Well.... it looks like I will have to figure things out for myself. When I pulled up the carpet and the rear seat, I found no access port of any kind to the angle Drive in the automatic transmission. According to the Haynes manual, it looks like I will have to remove the entire exhaust system after the manifolds , and that should give me access to the angle drive from underneath. I also noticed that there are two access ports on each side of the center of the car underneath the rear seats. I imagine those are for access to the rear end so that the brakes can be bled. Is this true?

 

I can only speak to the layout of the Series III but I think the transmission tunnel is similar to the Series II. The openings under the rear seats are to access the rear brakes - changing pads and bleeding the system. Without those access openings you'd have to drop the whole rear assembly to change brake pads. The angle drive is tough to get at but you can do it (just) on the Series III without removing the exhaust, but it much easier if you remove the exhaust. On my car I found the inner speedo cable wasn't as long as you think and if it wasn't more or less centered in the outer cable it was too short to engage both the speedo and angle drive. Try centering it before you fool with removing the angle drive. Lastly be careful about oiling the speedo, they're not really meant to be oiled. If it's broken free I'd be tempted to leave it at that. Worst case send it to Palo Alto Speedometer or a similar shop and they can make it good as new. Hope that helps.

 

Thank you for the information. I tried to center the inner cable but to no avail. I tried using the new inner cable and the original inner cable and got the same result. I will climb under the car and take a look and see how hard it will be to get to the angle Drive.

I have read about the nightmare of bleeding the brakes by dropping the rear end. Apparently that is only in the earlier series 1. As soon as I'm done with the speedometer project I will bleed the brakes on the rear and then the brake system should be in good working order.

I also need to reassemble the interior bits. I was trying to figure out how to seal the cuts that I made in the metal plus sealing up the metal panel near the shift lever. Looks like jaguar used a tar like material. I have some sheets of tar with aluminum backing that I believe is used in Roofing so I thought I would try that with a heat gun. I have read information that some people use something called Dum Dum which doesn't exist anymore and also gaffer tape.

 

The speedometer cable was pretty easy to get off the angle drive and the angle drive also wasn't too difficult to remove. Nothing was in the way. Check out the picture. In the automatic it is located on the right side of the car.

I think it was bad but Im not certain. Anyway, even though it is expensive, I'm going to replace it. Hopefully the speedometer should provide many more miles without a problem.

 

For sealing the various interior seams try using Buytl tape. you can use strips of it to cover seams and voids then smooth it into shape. It helps to warm it up just a little to help make it stick but once in place it won't completely harden so won't crack and can be painted over and is easily removed (relatively speaking) if you ever need to. You'll find it at most marine stores like West Marine as it's often used on boats.

 

Great. Thank you for the suggestion. I will check a local Marine store. I wonder if Home Depot or Lowe's would have something like that?

 

I had an interesting turn of events. I went to my local Jaguar parts place to buy an angle drive but he didn't have it in stock and had to order it. I figured I would put my old angle drive back in, and just for the heck of it, I hooked up my old speedometer cable. Then I backed the car up the speedometer cable was turning perfectly fine. When I went forward the speedometer cable was also working fine. On a hunch, I installed the speedometer and hooked up the cable ( easier said than done). When I drove the car, the speedometer and odometer worked perfectly smoothly. I have driven it about 60 Mi and the speedometer works perfectly. Here is what I think happened. In order to remove the speedometer angle drive from the transmission, after you disconnect the cable, there is a collar that moves up and down as you loosen it from the transmission. In retrospect, when I was removing it from the car, it seemed that the caller had backed out over the many years and was barely screwed onto the transmission but was pretty much held there by all the gunk that built up. I didn't have to turn the color much in order to remove it from the transmission. But when I reinstalled it on the transmission, I was turning it and turning it and turning it until it tightened. So the angle Drive was good, but it just wasn't screwed all the way into the transmission. Now what I'm curious about is if there is supposed to be a little bit of slippage on the angle drive because I could make it slip when I had it out of the car and I inserted a screwdriver to where the cable would normally go and held on to the other end. I could make it slip but it took quite a bit of effort. Anyway if it fails in the future, then I will know to replace the angle drive and I will know how to do it.

