In reply to nutherjrfan :
You talking about the radiator/ gas tank shop? I've no idea. I'm just glad they haven't turned into yet another artisanal hamburger joint, of which this city does not need any more.
They did have a stack of radiators and a pile of gas tanks, so I'm guessing that work was not in short supply.
B-more ain't that bad. They had a statistic in the news recently that something like 90% of all murder victims were engaged in some other illegal activity at the time- generally drug related. I try to stay out of the rougher sections, don't go anywhere in the city when the big orange ball in the sky isn't visible, and refrain from procuring narcotics.
Mr.
New Reader
1/7/19 2:14 p.m.
In reply to volvoclearinghouse :
Welcome to the Jaguar fold, it's an addiction. I have three, 2002 XKR 'vert, 2002 XJ8 Sport, 2010 XKR coupe (my daily driver). I'm sure you've all ready joined jaguarforums.com (and if not, you need to). There is an incredible amount of knowledge there that may help you with your endeavors. Good luck. It's a beautiful car you've gotten there.
It's been a while, but the Jag is back in the garage and getting some attention again. I went through it and redid the "to do" list:
After all that shtuff is done, it'll need an exhaust system, which will be getting farmed out.
Spoke with the Jaguar parts jobber on Monday and ordered what I need. Parts should be here in time for the weekend. Which is also Mother's Day weekend. Which means...I probaly won't be working on the Jag. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
While waiting on parts, I started down the long road of shining all the chrome.
The rear doors have a handy little vent window on the trailing edge. On the passenger side, the latch was loose/ not pulling the window shut completely. Armed with hardwood pieces, wood glue, wood screws, a chop saw and wood drill bits (you know, all the usual suspects for British car restoration) I fixed it all up and it works perfectly.
I love working on this car. Everything takes patience and forethough. I found myself scrounging through a bin of old wood screws I inherited from my maternal grandfather's estate (he was a cabinetmaker) and producing a matched set of perfectly-sized hardware. While working on the door, the smells of old wood, aged leather, and mohair wafted out of the interior pleasantly.
I love this thread, although it makes me feel guilty. I have a '67 420 in the garage that is by and large the same as your 3.8 and has most of the same issues you've already dealt with: Fuel system, cooling and brakes (I learned the hard way that the Jaguar takes a certain brake fluid, Castrol LMH I think. The generic hydraulic fluids available at the big box auto parts stores will literally melt Girling hydraulic seals into goo). I believe I need to start a build thread soon or this thing is never going to get done.
Thanks for blazing a trail for me with your thread.
Decided to get greasy on the bottom tonight and tackle the leaky rear end pinion shaft seal. In the span of my hour in the garage, I yanked off the offending seal, along with the yoke...
...the yoke, incidentally, was only bolted loosely to the driveshaft. Holy cripes.
I then fabricated a seal driver out of a bit of tree:
And bashed the new seal (with its paper backer gasket) home.
The pinion yoke still needs to go on, but, more importantly, I need to hit the sack so I can answer the alarm promptly at 5:29AM. G'night!
In reply to HundredDollarCar :
Yes, you need to. Link it here, I'll subscribe. We can enjoy comeraderie/ commiserate over warm beer.
BTW, I believe the later seals are compatible with standard DOT 3 fluid.
In reply to volvoclearinghouse :
Welcome to my world. I’ve been in love with Jaguars since the early 1960’s.
Cars designed and built under Sir William Lyons have a certain Style and class to them. Plus they really are straight forward to work on.
Well done
In reply to frenchyd :
It's been surprisingly straightforward, I have to say. I installed the U-joint cover on the IRS last night, and seeing it was scarcely 20 minutes past 9, decided to tackle jamming the passenger side petrol tank back in place. An hour later that was done, time to wash up and hit the showers. Cheerio. Job well done, govnah.
I think we're ready to have the exhaust done (finally).
Refilled the differential last night. The fill plug on the 3.8s diff is conveniently located at the back, partially obstructed by the erector set that is the rear suspension subframe, and directly in front of the spare tire well. I had two quart bottles of gear oil. After dumping the first bottle about halfway in, using a length of 3/8" hose attached to the tip on the bottle, I could get no more out, so I refilled the bottle with the other bottle and kept adding. After 1.5 quarts it still seemed to want more oil, but I couldn't squeeze anymore out, given the cumbersome geometry.
The only thing to so was to roll up the remaining half-empty bottle of gear oil, similar to the way one does a toothpaste tube that has one more brush worth of paste inside.
In this manner I was able to wedge the wadded-up bottle between the differential and the spare tire well and extract the last bit of precious lubricant.
Then I lowered the car back level on the ground, let the excess oil drain out of the fill plug, jacked it up again and installed the fill plug. I'm very wary of overfilled gearboxes and differentials; they like to blow seals that way.
The battery is on tender as I type this; hopefully tonight I can get it loaded onto the trailer to bring to malibuguy's shop for the exhaust job.
In reply to volvoclearinghouse :
I hope you added the positraction supplement. If you fail to the clutches will glaze over and you will no longer have positraction. Due to its relatively narrow track that is a rather big deal.
