Looks like you have an excellent exterior and interior. You are way ahead. As long as you can work on some of it yourself, even if you have to have some work done, it wont cost you more than a Toyota of the same year, it will be as reliable ,and its an extraordinarily beautiful and unique car

 

The car is in great shape and thanks for the compliment. I feel in love instantly once I drove her.

 

I forgot that piece of British Engineering class. I removed that "collision plate" the first week I owned the car, and the pan got a drain plug fitted. Now I can have the pan off in 20 minutes, BUT, we dont have cat convertors taking up precious space, so maybe we are lucky.

The rack on RHD is not that hard to get off, messy, yes, but reasonable in the big scheme. Again I suppose the lack of cats makes it easier.

Our starter motors are a PAIN, the rack top welded brackets on the subframe are in the way, damn.

 

What did you remove exactly?

 

OK, plucking at memory now, and trust me that is not as it was.

Among other things I like to simplify my cars just so I can do what I need easier, and that urks way too many people, but being physically challenged has its moments. You do what you gotta do.

I removed the 3/4 nut, and the plate travelling forward, then the 2 studs from the trans casing. Then the monstrosity of bracketry came off, much language as some of those bolts are just DUMB located, and I reckon I removed the spring plate simply for access, and to replace the "cotton reel" bush with poly, so multiple tasks were under way.

The 2 large bolts going thru that bracket into the trans casing, were replaced once the bracket was off. They are the 2 lower bolts of the trans extension housing, and I applied some sealer to the threads prior to fitting, coz oil has a habit of running out of those bolts.

I hunted thru my hundreds of boxes of Jag stuff, and found a "double washer" from a BW65 to use under that 3/4 nut. You could simply cut that removed plate to give you the washer bit required, either will work.

The 2 studs I removed from the trans pan, were simply replaced with suitable setscrews and wahsers.

That is a simplistic explanation, I know, but really I just looked at what was stopping the pan coming off, and just kept going until I achieved what I wanted.

 

So you discarded the v shape plate that bolts to the floor basically? Still have the monster spring?

 

No certainly not. The piece Grant is talking about is the darkish metal coloured irregular shaped bracket you can see in this pic, that is attached to the shiny new sump and also attached by two bolts to the grey 'tongue' pointing forward from the V shaped bracket.


The grey V shaped bracket is in effect the 'shelf' the tail of the gearbox via its damping spring is sitting on.



Greg

 

Thanks Greg, damn that brings back memories, or nightmares.

That darkish metal monstrosity above the short plate is what is removed, and now that the memory in jump started (thanks again Greg), it is a requirement to remove that spring plate arrangement just to get at the bolts inside that junk.

That short plate with the BIG nut and the 2 bolts is also not refitted. That is the plate that can be cut/ground into shape, to give the washer that will be required to go back under that BIG nut.

Sadly it is NOT a fun task, but the fact that the trans pan will simply fall out of the gap once that bracket is removed, makes trans fluid servicing significantly easier, so adding to that, it will actually get done more often, coz it is now a simple task, mmm.

 

"WHYs" that have stuck in my mind.
1. Stopped to let a young guy cross at a crosswalk and half way across he stops and gives two thumbs up.
2.Guy on a Harley giving thumb up (I'm convinced it was a thumb lol) as I passed him on the highway.
3.A cop screeched to a halt and backed up and flipped on the cherries while I was letting her warm up,still in the garage. He just came in to admire her.
4. The sheer joy I witnessed in her new owner when I finally got her sold

These are above and beyond the driving pleasure yo will enjoy.

 

Getting my share of 'Good' why's- Every day I have her out, whether going through a fast food drive-through, stopped at traffic lights, sitting in a parking lot waiting for Mumsie, getting out of the car in a parking lot, being flagged down driving through a parking lot, being given the fore-finger to forehead salute by exotic car drivers, coming out of a store to have one, two, or more people mulling around the XJS waiting to ask me about it (Yes, there aren't many in this city)...All this, my wife and I find incredulous-but love the attention.
All credit goes to the car of course, certainly not to this 55 year old greying 290 pounder. -I figure I'd need to be sitting in some Lambo to get more attention!

 

But why did you sell it? Hopefully you bought another. I should have her going very soon and hopefully find some joy of ownership.

 

The other night on a coffee run for the Mrs., I stopped at a red light with a recent BMW 325i just ahead in the lane to my left. The young male driver and his female companion both turned to look at my coupe, at which point he backed up, opened the passenger window and shouted "that's a f#&%-ing sweet ride!". I smiled and said thanks. Good to see today's youth appreciating the classics... %^)

 

the saga continues. It seems I am only allowed to drive this car for 10 minute intervals then another problem arises.

