Lamentably, the Jag's been sidelined for the stupidest reason ever, for most of the summer.
Well, sort-of two reasons, once of which is less stupider.
Reason the first: The last time we went on a motoring adventure, the power steering decided to dump its contents all over terra firma. This is the second or third time it's done this. I wanted to fix it, and fix it so it stayed fixed, this time.
The second reason is the car seems to run a bit hot when its over 85 or so outside, and being that it was summer in the mid-Atlantic and all, I was waiting for cooler weather for cruising. This winter I plan on pulling the radiator out and having it flushed, since I've pretty much cleaned out and/or replaced every other part of the cooling system and made sure it was up to snuff.
Regarding the power steering: there's a fitting on the front of the steering box that looks to be some sort of a bypass that feeds into another part of the box, with a banjo fitting on one end and some hose and hose clamps and other hodge-podge in between. The hose likes to keep sliding off the fittings, as the barbs aren't very sharp, and I'd double-clamped it the last repair. So, naturally, this time, the hose simply burst. Lovely.
I took all the hoses off this time, went down to NAPA, got a new barbed threaded fitting to replace the worn-out banjo fitting, and had them fab up a new high-pressure hose from the pump, and got some raw hydraulic hose (without the metal jacket, so it can be hose-clamped) for the little bypass line thing. Bought brand new fuel injection hose clamps for it, everything new and high-pressure rated. NAPA had to special order one of the fittings, but it showed up around noon last Saturday so I had the hose by 2 o'clock.
I got everything buttoned up and back on the car right at 3:30 when Mrs. VCH came out the door and said it was time to leave if we wanted to make it to the winery for our date at 4 o'clock...