Tim's always on the ball
I came back from South America safely, but not without adventures!

As I said before, I didn't really believe we were going anywhere else, and there's South American lack of order and misjudged concept of time to blame... We stayed for last 2 weeks in Posadas, visited some family members and other boring stuff like that.
On the 2nd of February at 2am we caught a bus from Posadas to Iguazu, then we crossed the border with Brazil and caught a flight to Sao Paulo, waited few hours and caught another plane and eventually landed in Rio de Janeiro around 8pm. We ended up on the famous beach Copacabana, where we tried to find a place for the night. Unfortunately, because of the CARNAVAL, everything was way too expensive for us. So we decided to buy Brazilian flag and used it as a blanket to sleep on the beach. Yes, you've read it right, sleep on the beach. It was rough, it was dodgy, but we did it, and nobody robbed us (I buried the backpack in the sand and covered it with flag, so I didn't take any pictures until the next day).

And the next day, we went to the famous Corcovado





After that straight back to the airport, picked up the suitcases and caught the flight back to Frankfurt. And there my backpack has been x-rayed twice and my camera and bag of batteries has been x-rayed 3 times.
And I haven't had time to post anything, as for last 2 weeks we've been looking for a house for rent, with double driveway, which seems to be near impossible... I need to get Jag back on the road and out of my parents' front garden...

 

Looks like you had a great trip.
Post the pics when you can.

 

Happy Birthday!

 

Welcome back - a trip you'll remember for the rest of your life.

Good luck with the house search and getting the X300 back on the road.

Graham

 

Cheers guys Appreciate all the support!
And thanks Tim! In fact, it's not my b-day (I know you're checking El Gato's FB page) but it is the 18th anniversary for my Jag. According to all the documents, rolled out from the factory on the 1st of February 1995, but the date of first registration was 16th of February 1995

 

This truly looks great. I love it! such an inexpensive 'mod' with excellent results IMO. I saw the following post about what you used but too bad you didn't take pics and document along the way for people like me that don't want to screw anything up lol.

 

There's a big chance I'll re-do it this year for better results, I still have a lot of paint left over and might just get video put together Thanks for giving me the idea

 

Looks like I'll be at the local automotive paint shop (Sherwin Williams) to have them
put me together a spray-bomb in my factory colour (ice blue)

I already freshend the Jaguar letters with factory red spray but I look forward to re-doing it,
and the 'valve' cover body colour. Not much else to do with all this snow on the ground

 

2 weeks ago we've moved in to a new property, closer to our workplaces, close to town centre and with double driveway on which I can keep both my cars, Focus and Jaguar
First drive of the year happened on the 2nd of April, loved every minute of it, but after several days of driving the Jag, I noticed few things.
Heating comes on after longer while and it's blowing only warm air (so I guess it's the thermostat issue). The handbrake light doesn't come on (the bulb on the dashboard works fine so that's ruled out) and handbrake itself is not the best so possibly needs adjusting. And there's funny noise in neutral, except when the I press the clutch, then it disappears. And when in gears it turns into whinning noise, so I'm guessing it's going to be a bearring of some sort, which needs replacing. And the oil (pressure?) gauge behaves rather odd, but later about this one. I have rather limited internet access until next Wednesday

 

The switch for the handbrake might be dead, or the wires leading to it might be off. As for the noise, my first thought is a throw-out bearing. Ick.

 

The throwout bearing would make noise when the clutch pedal is depressed. It seems to me a bearing or gear problem in the transmission is more likely.

 

 

A temporary golf ball gear shift knob in a Jag. That my friend has to be one of the most creative ideas I've seen. Otherwise, I'm simply speechless.........

 

Time for another update, me thinks! El Gato Grande was bought with one and only thing in mind, road trip! And it was supposed to be road trip across Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, unfortunately it didn't happen... But hey, 3 weeks ago we came back from a road trip in Europe We went to visit my relatives this time, in Poland, but it wasn't all just visiting family, don't get me wrong, no! It was road trip as well


So here's few pictures for you from Kraków-Częstochowa Upland









And here's picture from local medieval torunament



The Jasna Góra Monastery





Wieliczka Salt Mine - everything on those pictures is made entirely out of rock salt and is within the mine around 130 metres (around 426 feet) under ground











Morskie Oko lake ( literally "Eye of the Sea" ) near Zakopane in Polish Tatra Mountains. Temperatures were around +36C every day, and yes, on some pictures you can see SNOW!!!







