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Thanks Robbin! Once I start dis-assembly, I'll know better the help I need. I'll go at that fuse box on Christmas day tomorrow! ;-] Is it common for the lid to be missing on that fuse box? Mine's gone. Should I just replace it with something more modern and well sealed?
You may want to consider KBS Coatings - Gas Tank Sealer - Rust Prevention - Stop Rust Paint - Clear Coat Paints for your tanks. My gas tank and surge tank were horrible and I took the time to do the KBS coating on both the gas tank and surge tank to prevent fuel issues from being a constant niggling problem. The gas tank is a pain to clean/coat properly with all the baffles but doable and worth it. I wound up putting some short lengths of chains in it and shaking it silly to get the rust off. Fun getting the chains back out too!
Jaguar Fuel Injector Service is awesome too. I sent him my injector rail and had him do the hoses at the same time. My car had sat for 10-13 years and was pretty sad mechanically and the injectors were bad bad bad. He does great work.
My car runs awesome now. Don't forget to clean the advance mechanism too. Mine was stuck.
One more thing about the gas tank, is you can address the little rivet that likes to rub a hole in the bottom of the gas tank if you have the tank out.
You may want to consider KBS Coatings - Gas Tank Sealer - Rust Prevention - Stop Rust Paint - Clear Coat Paints for your tanks. My gas tank and surge tank were horrible and I took the time to do the KBS coating on both the gas tank and surge tank to prevent fuel issues from being a constant niggling problem. The gas tank is a pain to clean/coat properly with all the baffles but doable and worth it. I wound up putting some short lengths of chains in it and shaking it silly to get the rust off. Fun getting the chains back out too!
Jaguar Fuel Injector Service is awesome too. I sent him my injector rail and had him do the hoses at the same time. My car had sat for 10-13 years and was pretty sad mechanically and the injectors were bad bad bad. He does great work.
My car runs awesome now. Don't forget to clean the advance mechanism too. Mine was stuck.
One more thing about the gas tank, is you can address the little rivet that likes to rub a hole in the bottom of the gas tank if you have the tank out.
Enjoy.
That's a ton of great advice! Thanks a bunch! I was uncertain what to do about the injectors. I've read a bit about removing and replacing the hoses. Sending the whole rail with the injectors is a great idea. What was the cost for that service?
I guess it would be silly not to clean out and coat the gas tank, too. The gas I drained out of it was the worst I've ever seen.
I can't remember the grand total, but it was certainly worth it. He has a pricing page on the website, but I think I would call him and he can answer any questions. He's a great guy. I had him do my hoses at the same time which added cost, but the hoses are a PITA and would have been too time consuming for me considering all the work I had to do to the car. I'm totally all about DIY, but certain things I gladly pass on if it makes sense.
That's a cool car. I just bought a XJS as well. They are unbelievably well built cars unfortunately I don't see much value to them. So that can actually be a good thing as far as your options. Since I am a new jaguar enthusiast my opinion on these cars may not coincide with the others. If you can keep the car original and maintain it for what its worth by all means that is the way to go.I would consider what it will take to make it original. If its too much I would find it to be a great body to do a V8 swap.
[QUOTE=robbinpace;1126769] The first thing you should do is pull the fuse box on the drivers side and clean the contacts and replace the fuses. A lot of gremlins will disappear!
Robbin, I worked on the fuses today. All but one were Lucas brand, so they've been in there a long time. A couple of them had the metal terminals rotted half away. I cleaned and replaced them as best I could. I'll have to keep an eye out for a cover for that fuse box. Having no lid, the connection we corroded from exposure and the paper guide was pulped.
I've learned that the fuses on the driver's side engine compartment are for the headlight circuits. Can anyone tell me which ones from 1 to 5? I'm working blind here until I can get a schematic. I'd like to check to make sure they're working right and someone didn't switch some wires around. I know there's some wiring issues in the tail lights because the right tail light flashes instead of the amber turn signal.
The other fuse box I found is under the dash on the passenger side. The six circuits are for the dash lights and are shown on the cover, so I know mostly what they service. I have not found the fuses for the engine, power windows and fuel pump yet. Can someone point me in the right direction for those?
I found some relays under a cover above the passenger side wheel well in the engine compartment. There was no indication what they were for, though.
I think you have done OK for a grand, and it sounds like you are up for a project. Good for you. I have owned and enjoyed several cars that I never could have afforded if I insisted on buying a good one. Good luck with it.
i want to say the ecm fuse is in the trunk, i know the ecm is in the trunk for sure they liked to spread all the fuse blocks allover the entire car, makes it kinda a pain tracking electrical issues. the factory relays are troublesome as well i replaced a good handful of them in my car and they are spread over a lot of locations as well. there is also a fuesable link in the wire near where it plugs into the fuel pump. i had a problem with that on my car as well. when i bought it they had claimed to have just installed a new fuel pump but shortly after buying it i started having problems with the fuel pump cutting out.
good luck with your car. assuming it didn't have a lot of things wrong with it when parked should not take to much to get it running again mostly time and fixing neglect.
