Welcome to the forum eurosport.
As normal with this forum you seem to have been armed with quick and useful information.
I must admit to wondering if you purchased your Jaguar knowing the auto is slipping along with the other bits?
If you knew about these problems was there an allowance in the price to cover part of it,I know this is none of my business and apologise if I appear too nosy!
It would seem there is not allot of known history with your car reading between the lines. Neil

 

.If you're able to get the forward valve body off the transmission and inspect it, you can either replace the main valve with the upgrade, or exchange for a rebuilt valve body. That's a lot cheaper than waiting for the A drum to go and having to a rebuild.

 

The Jaguar was a donated to a local charity when I noticed it about a month ago - came back a couple of weeks later and it still sat there for sale - now marked down to $1,750 and I managed to haggle another $200 off - so I purchased the XJ8 for $1,550 knowing that it had transmission issues. That being said I thought I would have to tow it home but driving over just to get some gas I noticed once it the transmission went into 2nd gear the Jaguar was very drivable - in fact I drove it home at about 80MPH on the highway