And here's the guest house we've been staying in for 2 nights while in Zakopane



And here's Dobsinska Ice Cave in Slovakia! Temperature outside was +38C and inside the cave it was -2C







By the way, while still in Slovakia, I managed to get a POKUTA, which is a speeding ticket...





Somewhere near Český Těšín (Czech Republic)







And back in Poland, somewhere near Bielsko-Biała, someone converted an old Soviet plane into restaurant

 

Superb scenery and the X300 finally earns it's title.
No mention of mechanical issues on the trip so it all went smoothly?

Graham

 

Thanks FireCrow, I had the same thought as Graham, so I'm hoping the old girl behaved.
It looks like another great trip.

 

that guest house is beautiful!

 

It all went pretty much without major problems, but... day before we set of, I decided to change the thermostat, and the casing cracked because of my own stupidity, I didn't tighten the bolts evenly... I realised it was leaking slowly somewhere in Netherlands, but fortunately I thought earlier of taking a big bottle of distilled water, so just kept topping it up every 400km. Leak wasn't massive, and when we got to Poland, I just used some 2 part glue for metal and it's still holding up well

Here's a link to map of our journey, we shall see if it works ok


http://goo.gl/maps/TKHt1


In total we topped more than the map shows, we covered over 3000 miles in 2 weeks

And just when we got back to Dunkirk in France to get the ferry, in the queue clutch pedal started acting oddly... Eventually it stayed very close to the floor, which made driving a bit of fun... But managed to get back to Ipswich, then the next day I went to my parents to pick up my cat, and there the pedal decided to stay on the floor and not let me change gears in a traditional way... So I drove about 5 miles through town back home changing gears without using clutch... Painful, but possible... I was looking for new or used components, but they were way too expensive, so with help of my younger brother we managed to bleed the system again and so far the clutch is working ok.


Oh, Tim, guest houses like this one are very common in Polish mountains, and we were just next to Zakopane, which is commonly known as Winter Capitol of Poland (all the winter sports and stuff like that) and we paid for both of us for 2 nights about 25 quid, which is roughly 38 USD in total.

Wanted to add as well, I decided to try out the magic trick with 2-stroke oil in the petrol. With my manual gearbox, using Andy's bracket, high octane fuel (at least 98) and about 100ml of 2-stroke oil per tank I managed to get 37 mpg (imperial, US mpg would be nearly 31) on the motorways. And the engine had a lot smoother and easier start to it. So I believe it is an improvement.

 

No updates for a while as there wasn't much happening... Work, college, work, college... Anyway, since Monday this week, El Gato Grande is off the road, no insurance, still taxed, with MOT for another at least half a year. The thing is, I'm not sure what to do with it. Engine's sound, but there's some issues, which have never been sorted out. The gearbox, keeps meowing, but I don't want to spend fortune on new one, as it will be worth nearly as much as whole car, I checked several times before... The clutch, most likely the master cylinder, which new costs over 200 quid :-/ And really difficult to find a second hand one, been looking for one for ages now... Differential started leaking as well... I could sell it as it stands right now, but I might not even get what I paid for it, and most likely it would be turned into banger racing car. Or I could try and take all those bits out and try to rebuild them myself. Right now I'm doing light vehicle maintenance course at college, so that would be good practice. My wife doesn't really want to part with it. Right now the car has only 87k miles done... I need some opinions or suggestions here... Really not sure what should I do...

 

Values are on the floor for early Jaguar saloons. Wonderful for buyers but a nightmare for sellers so selling doesn't look an attractive or particularly easy option.

The six months MoT gives you some thinking time. Repairing a vehicle you've put a lot of time and effort into getting the way you want it has to be preferable.

A leaking diff is annoying but, provided the fluid is kept topped up, repairs can be postponed. Most likely to be output shaft seals which is high on effort but low on cash to replace.

Clutch problems are usually friction plate, release bearing or leaking seals. A new master or slave cylinder would be the quickest but (even if available) the costliest way to fix leaking seals. First thing is to identify exactly what is causing the clutch problem.

I've had a look and can find a slave cylinder seal kit:

Clutch hydraulics - SC Parts Group Ltd

Master cylinder kits aren't immediately jumping out of Google but they are rarely entirely model specific and usually fit a surprising range of vehicles. The trick will be tracking down which other vehicles use the same seals. XJ40 comes to mind immediately and members with that model may be able to help with sourcing.

Good luck.

Graham