I noticed that my alternator seems to work fine when I'm driving the car but, at one point I was idling for quite a long time with the headlights on and noticed that the voltage was dropping dangerously low. My plan is to put a higher output alternator which my local Jaguar guy has.

I had the car up to about 80 miles an hour on the freeway, and I noticed that the car was wallowing. It felt to me like the shock absorbers were not absorbing the shocks. I see that nany people use Boge shocks or GAZ shocks. My local Jaguar guy said that the boge shocks aren't being made anymore and that I should get the Gaz shocks. Those are more expensive although they are adjustable. Would I need new Springs also or can I use my original Springs?

One other thing I want to do is to hook up the vacuum advance on my pertronix distributor by drilling the ports out on the carburetors and connecting them to the distributor. I read a very good article on it online and I will see if I can get that to work.

 

"I had the car up to about 80 miles an hour on the freeway, and I noticed that the car was wallowing. It felt to me like the shock absorbers were not absorbing the shocks. I see that nany people use Boge shocks or GAZ shocks. My local Jaguar guy said that the boge shocks aren't being made anymore and that I should get the Gaz shocks. Those are more expensive although they are adjustable. Would I need new Springs also or can I use my original Springs?"

More than likely a front end issue: tires balanced, toe-end alignment good, sway bar bushings renewed, then if still not satisfied move onto front shocks and full font end bushing kit. (springs are for rear only and yours are probably ok)
Rgds
David

 

The only problem with doing a front end alignment is that if I need front shocks, which I probably do, then I would have to do another alignment after I did all that. Typically a front end alignment is done after parts are replaced on the front end. I know I need all the ball joints as the boots are torn.

 

Shocks and sway bar bushings before or after alignment should have no effect, if you are doing ball-joints or major suspension bushings, then alignment after will be important.
Rgds
David

 

Well I had an interesting evening with the car. I decided to take the car on a 30 mile drive on the freeway just to see how everything did. For about the first 20 miles everything seemed great. I didn't notice that wallowing too much but I'm pretty sure the suspension could use a bit of firming up. I think it was wallowing the other day because it was quite windy in the area I was driving. Then it look like it was starting to rain but it was only on one side of my windshield. I thought that was a little strange. It turns out that the car was boiling over. I immediately pulled off the road and watch a miniature Old Faithful geyser of steam come out of the left side of the bonnet. I just couldn't believe it. I parked the car and let it cool down. I walked to a store and got what was left of distilled water. I also got a screwdriver because I had no tools with me like a dummy. I walked back to the car and remove the upper radiator hose and pulled out the panty hose filter which I believe was blocking coolant flow at this point.

Then I open the radiator cap and filled the system with distilled water and drove home on side streets for 23 miles. There was no boiling over during the entire trip. I was even stopping at stop lights and everything and no boiling over. When I got home I shut the car off and listen for any boiling. I heard no sound whatsoever so I figured my problems were over, right? Wrong. After a few seconds, I heard a hissing sound and saw steam coming out of the front of the car which I had never seen before. I popped the hood and saw steam coming out of what appeared to be the back of the radiator. The only thing I could think of was the otter switch in the back.

The next morning I went to the local Jaguar guy and, after some discussion, decided to replace my suspect otter switch anyway in addition to the gasket. The reason I replace the switch in addition to the gasket was that I noticed that the fans would come on but they would stay on for a very very long time until the temperature of the top of the radiator was around a hundred degrees Fahrenheit. So it turned on the fans okay but it didn't turn them off correctly. The switch that I bought was a solid state switch that turns on at 85 degrees centigrade and turns off at 80 degrees Centigrade. I didn't want it to turn off at too low of a temperature because then it would run for a very long time. I noticed that the battery charging was running a little bit low when I would idle for a very long time with the headlights on and both fans were going. I imagine a modern fan would be better for the charging system as it would draw much less current than the 52 year old fans that are on the car.

Just before major rain hit today, I remove the otter switch from the radiator I noticed a lot of silicone seal on it which doesn't seem to be correct. I believe the cork gasket was there also. I took a wire Dremel and got rid of the silicone on the radiator surface. After the rain stops, I will install the new switch with new gasket. I probably ought to pressure test the system but I'm a try to drive it and see if the cooling system performed properly.

