Hi all,

I do most all my own work on the cars and bikes I own or have owned in the past. They weren't showcars, just "streetables". I've owned several examples of marques from "across the pond" over the years -- a 356B, a Spitfire, a Frogeye, a Sunbeam and an MGB.

Just this past Christmas I found a 1988 XJ-40, dark BRG metallic that was, well, love at first sight (err, bite?). She is my first Jag-u-er.

I drove her around for one week, had another set of ignition keys made because the po only provided me with one and the vacuum fluorescent display decided to go south.

I've been afraid to drive her with no working oil pressure and water temperature gauge and I can't get her inspected until I get a working odometer. I covered her up over the winter, and started the engine every couple of weeks.

That's why I'm here.

From the references I've found, I removed the Instrument Cluster from the rest of the dashboard and partially disassembled it to get to the vacuum fluorescent display transformer. It wasn't loose, but I re-soldered a couple of pads that looked "funny" under a magnifying glass. Re-installing it back into the car and harness proved I haven't found the fault, yet.

I've since picked up a 1990 cluster and from the wiring diagrams it looks like I may be able to splice it into the 1988's harness and get a lot of the 1990 cluster to function -- if I do it correctly and find the correct connectors for the back of the 1990 cluster. Has anyone succeeded performing this mod?

Well, I'm getting ahead of myself and should post this on another thread.

Here's a pic of my "cat".

th_100_0550-red-1.jpg?t=1301823241

A larger pic may be found here:

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/a...0550-red-1.jpg

Cheers,

Forrest

 

Welcome to the forum Forrest,

Nice looking car, and good luck with your fault finding, I'm sure you will get some help if you post in the relevant tech section.

 

Thanks. It's a good feeling to be around others of similar ilk.

 

Sunday April 03, 2011 circa 2:30 pm

I was out working on me mom's Honda this afternoon before the rain, sleet snow came back and decided to take the wraps off the "cat" and try to start her up. No luck -- dead battery.

I jumped her with my winter beater car (1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Sierra) and she fired right up.

Tach worked and I attempted to shift her with the J-shift into reverse and she wanted to back up. I was going to take her out for a Sunday afternoon jaunt but decided not 'cause it looked like rain. I wanted to cover her back up again since this week's weather calls for thunderstorms, showers and more rain/snow.

It was neat to hear an inline 6 breathe smoke and fire again.

 

Welcome to the forum!