Thorsen
FYI, the rear lower pins that hold the shock MUST be driven out towards the front, FROM the rear
The size of the hole at the rear prevents the rod being driven out rearwards.

 

Thomas,

I've been loving your thread! Great work! Well done!

Just one polite suggestion. Go back and bleed the brakes the way they should be done for this Teves abs system. Forget gravity bleeding, or even your conventional bleeding. You need to do it the proper way, bleeding the low pressure side first, then doing the wheel circuits in the correct Teves manner. If you haven't got the procedure, I can document it for you. I'd also suggest you do it the Teves way, not the Jaguar way (there's a slight difference) This abs system is a real pain, and valve block failures through sediment movement from inappropriate brake work (pushing back pistons etc) are now worryingly common.

Good luck

Paul

 

Greg,
From the back to the front was the direction I was hammering, and while I got it to move about 1/2" I could tell it was going to take a lot of persuasion to get it all the way out. I soaked it in penetrating oil and put it back together - I'll fight that battle when it's too cold/snowy/salty to drive her.
Thomas

 

Paul,
Sorry it wasn't clear - I bled it the Teves way. My wife was in the driver's seat and would push the brake pedal down when I said 'down' and she would confirm it by replying with 'down'. She would do the same when I said 'up' - hence my 'down-down, up-up' comment.
You have really good advice about not pushing sediment back into the lines when retracting the caliper pistons.

Thomas

 

This morning I got drove my MGB and my wife drove the Jaguar to Coffee and Classics. We weren't there for long and decided to beat the rain home. When we got back to the house my wife was pretty excited about how well the Jaguar drove and how much she enjoyed "winding it out"

It's been raining since we got home and while I pulled the radio to upgrade, I'm having second thoughts. In the aftermarket world there are not a lot of radios that look the part. There's the Blaupunkt Bremen SQR at $500, there's the one that's about $200, and the $1,500 https://www.crutchfield.com/p_158RSXGS9/Sony-RSX-GS9.html?tp=5684. The reviews on the Blaupunkt scare me, the Continental looks like it should sell for $50, and I'd never spend $1,500 for the Sony. I'd be curious to hear what others have done. Right now I'm leaning towards finding a bluetooth cassette adapter so I can stream my music and calling it a day.

 

Hi,
i bought one of these MP3 Bluetoooth audio player things:


You set UHF frequency, use orignal radio, pair the player to you phone. I can even use it as handsfree.
There plenty available,
Evert

 

I made my decision on a radio and purchased it today - but I'm not going to share until I get it and make sure I like it

Tonight I put the exhaust heat shielding on the left exhaust pipe. This should help keep excess heat away from the transmission. I used ThermoTec 11630 this time around. In the past I have used DEI Titanium Pipe Shield but thought I would try the ThermoTec product this time. It's very similar to the DEI shield, but the ThermoTec has what looks to me a mylar cover on top of the product. This should help keep oil from soaking into the heat shield fabric and causing a thermal event.

 

The after market radio installed in my car has a wire / plug that goes in to the glove box.
I plug it in to the phone, hit AUX and play music, tried making a call the other day and hit speaker on the phone.
The voice came through the stereo and the phone mic picked up my voice.
Wife said she could hear me perfectly.
Very pleased finding this out!

Look forward to seeing your stereo option.
And the XJS looks great, love the red wheels, add the MG in red of course and a great pair of classics!
Great picture.

 

I just got back from an evening drive and WOW - I love this car. I'm really glad I went with the V12, it's so smooth driving around town. This is probably one of the best engines I've owned. I took it on the tollway and when I got to a spot where there wasn't any traffic, I opened it up a bit. She loves to run.

I'm starting to think the 3 speed transmission isn't enough, though. I'm going to seriously consider a 4-speed conversion this winter - I think that will help give it longer legs on the highway.

On the stereo front, I will share which radio I'm NOT going with. I found this on Amazon and even though it looks simple enough - the chart on the right hand side is printed and is not a row of LED's. It looks kind of ridiculous in real life. So back to Amazon it's going. It's a shame because the price is right and I like the shorter frame size of the "mech less" units.

 

I got the new Uro cruise control bellows in the mail today. I doubt it's going to have enough stretch to open the throttle all the way. Even when I try to expand it out it has no where near the stroke of the original.