I replaced a lot of the weather stripping on the car and the car is clearly quieter and nicer to drive.

With respect to the suspension, I think what I will do is attack the suspension all at once and replace shock absorbers, bushings, and ball joints. Then afterwards I can do an alignment and the suspension should be good to go.

 

What the hell !!
Any photo at all ? No wonder it boiled on you. However, unless you know the radiator is fairly recent, I would budget for a replacement. People think - "well the coolant flows through perfectly OK, it isn't blocked". Well it doesn't need to be totally blocked. What happens is that the clogging still allows coolant flow, but it's not spread out over all of the radiator passages, so doesn't get cooled enough on its way through.

 

I had the radiator rodded out by a radiator shop a few weeks ago. I didn't want junk to get back into the radiator so I put that filter on.

I discovered where the leak was coming from. Apparently in my haste to get the top radiator hose back on after I removed the panty hose filter, part of the hose curled up underneath and so it was leaking from the top radiator hose. With that solved, I ran the engine until the fans came on because I wanted to see if the otter switch would shut them off. The old switch didn't shut the fans off until about a hundred degrees Fahrenheit. Sure enough, the fans shut off after a minute or two indicating that the new otter switch was working as it should. This will put less of a strain on the charging system.

I drove the car for about 8 Miles in City traffic for about 20 to 25 minutes and no overheating and no boiling over. I did get some coolant overflow but that's because I topped the system off. If it keeps doing that then I will have to be concerned but I just dumped the fluid out. Temperature gauge registered in the upper part of the white section so it didn't even get to the NORMAL range.

The real test is to get it back on the freeway and see what happens at freeway speeds.

 

"I removed the panty hose filter, part of the hose curled up underneath and so it was leaking from the top radiator hose. "

Was the "P - H" filter clean?, or did you get more debris floating in cooling system??

 

It was dirty... but I didn't see chunks of rust. The coolant mixture is very dirty so today I drained it and flushed it out. My plan is to add Thermo cure to some water and drive it for a few days. That is supposed to dissolve the rust but not attack the metal. Then I will flush that out and hopefully the coolant water mixture will stay clean. The car still gets hotter than it should after driving on the freeway over 15 to 20 miles. Around town it doesn't seem to be a problem at all. By the way the thermo cure is supposed to dissolve all the rest so it becomes a suspension in the water so it won't clog the radiator.

 

"The car still gets hotter than it should after driving on the freeway over 15 to 20 miles. Around town it doesn't seem to be a problem at all."

With low power around town driving the BTU output of the engine is less that the BTU cooling capability... On freeway, the engine BTU output is higher than cooling BTU capability. You may want to pull a plug and see and see if it shows signs of lean burning at freeway speeds. Could be air leak, high flow air filters, or low float levels.
You are doing a lot of work on this cooling system and have found numerous culprits to-date. When you get the vacuum advance hooked up on your distributor you may also find and improvement in ignition timing at steady freeway cruising. For freeway driving you can hook vac advance line temporarily to a manifold vacuum source. Hooking it to carb, only impacts off-closed throttle timing.
I admire your tenacity
Rgds
David

 

Your BTU analysis makes sense. When I drive around town it seems like I could do it all day as the temperature stays in about the middle of the white area. As soon as I get on the freeway and get up above 50 miles an hour, Jenna Lee cruising at about 65 to 70, the temperature gauge very slowly goes up.

I put Cascade dishwashing liquid in the cooling system yesterday and ran it around yesterday afternoon and evening and this morning. I located a couple of bottles of Thermo Cure made by Evapo-rust. Each bottle is supposed to treat 3 gallons, but I put in two bottles since I believe my cooling system holds over 19 quarts of cooling liquid. I didn't want to overheat the engine and have the expensive radiator flush spew out into the atmosphere. So I did a lot of short to medium drives just to get the system flowing. There was no boiling over, and I didn't detect any boiling in the system. There was a little bit of overflow into the little bottle that I installed next to the expansion tank.

the thermo cure is supposed to dissolve all rust and put it in suspension. I'm hoping that if it sits in the system for a week or two, it should dissolve whatever sludge or rust is in there. Since it doesn't attack metal, it should be safe to keep in there a fairly long time.

