century and many thousand miles ago and it's not been touched since.

 

It's a great pity our Jags do not run the high castor rates of modern decent cars of which there are many in today's world.

 

BTW ~ I run my car at 9.6 deg & 10.6 deg.

 

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.... particularly with the kingpin angles they have. It only adds to the ineffectiveness of turning the steering wheel. I always come back to some comments from Bob Jane. I think he said that turning the steering wheel served as much to slow the car down as change it's direction.

 

So are you in possession of your car yet?

 

yes, i've got the car home. two day 900 mile trip back. there are still major problems, steering, overheating, braking, oil pressure. will expand and be asking questions about them sometime next week.

 

A newly rebuilt engine will run hot until it's broken in.
Mine ran at 90 all the time for a number of weeks, and I never drove it in stop and go traffic while it was breaking in.

 

aaaahhhh....HA!

drove 314 miles first day from blackfoot Id. to Elko Nv. i had asked, before authorizing the last payment and heading out on thursday, how many miles had been put on the car/engine since the rebuild and they responded, "...a couple hundred at least...". so when i discovered the temp gauge had probably been reading 110C for the first hour or so, i had to assume that they felt that that kind of heat was acceptable or the temp gauge was inaccurate and that they failed to mention it, and so kept on driving. but i was nervous and not comfortable about it at all.

but the truth is that at that time i was pretty much committed to getting the car as close to home as possible, no matter the consequences. as my only alternative was to drive back to the shop and level complaints, then beg a ride to the airport, buy a ticket home and leave the car with them to fix. and who knows how long that would take, while i was yet again 900 miles away, out the time and expense of the trip and powerless to do much of anything about it. ...so it was a "damn the torpedoes..." situation and i carried on.

second day, drove 360 miles from elko Nv to Minden, Nv. temp still pegged to 110C and ambient temp still about 70F. much of the route was via federal route 50. often referred to as, "The Loneliest Road in America". and managed to pick up about 30 lbs of "Mormon Cricket" carcasses in the wheel wells and on the rockers. apparently Nevada's having a minor plague of them this year. technically a relative of "Jiminy Cricket", i guess, but more like a grotesque love-child born of Jiminy and the female egg-laying creature in "Alien". anyway...

forgot to mention. front brakes were now locking after coming to a stop. they break free after starting out again somewhere between 2nd and 3rd gear, and when they finally disengage, there is a noticeable power surge. i'm imagining it has something to do with those cricket carcasses, and yes i spent a bundle at the first DIY public power-wash (about $20.00) blasting those hideous creatures bodies off my car after i convinced myself i'd seen the last of them.

day three...Minden to home...167 miles. ambient temp 50-80F. coolant temp was reduced all day to about 90C. oil pressure now stabilized at 50-55psi at 60mph and 30-35 idle.

my trip would have been much more pleasant if they'd warned me to expect high coolant temps. i'm tempted to call them and discuss it...but not now.

i did find out that my steering is of the rack and pinion type from a later model jag and that they didn't really touch it, but tried instead, to lessen the slop by adjusting the toe-in. it was not really all that successful. there is still a clear one inch slop in the steering, in fact it's possible to actually FEEL the worn teeth engaging and the slight resistance it imparts on the rack's gear just before the wheels actually moves. i'll be asking a question soon about remedies, as i've got a few ideas about how it could be done.

horn doesn't work now. truth is i rarely use a horn but surprised how often i now want to, knowing that i can't. probably a life-lesson in there somewhere.

anyway, that's it for now, thanks for listening.

 

That's good news about the temp. and oil pressure.
I was going to suggest rad and thermostat next.

I always felt the rad when the car was hot for any cold spots in the matrix, they indicated blocked tubes and/or poor flow from the tank(s).

 

good idea, but getting one's hand in there with a hot radiator is not a job for the timid! ha

i plan on pulling the thermostat in the near future. looks easy enough. i want to see what's in there. i'm not expecting to find a smoking gun, but it's always nice to know what's really going on in the engine compartment. and i recently (like today) discovered a major mismatch in the intensity of the exhaust pressures (they are completely separate but parallel exhaust systems from the exhaust manifolds through the downpipe to the muffler(s) to the tail pipes) between the front three and the rear three cylinders. any differences in the intensity of exhaust from the two pipes should be virtually undetectable, AFAIK.

 

IIRC, the thermostat on these engines used a sleeve which moved to cover a slot in the housing when the thermostat opened. I would suspect it is the wrong t'stat, which is causing your overheating. Here is a link to a forum post on this subject.
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/m...t-3-8s-266779/
Previous poster's suggestion re: checking radiator temps manually. This will show you if the radiator is blocked in places. Could also use an infra red thermometer.
Check that they have installed the fan correctly, ie blowing the correct way.
Ignition timing could be out, or carbs set too lean.
I have rebuilt several XK motors, and never suffered overheating when running in.
Good luck
Pete