The latest was after the replacement of the radiator after having it rodded. Car drove great with lower temps everything was good. Parked here for the night and came home form work the following day to take her out for a ride. Pulled down the drive and noticed a trail of oil. Turned out to be trans fluid so it seems I have a leak in the radiator somewhere and now have to pull it out again.... sigh

 

Bugga.

Check the 2 trans cooler hoses that travel from just near the alternator TO the radiator. Some XJ-S's have hoses that are clamped into place over the pipes and spigots on the radiator, others have swaged hoses with fittings that are threaded to the radiator.

These threaded fittings on the radiator also vary. Some I have seen are simple tapered fittings, where others have a small o/ring as the seal. Maybe yours are o/ring sealed and the o/ring is not there???.

Also follow those metal pipes where they travel down the RH side of the engine (on their way to the transmission), and you will find 2 or 3 metal brackets that secure these pipes. I have had these brackets actually rub a hole in those pipes. The rubber insulating strip is long gone, so metal on metal.

The 2 hoses themselves are a common oil leak source.

 

GD!#$")Rack bushings!! Stinkin MOT&+ FIN trans mount!! AHH but don't you just love how easy the dash panel comes out! But I digress. I know I may be stating the obvious but, that's the first thing that comes out of peoples mouths when they first see these cars and why they sold very well from the start... to well off professionals... who could afford to have their mechanics fix them. They were driven for the most part in four ways... very little and well maintained until it was time to move to another car, garaged and saved or traded in. They were driven, maintained for a while but, for some, as the problems mounted, and while they lived with some of them,(radio broke, driver window doesn't work, what else...oh yeah..gas gauge starts getting loopy),they finally gave in when a major problem occurred and found they weren't going to be rich anymore if they payed to have all that fixed! The next is the ones that were driven into the ground. I mean, the people that were lucky enough to get one with a well put together drive train which they maintained (oil, filter,tires) but had to park it when their feet started hitting the pavement through the driver floor. Literally..... into the ground. the last is the most unfortunate. the car is working just fine but a catastrophic breakdown (mainly engine) gets them parked and forgotten and they rust away. At least we know why there are so many used parts out there. Lovers of these cars are members of a small club by comparison but, growing, as they find they still want that 'beautiful car'. Some, as before, have a lot of money and buy the ones that were garaged. Others that have a little hands on talent or are mechanics themselves find those nice bodied fixers. And yes, there are those that, with a little less in the bank try to bring back those left out and driven into the ground. There's no getting around it. These cars are gorgeous but you either have to have a lot of money for one with low mileage or spend a lot of money and time and have experience particular to working on an xjs to keep one driveable. But, finally when you're done fixing and there's nothing left to do but DRIVE! What a beautiful car!!!

 

Buddyluv preaching the luv..

I agree it is a special car, but it seems with a bit more thought it could have been much much more.

I guess my car falls into that low mileage nice one owner car category, but how much maintenance it had is questionable. Of coarse at 40k miles I guess not much would have been done anyway.

I do understand that they were really not a mass produced car and therefore the assembly techniques and quality varied somewhat.And I guess this is really what makes them what they are in a way, a car with a soul. Just wish its soul was easier to reach sometimes....

I am confident I will get her back on the road in good order very soon, I have been working on cars for a long time and have tackled bigger projects for sure. This one shouldn't be as big of a project as it has turned out to be though.

 

At the risk of sounding pedantic and school marm-ish I'd like to mention that there is no forum rule prohibiting the use of paragraphs when posting. :-) :-)

Cheers
DD

 

Ah what a Jag-Uar :-)

I can't explain my recent writing style I seem to have gone to this due to texting.....

 

Gregh, I carry 185 lbs on my 5'9" frame and don't have too much room in my XJS. Amazing that you can drive one being, that large a guy.

Wrightbanz, Please replace the cooler hoses before one of the flexible sections ruptures and sets your Jag on fire as mine did.

 

RagJag, It took a couple tries to learn to sit fully into the seat sideways, then swing my legs/feet over the door sill. This works fine for this 5'11" tall 290 pounder.
If my knees had the reverse kneecaps of a flamingo, I might've been able to "slither" into the seat one leg at a time with legs already into thefeet pockets, but I haven't mastered that one yet. -My wife does quite easily, being only 5'0" tall.
If the car did have tilt steering wheel for that year (1989), and I was surprised it did not), it certainly would've made ingress/egress easier.
But I still love the old girl, and the attention she draws at all auto parts stores, shopping malls, in traffic, etc. My wife shakes her head in amazement. My daughters say "Dad, you better not be dying your hair and picking up young ones"....I laugh.