Before I put the Thermo cure in, I pulled the carburetors and drilled out the vacuum ports that seemed to be blocked by the factory. I found a couple of grease fittings that fit right in there. I drilled out the little valve ball that's in the grease fitting to make it a vacuum nipple. I put vacuum hoses in a t shape from each carburetor and fed them both into the distributor vacuum advance. Remember the distributor is a pertronix electronic ignition unit.

The car seems to have better throttle response. I know there is some disagreement as to whether to use manifold vacuum or carburetor vacuum. I believe carbureted vacuum is the correct vacuum to use for the distributor vacuum advance.

the plan is to drive it everyday and see if there's any Improvement in temperature. The air temperature here is pretty cool lately. It can get well over a hundred degrees in the summer time here in Southern California so I really want a good working cooling system. I will keep you all posted

changing topics, can someone tell me if the center clock is supposed to have a light in it, and if so, is that hooked up to the electrical system. I noticed my clock doesn't light up but it also doesn't run. I believe there is a battery in there to get it to run.

regarding the fuel gauge, it doesn't really work although it does register slightly. I'm thinking it's a stuck float. Is this a common problem? I started to undo the sending unit this morning but I had just topped off the gas tank so gas was coming out of the screw holes. I need to burn up some fuel before I can pull the sending unit to see if it's stuck. It would be nice to get the fuel gauge working.

 

RE: the fuel gauge - The float on the sending unit is made of plastic and can leak, fill up with fuel and sink to the bottom of the tank. Run the fuel down, remove the sending unit and check to see if the float is full of fuel. If so it's possible to just replace the plastic float. I've seen them on e-bay as they're common to a number of sending units. Sorry can't help much on the other questions.

 

Actually my float is made of metal and I pulled it out of the gas tank to check it and it is not filled with gas. I took apart the sending unit to inspect it and it just seemed corroded. I decided to replace it. The replacement does have a plastic float on it. When I hooked it up and turn the ignition on, the fuel gauge worked.

Regarding the clock in the center of the dash, according to the Haynes manual, it does have a bulb and it uses its own Mercury battery. I believe the bulb is burned out. I'll see if I can find a battery that fits and let's see if the Clock Works. That would be kind of cool to get it working properly.

the cooling system seems to be doing a bit better. I drove 20 miles on the freeway at around 65 to 70 miles an hour and there was no boil over or gurgling when I shut the engine off when I got home. Im hoping that the cooling system gets better and better until it reaches a maximum temperature and then stays there. I'm curious how long it takes your car to reach maximum temperature?

 

Last week I drove the car about 15 Mi on the freeway and pulled off to run an errand. When I came back to the car I saw coolant had leaked in the front of the car which seems very unusual to me. I noticed it again the next day and tried to locate the source of the leak but nothing was really obvious.

I rented a pressure tester and pressurize the cooling system and it caused coolant to leak out of the radiator. The otter switch was dry so it wasn't coming from there. I got the car up on ramps and open the Bonnet Way Up and pressurize the system and listen to where the leak was coming from it sounded like it was coming from the upper passenger side from the tubes.

I pulled the radiator and I gave it to my radiator shop who rodded it out the last two times. The diagnosis was several blown tubes. He suggested a recore which I agreed with. In fact we're going to put in four rows of cooling tubes. I read a lot about it on the internet and there is varying opinions as to whether or not an extra row of cooling tubes is beneficial. The radiator should be back tomorrow.

I wanted to solve the problem of junk getting into the radiator and in my research for an inline coolant filter I found a company in Northern San Diego County called Gano which sells coolant filters. I opted for the clear filter which makes it easy to see if the filter is clogged up. If it gets clogged you just simply remove it from inline to the upper radiator hose and backflush it to get the junk out. Installation requires cutting into the radiator hose and taking out about the two in section and installing the filter and clamping it down.

The filter should arrive here Thursday. In the meantime I plan to flush out the block very well. The Thermal Cure has been sitting at the bottom of the block for several days now so hopefully if there's any more stuff in there, it loosened it up.

I believe multiple problems led to the cooling system issues. I believe I have chased them all down and I think I'm going to turn a corner after the radiator gets installed with the filter. In other words, I think my cooling system issues are going to be a thing of the past but, knocking on wood, I hope I'm right.