NAPA AND GM sell it.
frenchyd said:
In reply to volvoclearinghouse :
I hope you added the positraction supplement. If you fail to the clutches will glaze over and you will no longer have positraction. Due to its relatively narrow track that is a rather big deal.
NAPA AND GM sell it.
The bottle said "recommended for limited slip differentials". I've read that nowadays most gear oils (even the Wal-Mart special stuff) has the additives, as they're cheap, and do no harm if the rear isn't an LSD.
In reply to volvoclearinghouse :
That’s interesting, Since I can still buy the additive. Now to be fair I haven’t read a lot about rear end lube so I could be out of date.
If you start to lose your positraction the cure I’ve used in the past is drain the oil, replace it with fresh and use the additive. The worst case required me to do it twice before it started to work again.
However if the disks are worn out it’s just an unbolt, replace and bolt back together, you don’t have to reset depths and tooth pattern. So it’s not too complicated.
malibuguy said:
volvoclearinghouse said:
hopefully tonight I can get it loaded onto the trailer to bring to malibuguy's shop for the exhaust job.
yesssss
Ugh, I wish. I made an unwise decision to replace a front suspension bushing that was floppy and loose...and now I'm in pickle-fork tie rod hell. Didn't get. Out there tonight, but hopefully I can bash it back together Friday evening and maaaayyybeee get it over to your shop Saturday. I'll keep ya in the loop. Sorry for the potential false-start.
In reply to volvoclearinghouse :
Don’t use a pickle fork. Loosen the nut and using a really big hammer backed on the other side by another really big hammer give it one really good wack. The taper will squirt the end out like a big zit
frenchyd said:
In reply to volvoclearinghouse :
Don’t use a pickle fork. Loosen the nut and using a really big hammer backed on the other side by another really big hammer give it one really good wack. The taper will squirt the end out like a big zit
Tried that. Didn't work. Pickle fork didn't either, though. So I wedged the pickle fork in there good and hard and then did the two hammers trick 
Bushing replaced. Need to get it all back together still.
In reply to volvoclearinghouse :
Good for you! When finesse doesn’t work use force!
frenchyd said:
In reply to volvoclearinghouse :
Good for you! When finesse doesn’t work use force!
I need to put that quote on my garage wall. Possibly written in blood.
The front suspension has been reassembled! New sway bar bushings, replaced the perished lower A arm bushing. New tie rod boot (the pickle fork destroyed the one, as pickle forks are wont to do).
The brake seem to be bled, and the engine runs wonderfully. Will try to get it out for a spin today, and then see about trailering it over to malibuguy's Pipe Palace.
I also have a cool double blood blister on the same finger as my wedding band, courtesy the jack stand. Splendid.
After some tickling of the SU carburetors, the big inline, dual overhead cam 6 churned up and ticked over happily, if a tad unevenly. Chalk it up to further tuning needed. Herm.
Once under full notch, though, in 2nd or 3rd gear, the 3.8 litres released its total fury. I love the torque of this engine, it drives much like an American V8.
Unfortunately, the noise is also very much of the same level as, say, a muscle car (though obviously very different in tone, owing to 2 fewer cylinders). It's borderline annoying, even to me driving. Time to load her up and off to the exhaust shop.
Woww it's amazing,
I really like it. The old is always gold. The sound of this car is really amazing.
In reply to volvoclearinghouse :
The “noise” is the result of the Hemi head which by its nature squirts a little fuel out the exhaust port in overlap. Exhaust heat fires the rest of the fuel and adds a lot of noise.
My unmuffled race car I had megaphones out the back and iyou could hear it over every other race car even on the far side of the race track. And that was one serious healthy bark too!
The reason it sounds somewhat similar is a V8 engine all you really actually hear in a V8 is 6 cylinders and a stumble. That’s because the firing order of a V8 has two cylinders firing within 90 degrees of each other.
Whereas your 6 fires each cylinder 120 degrees apart.
In reply to frenchyd :
So, it's basically like a sort of factory flame-thrower? ;-)
No wonder the thing has 5 mufflers.
That actually leads me to a sort of question: the exhaust, as you know, is split at the engine. The two pipes run to a "2 into 2" muffler, then each pipe goes into its own separate muffler, then over the rear axles, then into its own resonator before dumping out the back.
When I have the exhaust done, I'm contemplating just doing one muffler per side, over the rear axles and out, no resonators either. I like the sound of the engine but I don't want it to be unpleasant when driving. Does this sound OK to you, or should I be considering leaving a) the resonators, b) the 2-2 initial muffler, or all of it?
Loaded up to go to malibuguy's shop tomorrow for an exhaust.
Liked, then unliked so I could like it again! What a beautiful car.
In reply to volvoclearinghouse :
Depends on how much noise you are willing to tolerate. My favorite is resonators only , its authoritarian sounding but not annoying. Mufflers only leave that resonance. As a luxury Sedan you might want to go for both.
If you do the factory 2 into 2 followed by the resonators works better than individual mufflers. Plus the resonators.