I think you have done OK for a grand, and it sounds like you are up for a project. Good for you. I have owned and enjoyed several cars that I never could have afforded if I insisted on buying a good one. Good luck with it.
Thanks Doug! This and the British forum has been such a great help. Once I get my hands on a manual, I won't have to ask so many questions. It will be a good day when I hear the engine fire.
I almost have the sump/surge tank cleaned out. I have to keep rotating it to eat away at the small amount of rust left. The Phosphoric acid I have is getting weak. I buy quart bottles of water softener cleaner and store it in a bottle again when I'm done with it. It's just $5 a quart and I can stretch it our for a few jobs. The weaker Phosphoric solution takes more time, but seems to do a cleaner job than powerful Muriatic. It's not as hard on skin and lungs, too when there's a spill. I especially like the Phosphoric because it only will attack iron oxide and not the rest of the steel. Just FYI. ;-] That tank was sure a mess.
i want to say the ecm fuse is in the trunk, i know the ecm is in the trunk for sure they liked to spread all the fuse blocks allover the entire car, makes it kinda a pain tracking electrical issues. the factory relays are troublesome as well i replaced a good handful of them in my car and they are spread over a lot of locations as well. there is also a fuesable link in the wire near where it plugs into the fuel pump.
EzRider,
Thanks for your help. I'll look for that fuseable link. My fuel pump stopped working, but tested out okay, so somewhere there's a open circuit. I'm going to jump the contacts for the relay socket and see what happens. I don't know what's worse, having to buy an expensive relay or fix bad wiring. Probably the bad wiring is more trouble.
Do you happen to know where the power window fuse and or relay is located? Neither side is getting power. I suppose I should check under the switches.
For the windows I would clean the switches first. They disassemble easily. Just watch for springs and where contacts are. Or you could just spray contact cleaner in them and blow out with compressed air.
Did you find the fuse box inside the car, on the driver side to the left of the steering wheel? That one probably needs cleaning too.
An excellent, FREE resource on the XJS is available at Kirby Palm's Jaguar XJ-S Help Book
You can download it for free, and it contains a ton of information.
BTW, I am signed up with jag-lovers, and i did not have to pay for it, alough they keep asking.
Did you find the fuse box inside the car, on the driver side to the left of the steering wheel? That one probably needs cleaning too.
BTW, I am signed up with jag-lovers, and i did not have to pay for it, alough they keep asking.
Yes, thanks to you and EZRider's diagram. I'm going to use that diagram and back date it to '82. There seems to be duplication (at least in the circuits associated) with the driver's and passenger's side fuse boxes. For example, position 7 (10 amp) on the driver's side and 16 (20 amp) on the passenger's side both are assigned to the cigar lighter.
The access port on the driver's side was very rusty inside the cover. I suspect there has been water leaking on top of the fuse block. What's the round button between the access panel door and the steering wheel?
Perhaps the reason that Jag-Lovers.org has over 100,000 members is because they won't remove anyone who wants to leave. I'll be interested if they let you leave if you choose to. I don't really mean to bash them, but after 10 years of unwanted emails and bad information on their site, I don't have much patience with them.
The round button is the control to dim/brighten the dash lights. My 89 had a leaking windshield, and the fuse panel on the drivers side was a source of several problems.
Day Six
I'm still trying to get my windows working. I figured a good place to start was the switches. Here's a photo of two side by side. 800 grit sandpaper worked well. As Kirby's book suggested, I reversed the contact plates to compensate for the wear on the contacts. It was easy to tell that the driver's side window was used a lot more. There wasn't much left of one of those contacts.
Tomorrow I'll check out the 12 fuses under the driver's side dash. There's no indication that the power window circuit is in that fuse block, though. Most likely the windows are relay driven, but finding the fused circuit for that relay is tough since it's not listed on the covers.
Does anyone know why terminal 1 in the five fuse block under the hood on the driver's side always has current going to it? The other four are active respective to whether the high or low beams are on.
I've not looked at the wiring diagram, but I would presume that there has to be a constant power needed to make the headlights work even with the ignition switch off. I think if you follow about any large brown wires, you will find a constant 12 volts.
Day Seven
I pulled the fuel level sensor to check the inside of the gas tank. It was full of rust and varnish from sitting for over ten years. I wanted to squeeze in another job before it got too cold to work. The tank was not easy to remove. I didn't have to machete the foam pad away, but the filler pipe was hard to get out. I'll definitely need to de-rust and line the tank.
The fuel sensor was corroded and frozen. Below are photos. I was able to clean it up and repair it. It was packed with residue from the gas and the arm was frozen. I managed to free it up without breaking it. The rivet for the resistor connection and the connection was rotted away. I put it back together with a very small machine screw. I wanted brass, but settled for what I could find. The original rivet was much smaller than I could reproduce. I tested it and it works well now.
12-24-2014, 06:03 PM