Original bellows on top, new Uro bellows on bottom.

 

engine heat will have it adjusted quickly.

 

I didn't think about the engine heat "relaxing" the rubber. The good thing about the V12 is there is plenty of engine heat

 

I'm about half-way through installing my new stereo system. For the head unit, I pulled the trigger on the Blaupunkt Bremen SQR 46 DAB. It was the only one that had the features I wanted but also had a retro look. I'm not a fan of all the flashy lights on modern head units.



Instead of cutting the existing harness to wire in the speakers, I elected to run new wire to all 4 corners. Working the wire through the door jamb was not that difficult. I worked a piece of weed wacker line through the conduit, then taped speaker wire to the end of the weed wacker line and pulled it through.


Wiring the rear was much easier as all I had to do was run the wiring under the carpet.


Here are the rear tweeters, I'm still trying to decide where the front tweeters will go.


Amazon is bringing me some speakers today; I'll let you know which ones work best when they get here.

 

Got the speakers all hooked up and powered up the radio. I am happy with it - it looks like it belongs there. It's just a shame it costs so much.



For the front speakers, I went with Pyle PLG54 mid-range woofers in a true 5" size. The 5" lets me hide them behind the factory grills which was important to me. I tried a set of Blaupunkt 5-1/4" speakers but because they were coaxial I could not use the factory grills. The grills that came with the Blaupunkt speakers were - to be generous - very un-Jaguar like.



In addition to the Pyle 5" mid-range wooofer, I also surface-mounted a Blaupunkt TW1B tweeter on each door panel. The tweeter has a bass-blocker wired in so it only focuses on the high notes.



In the rear, I front-mounted the 5-1/4" Blaupunkt GTX525 speakers in the boxes. I was less concerned about the un-Jaguar like grill because the rear speakers are recessed and you have to look hard to see them.


In the post above you can see the Blaupunkt tweeters mounted on the rear deck bouncing off the back glass. They too have bass blockers wired in.


Next up - replace the non-functioning fuel level sender.

 

Radio looks great, nice work.

 

I really like that radio, the only modern one I have seen that looks right in the car. Does it have a CD player in it?

 

Greg,
No CD player. I realize that might be a minus for most people, but I prefer the mechless (without a CD player) units because they are much shallower in depth and it makes fitting them much easier.

Today the wife and I took the car on a 70 mile road trip. One of the guys on my team is having a baby and we dropped off a gift for them, then we stopped at a hole in the wall taqueria that I used to eat at back in the 'old days' when I still went to the office. It's impressive how much heat these engines generate; my protocol when stopping is to open the hood to let all the heat out.


The car drives well and is super comfortable with the AC blowing. The cruise control wants me to get a speeding ticket (set it at 70, it almost immediately goes to about 78) but that's not a major concern. On the way home my wife said "it's hard to believe this car is 32 years old - it rides so smooth". That was all the justification I needed for all the work I have poured into this thing.

 

WELL DONE. These cars are fantastic when right, and keeping it right is not onerous, one it is right. I always open the bonnet after a hot run, it will preserve all the wiring and rubber parts really effectively.
With no CD, do you have your tunes on a stick and plug it in, or what (excuse my entire ignorance of this matter!).

 

Greg,
I have a very small (physically) USB drive that holds about 16GB of songs. That's plugged into the rear USB port.
But the main way I listen to music is bluetooth streaming from my phone to the head unit. My preferred app is Spotify, but Pandora or any other music player will work too. I have even streamed music from a web page to the head unit. Spotify lets you pick specific songs you want to hear, Pandora lets you pick types/genres of music you want to hear.

If your music is all on CD's, you can easily convert them to MP3's and put them on a USB drive. The cool kids call it 'ripping'. My computer doesn't even have a CD/DVD drive but I found these online to help get you started if you go this path.

1. Open Windows Media Player (WMP) and.
2. Insert Music CD.
3. Click on the Rip Tab on WMP and choose.
4. More Options.
5. Options from the Tools menu.
6. In the Options window in the Rip Music tab.
7. under Rip Settings, choose MP3.

 

Well Done Indeed.

When the are right they are RIGHT.

Managements TICK is worth more than any Jag.