His adventures in Uganda are just as interesting. Over on the benzworld.org website he told us about getting a well thrashed Mercedes S600 SEL V12 out of a refugee camp, complete with bullet holes, and getting it running and drivable again. Talk about a challenge! Getting an XJS running in the states is a cakewalk in comparison. The man has no fear.

 

Aaarrrrggghhhhh

Marelli strikes again!

Got 90 miles outside Billings Montana. Reduced power. Came back to a small town where I just fueled up. Quick diagnosis. ‘A’ bank coil is good. No spark to any A plug.

Any idea who can ship a Marelli cap and rotor overnight?

 

Thanks for the kudos. As I sit here in a parking lot of a cute little Wyoming motel with a dead A bank...

Do I need to sacrifice a goat to some deity to make it to Seattle? FFS

 

Yikes you can't win for losing. Damn the Luck. You can take some console in how good it runs. That is when it does run. LOL!

Jack

 

Why do you need the cap and rotor if only one bank isn't firing? If the coil is good, the other bank specific component is the power module:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/33230846777....m43663.l10137

You could try swapping the A and B bank power modules to see if the issue shifts banks.

 

Both coils are firing. The HT leads for both coils show a good spark.

But when I pull any of the ‘A’ bank leads, there is no spark. That says rotor top piece is grounding to the distributor shaft again.

 

I have a plan. I built a new injector harness this week. I left the connections accessible and modifiable.

I could disconnect the power to the A bank injectors so they dont dump petrol into the exhaust.

But there is only 91 octane available here. I am worried about knocking if I go up the mountains here on one bank.

I also have jb weld with me. I could insulate the top of the dizzy shaft so the rotor doesnt ground.

 

91 should be fine. You need less octane at higher elevations.

Maybe try cleaning the rotor and cap interior with something like rubbing alcohol? Perhaps there is a stray carbon track on it that is allowing grounding?

As another thought, what is your sparkplug gap? Plugs out of the box usually have gaps that are too big, it should be 0.025". Too big a gap will make the spark want to go elsewhere with lower resistance.

 

Is there any sign of burn through in the rotor?

I don't know if this will help you, but the cap and rotor on my car are nearly new, and I could pull them tomorrow and send them to you to use to get yourself to Seattle. Since it will be Sunday, I don't know how fast it could get to you, but I'm willing to do it if it will get you out of jam.

Let me know.

 

Mac Allen,

I will most likel take you up on your kind offer. It is 9am here. I left my jeans and jacket in Baltimore in the rush to leave, so I am in shorts and a tee shirt here. Waiting for another hour to take the cap off, because it's is rather cold here.

There is an O'Rielly's autoshop down the street. I was going to try them first.

The motel owner is great. I can work on the Jag right out front of the cabin. But being a tiny town here, he says there is no such thing as overnight delivery here.

I will keep you posted.

Cheers

 

Well, this is the culprit

 

HAHAHAHA!!!!

And look what I found in my box of spares in the boot

 

The Gods must be with me! I think I can actually complete this trip!

 

I woke up this morning and realized there is one problem to my offer. When I replaced the Cap and Rotor, I did the "Marelli Modification" to both the shaft and rotor so it won't just screw on to an unmodified distributor.

If there isn't any evidence of burn through, you could try a version of the modification and pull the plugs and make sure that have the proper gap (which is apparently the actual cause of the issue). I'll see if I can find a good explanation of what the modification entails, apologies I can't remember it exactly at the moment, but it is something you could do in a small town.

 

Woo Hoo!

That is a great bit of planning. Though you are probably anxious to get on the road, I'd still recommend checking your plug gaps before setting off if you can. You don't want to burn through the spare too.

Way to go on being prepared!

Cheers

 

Also, just in case you're wondering, it is in fact possible to buy warm clothes in Montana. You don't have to keep driving through the blizzard that is likely to strike (because you're in Montana) wearing shorts and a t-shirt.

 

Plug gaps and HT leads check is essential, prefereably new plugs and leads on that bank. There has to have been a direct cause of that burn. Good luck.

 

Ok. So yesterday, I made it through Wyoming, Montana, Idaho. I have a cabin in northern Idaho. Parked at the roadhead and hiked the 2 miles in. I now have a sweater. And was able to build a fire in the wood stove. Leaving in a couple of hours for the final run over the Cascade mountains. I am thinking of taking the North Cascade highway, them hopping over to Whidbey island, getting a ferry to Pt Townsend to have a late lunch, and doing the final run to my marina.

Montana has to be the best driving ever. Long, straight roads. I guess because of Covid, the roads are almost deserted. I was able to run for several hours at between 100 and 130. No police, and very, very few cars. Most of the traffic is these huge American pickup trucks. And they are doing between 90 and 100 anyway. And very few drivers parked in the left lane. I do feel somewhat out of place without a rifle rack though.

The car is simply amazing. I was able to maintain 110 and accelerate going up the Continental Divide (6400 feet). The handling is crisp, and responsive. The ZF rack is a huge improvement over the stock rack. And the urethane bushes give it a conciseness the stock bushings could never achieve. I did shim the bushes with some large fender washers.

And the early evening run down from the DIvide into Billings was fantastic. Majestic sweeping curves. I only saw 2 LEOs, a pair of Dodge Challengers. Whom I accidently cutoff while pulling out of a petrol station in Butte. But they were cool, and wanted to see under the bonnet.

4 tanks of fuel yesterday. I am getting a very consistent 240 miles per tank. Never turned the engine off, even when fueling. So it was running for about 14 hours straight. Even going up the Divide, the temp gauge stayed pegging the middle. Fuel consumption averaged 13mpg.

I realized how nice it is to be able to drive at night without Army roadblocks or bandits. The engine feels great with the cool night air.

I cannot say enough about this car. Handling is perfect for these long runs. The engine is so smooth, even at high speeds. It just seems to want to idle at about 80 mph.

As to the rotor mishap. The plugs and leads have less than 500 miles. I stopped for 90 minutes at an Autozone. Pulled 5 of the accesible plugs on the A bank. They looked perfect. I bought a spark checker to check the leads. Spark was plentiful on them. I even checked them with an ohmmeter. At that point, I had driven about 500 miles from when I changed the rotor. I pulled the cap, and the rotor looked fine.

Here is my theory. When doing the last major refit, I pulled the transmission. And put in a B&M torque converter, high performance shift kit, adjustable vacuum modulator, and heavy duty clutch discs. I set the 2nd gear shift point for 5500 rpm. The kit gives a great kick in the seatback when accellerating moderately. So, pulling out from a fuel stop in Wyoming, I gassed it on the entrance ramp to the highway. Got the car up to about 75 in second gear, at around 5500 rpm. Let off the gas, and the trans shifted into 3rd. That's when I experinced the power loss.

I was wondering if the damage to the rotor was because of some sort of coil discharge spike. As in inductors giving off a back EMF when the voltage is chopped. Seemed very coincidental that it happened at that exact moment.

Anyway, today should be a fun final run. No snow predicted for the Cascades. Most likely rain, so that may slow me down a bit. Interstate 90 from Spokane to Seattle is pretty boring, and usually lots of police, so I will tone it down a bit.

Still can't believe I made it this far.

Cheers

 

Scott
You have experienced exactly what the car is for, aren't they just wonderful on these long runs.

 

I'm living vicariously through your adventure. Thanks for documenting it.