Can anyone recommend a reliable garage for all MK2 related issues in the London area ? (willing to go further afield for the right place). Any advice would be useful including who to avoid (my e-mail address - sleddy@btopenworld.com). Thanking you in anticipation

 

TilleyJon's Garage in Bath. The Only place I would trust my treasured Jaguar.

Just kidding, TilleyJon is a member here who is very knowledgeable.

 

Ask away sleddy, I will see what I can do to help, what are the issues ?

 

Hi Jon, Kind of you to respond. My main problem is trying to find a trustworthy garage in the London area for servicing and other repairs. Would like to take the car back to the guy who I bought it from (the excellent Phil Leeson of Heritage Motors) but he's all the way up in Yorkshire. Can you recommend anyone in London ?

 

I will try and get you a couple of numbers, I have a friend that had a garage in Wembley who has some contacts up there, what area are you in ?

You are welcome to bring it up to me, but I'm in Bath so a little bit of a trek unless you wanted to enjoy the sights while your here !

 

Thank you - I'm in Peckham, saaaaf London. If you can recommend anyone close by that would be great. Bit of a paucity of Jag specialists here. You don't happen to know if Marcus Barclay is still going do you ? I know he's been ill. May well come and see you in Bath - always looking for an excuse to visit it. Thanking you in anticipation

 

I will ask today re Saaaf London garages, Marcus Barclay's website is down, so I am not sure he is still going, have you tried calling ?

I will get back later.

 

Shoudn’t that be Saaaaf Laaandon?

 

Yes, Saaaaf Laaandon? my mistake

 

Had a certain Mk2 arrive a week ago for a service, and checkup.


From what I can see the car was restored I am guessing in the 90's and upgraded from a 240 to a 340 but with wide bumpers.


Whoever did the restoration did not do a bad job in fact, the car is a little of a Frankenstein as it has the 240 carbs, 340 engine, Mk2 bumpers, 3.8 Mk2 air filter, later brake servo with built in air valve, XJ6 power steering conversion etc., but everything works and it is a reasonable driver.

Sleddy reported some issues with the brakes, I had initially mentally ruled out the master cylinder as it was new, but on further investigation found that the body of the master cylinder is cracked, the cylinder actually moves sideways when the brake is applied as it is only held by one bolt, and there is a distinct jump in the pedal which seems to be something binding within the master cylinder. It looks like the cylinder was broken when it was fitted, probably didn't sit square, was bolted up hard and viola!

This will need replacing and then further testing of the barking system to ensure it is all up to scratch.

The London garage had apparently recommended/quoted to upgrade the brakes to 4 pot, not sure this is required !! See pics.

Rear hub seals are leaking, as is the diff filler as you will see from the pictures. There is also some early corrosion which will be addressed to keep this in check. The Cills have had over cills fitted and all the access holes have been welded up / covered over, so these will be opened and a boroscope inserted to check the condition of the cill internally.

Putting repair cills over the existing is not something I would advocate as this can cause greater issues along the way, hopefully there will be nothing horrible inside the cills, and this can be monitored with corrosion protection to stop the rust bugs getting hold.


There is a small leak on the power steering pump probably due to a low quality hose clamp, so this will be addressed.

 

Many thanks Jon for the very detailed reply. There's clearly a serious issue with that master cylinder. However, from memory this has been replaced a couple of times already; on each occasion it only goes part way to fixing the brakes. I'm beginning to wonder if the problem may lie in Frankenjag's unusual history ie a mismatch or time lapse between some of its braking components. Looking forward to your prognosis.

 

I will thoroughly look through the braking system and see if I can understand why the master cylinders have been failing, there may be a parts mismatch, I will see if there are any differences in the 240 / 340 pedal box, but I doubt that, maybe it's the wrong master cylinder ?

Many questions, hopefully I will come up with the answers too.

 

Just cross referenced the parts books, and the 240 and 340 share the same pedal housing and master cylinders, but have realised that the spacer is missing, that maybe why the cylinder does not sit correctly, and the cylinder may well be bottoming out at full pedal travel or earlier and damaging the master cylinder.


I will fit a new spacer with the new cylinder and see how it starts to fair from there.