Thanks Eric,that info is much appreciated,will start looking then
Wife won't be happy,more money spent
Take Care
Andy

 

We took her for what she does best, a graceful drive.
Today through the northern mountain range, on a beautiful spring day.

 

Summary of the last few days of crawling on my back:
dropped rear subframe, pulled fuel tank. pulled exhaust cause the rear subframe hanger bolts are a pain to get to, more so than the mid muffler exhaust is to pull.

Replaced diff output shaft bearings (x2) greased U joints, inspected subframe and bushings, replaced tank to filter fuel line, fuel filter, primary fuel pump and strainer, redid wiring since it was slightly melted at the crimps. I'm hoping the metal plate around the fuel pumps seen in the guide isn't necessary, my tank seemed to be missing it. Splash shield for fuel return?

The big foam isolators, as well as the shock upper bushings, are all on their way out. Lower shock bushings seem OK but the seals on those are starting to fail as well. At that point I may just get new rear shocks since they include all that stuff, except the big isolators. Luckily the other rubber rear subframe bushings all seem good. One of the lower main bushings (the big ones in the A frame) is going to go soon as well. All in all, better than finding worn pendulum bushings.

Fuel pump can still be heard as a high pitched whine occasionally. The subwoofer mount is an open hole right now, which may just be letting enough noise through since the tank is right there. Better than the shrieks of death the old pump was making.

Since I had the mid mufflers out for dropping rear subframe, I obviously had to have some fun. Here's a short video of the sound it makes with an open resonator(?). It's pretty loud in person and makes me want cutouts like Vector has. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5f...ew?usp=sharing

 

Some maintenance tasks:
- engine oil and filter
- transmission fluid and filter
- new battery
- thorough wash (pointless in this weather)
- annual inspection

 

Hi everyone,yesterday I gave the car a good clean and as I've only had it since last Nov and use it as a daily driver it takes me all day to clean,it usually starts off like,I'll just give it a quick hose down and that'll do but then the chamois comes out to dry it off and then the polish and I just get carried away and then there's the inside to do,hoover out,leather cleaner out,wood to polish and after all that I stand back to admire and then I think glass must do the glass,so today I drove over to visit my mother which is about 40 mile round trip,It was a nice sunny day and the car went lovely and looked good,It's only when you see photo's of your car you notice the things you have missed,I shall now have to clean the inner wheel arches(lol),even took a couple of photo's,hope you like them as much as I do.
Take care
Enjoy your cars
Andy

 

Did some 'dental work', now my XJ8 is blue-tooth enabled!

This time I took apart connector that goes to CD changer and used a pair of mother-father 3.5mm connectors to cut into signal line. Now I can easily connect them together if I want CD changer to work. Power came from some unused white connector that is conveniently hanging right under gas cap (have no idea what this one is for, but one of the wires is conveniently energized when ignition is 'on'). :-)

 

Beautiful looking!

First time cleaning the wheel arches, take your time to clean out all the dirt and mud collected behind the lips, that is more important than the plastics.
Try using some different hard brushes and plenty of water to soak it, to get it out.
In your climate, you might want to add some extra protection there, not sure what's the best.
Anyway, after the first time, it is rather easy to keep them clean at every wash.

On the inner plastics, I do them with the same stuff as I do my tires with, it leaves a shiny layer, and prevents road crap from sticking.
Much easier to hose it off the next times.

 

Today was actually a decent day on the northeast.
Installed NEW shocks, boots, bump stops, bushings, and mounting plates today.

Weather looks good tomorrow.
Will install the new front rotors and pads.

Ordered the new 18" wheels and tires today. Should be here in about a week.

 

May I ask if you noticed your car increased its ride height after installing the new shocks?
How many miles on the old shocks?

 

The car has 97000mi on it and these shocks looked original.
Now have new KYB's on all 4.
The car is now level to the ground. Before it had a slight sag to the rear.
It appears in have approx 1" more clearance in the front and back now that the shocks are new. Car sticks better now. It doesn't "float" as much now.

In the pic in my avatar, you could see the sag to the rear.
The car is now level.

The old shocks were very spongy and easy to move. The new ones are much stiffer.

 

Thanks a lot, that gives me confidence that my ride height problem will be fixed with new shocks.

 

The rear shocks are time consuming to do.
The front ones were very easy.

Get new mounting plates with the bushings already pressed into them. It makes the fronts a breeze.

Thanks to this forum, I was able to research all of this.

 

Do shocks affect ride height at all? I always thought they are there to 'absorb' bumps on the road, that's it. Springs on the other hand do affect ride height.
(actually I do remember that new shocks come extended and it takes some effort to push them in, I guess that make it to act like an extra 'spring').

 

With gas shocks, especially old ones, they can lose the fluid inside over time.
Mine had 97000 on them.
They were very soft and springy when I took them out. I could actually pull and push the rod in and out by hand. (Not good).
The new KYB's are much stiffer. It does add support when standing still to keep the body up. I cannot move this rod by hand. It takes a lot of effort now to get them to move.

My car is now actually completely level now. Before, there was a "sag" to the rear.
I guess the back ones went down too far and the front ones extended up too far when worn.
With all 4 done, it sits level now and does not bounce or float anymore.
The new shocks only made a slight difference in the height, but it was the difference the car needed to level it out.

 

New leather and cup holder for center console. I had a friend make aluminum hinges for the cup holder. It was a bit of a process, but it's much better than new now. Can't see them in the pictures unfortunately...











I'm having new aluminum pieces made for the lid area to hold the wire in place. I will grind off the little plastic stancions that were broken. I made a wooden mockup of what the aluminum pieces will look like:

 

Ok, right now I cannot take the smile off my face.
Just got back from the muffler shop.

Had them remove the front resonator and center mufflers.
Installed an h pipe.
Left the stock rear mufflers in place and brought the pipes all the way back to the rear stock mufflers.

WOW!!! Is all I can say.
It's still relatively quiet at idle and driving slow.
When you put your foot into it, the sound REALLY opens up.

I'm soooo happy again at owning my jag.... again and again and again......
My face hurts from smiling.

 

Thanks for the info, it sounds like the same thing Daim had done and what I am planning on doing. Post a video if you can, just to hear the sounds.

S.

 

Nice work, Sir!

 

Installed new pads and rotors on all 4 wheels.
The passenger caliper piston seems to be sticking now, so I have 2 rebuilt calipers for both left and right front coming in this week.

Installed a new KN flat air filter today into the air box.

Waiting on the new mufflers now to go onto the new exaust that was installed last week.

Waiting on my new 18" wheels too.
American racing Classic Torq Thrust wheels.
I've love those wheels since I was a kid.
Can't wait until they come in. They are special order to fit this car. They are being drilled now.

 

Do post pictures of the wheels on the car! Those were the first ones I considered getting while I was looking for replacement aftermarket wheels for my XJR. Think I got close to finding them in almost the right specs, except for the bore being much larger than the car's hub bore.