Ok I almost got the old girl back together and I'm stumped. I'm missing the cable that goes from the distributor to the amplifier so will need to make one. My question is which color goes to the wide and small connectors?

It's an 1989 V12 XJS

 

I will check thru my pics from when I cleaned up under the hood of mine and post for you and will post in the evening for yoou

 

I found this in my scribblings.

Then comes the memory hahaha, I THINK the Red (R) goes on the wide terminal.

 

This should help

 

As in Daverb's photo, blue wire nearest the centre of the V, red wire to the outside of the V. I also suggest you unscrew, disconnect from the HEI unit and remove that condenser in the amp (top right of your original photo).
Greg

 

Thanks! That's a big help. What's the reason to "disconnect from the HEI unit and remove that condenser in the amp"? I'm a novice when it comes to these cars so I'll gladly take all advise. I've read Kirby Palm's book awhile back before I bought the car and I need to re-read it now that I'm started to work on her again. I also got lucky and the repair operation manual came with the car but most of all this forum has been a big help just reading pass threads. Thanks again for the help!

 

That condensor was originally a noise supressor for the radio on the AM band, or thats what we were told at Jaguar.

Age is now against them, so removal is the best plan.

They are connected to 1 of the +ve posts of the module, and they leak to earth, thus earthing the ignition system, then spark is lost/intermittant/whatever.

Removing them has revived a few dead V12's for me over the years. Others have run much better with it gone, so issues were on the horizon.