My 97 XJR manual is off the road again - 2 miles from home last night it lost power, I pulled over, and the supercharger drive belt was off. One of the 2 plastic idle pulleys had disintegrated. It restarted after multiple tries after a minute.
I limped home, the last 200 metres up a steep hill and I was nearly stalling in 1st gear. I would estimate I had about 30-40bhp without the SC working - certainly less power than my 1928 1600cc Alvis has getting up that hill. the engine could barely suck air through the stalled supercharger.

I still don't have a warrant of fitness (MOT). I failed this because the vehicle inspectors have deemed my car a modified vehicle (converted from auto to manual by previous owner) - the rules in NZ have changed 3x in a year, and my brake pedal is now considered modified because of 2 small drill holes in it.
I got a secondhand manual brake pedal from the previous owner, off a manual XJ40, but it turns out to be not the same and can't be swapped over.
the pedal is a discontinued part and unavailable from Jaguar or other parts dealers in the UK

So I probably have to have the brake pedal removed, crack tested, and the whole car inspected and certified. Then I will probably be OK again. But this ridiculous process will take time and cost at least $1000 NZD, and is a triumph of bureaucracy, Health and Safety over common sense - I have done numerous full-pedal stops with no pedal breakage.

On the flip side, the car goes like a trooper (when the supercharger is driven!) and I love driving it. It romps through 100mph without any trouble.

My accountant tells me that the money I spent on car maintenance last year could have bought a new small hatchback such as a basic Polo or other minicar. But hey, how boring would that have been? And I still get to drive an XJR ..

 

Al, why can't you contact some of the parts houses that salvage X300 cars and get them to send you a used pedal. Or does NZ reject that too because there will be a little wear on the pedal rubber.

 

EZDriver, the problem is finding a brake pedal from a manual car. the footpad is much smaller and that pedal is a rare beast. it is listed as a new part, but unavailable.
I may have to have it removed from car, the 2 small drill holes welded up, then crack-tested, certified and reinstalle

 

Al,
Sounds like you are having a tough time of it at the moment, but given you know what the car is like when it is running well, I know you will pull through. Safe in that knowledge, I would observe that the car should start and run ok without the supercharger belt : very flat acceleration , but starting and idle are fine. So if yours doesn't.....
Keep the faith!

 

yeah, other people have commented on other posts that the XJR should be drivable without the blower.
Mine was gutless, so it may be worse than it seems. I think the first thing to do is replace the plastic idler pulleys (they are hopefully on their way from England - none in NZ) and get the belt back on then see what it's like..

Despite all the time in the shop, I have had 33,000 good kilometres in 18 months.

A colleague has his father's hand-me-down 2004 AMG 55 CLS for a year. It has not broken down, but what a bloody ugly car. I'll stick to my old Jag...

 

the new supercharger belt idler pulleys arrived from UK today so my mechanic picked the car up (10 days - really slow post)
On removing harmonic dampener/crank pulley assembly, the timing ring was missing a tooth, which is a weird coincidence with the idler pulley seizing and failing (and explains why it ran so poorly without the supercharger). The rim of the plastic idler pulley is the perfect size to fit between the teeth of the timing ring, and this may be what happened once the pulley failed and dropped off.
luckily I have a spare dampener for my 3.2, and the timing rings are identical.
However the rubber in the old pulley is very hard and I probably need a new one.
Like the manual brake pedal, the correct genuine XJR harmonic dampener is Unobtainium. There is a company in USA making new ones called Black Dog Manufacturing (perhaps Zeppelin fans?). I will email them.
Also, the clutch/pulley on the aircon pump has jiggle and wear, so that needs doing...

and then there is the issue of the brake pedal still needing certifying.

..new handle for the axe, anyone?

 

Al,
I had some fun and games with my harmonic damper a few years ago, but managed to find a second hand one, but from memory does the extra pulley for the supercharger not bolt on to the normal damper? If I recall correctly there are 4 long thin bolts holding it on. Might you be able to attach your supercharger pulley to a standard damper?

 

Totally different harmonic balancers, same toothed timing wheel
I can get a secondhand one in NZ and have the better one on my car, and get the worse of the two rebuilt locally

 

There should be one tooth "missing" so the ECU can detect TDC

 

Rads, I now have a timing wheel with two teeth missing, at approx 12 o'clock and 7 o'clock

Car had about 20bhp and would barely run
Sorted with a different timing wheel (I had a spare)

 

The XJR is back on the road and running pretty normally
The O2 sensors got quite sooted up in the few kilometres it was running badly with the broken timing wheel. It went almost normally once the timing wheel was replaced, but was hesitant in the mid-2000s rpm, as if the mixture was not right. The sensors are now cleaned up and it does make a difference. I would say back to normal.

The brake pedal saga is hopefully nearly resolved. A new foot plate has been welded over the old one that had holes drilled in it (thus failing MOT as a safety issue). It now has correct pedal rubbers mounted.
The car is booked in for next week to be certified as an Auto-to-Manual conversion. It will then be a road legal vehicle again. A triumph of perseverance over health and safety.

I still want to do a set of extractor exhaust manifolds, but there is no panic, and I am over all the hassle of late, so just want to enjoy the car again for a while.

 

Recent photo

 

3.2 Daimler and XJR

 

Well done Al.

 

the cars look great AL

the X300 and 308's are the best looking jags out there, i love the classic body

i had no idea they made a manual version of the car. would you mind posting interior pics?

 

I love the x300s
They are getting hard to keep going though
Rarer parts for the XJRs are getting very difficult to source, so we have to be pretty dedicated to keep them in good roadworthy order.
The ride of the softer Daimler 6 is superb, and it would be hard to find a new car better, with the current crop of massive-wheeled low profile-tyred cars. I'd love to experience a Phantom Rolls, for example, and see how the ride compares.
The manual XJR is still a very quick car, although not up with 500-600 bhp modern Euro cars, Corvettes etc, but hey, it is 20 years old.
I looked at the new F Pace yesterday. It looks fantastic and I want one for my wife!... Haha

 

Hi al , I've been were you are with the flailed WOF for simple modifications .
I can tell you this , if you wait 28 days for your recheck sheet to expire ,
Then go some were else for your WOF . There is no evedince on computer as to the reason of the fail , and if you get a level headed WOF inspector , (in witch is looking for safety items as he should be , and not trying to me a jumped up big headed idiot as he most definatly should not be doing ) then you wil get your wof . I have a HQ that has been converted to auto no one has a problem with that, and it's got a narrow pedal and still has the clutch pedal ha . ! Had a falcon manual from auto and all sorts of mods , no probs there eather , I take my heaverly modded Datsun in for WOF's and every one gathers to look at the polished mods , and it gets its WOF too - because it's safe !!
These mod laws here are a joke and were put in place for the youth who mod on the front lawn , cut springs , hack off the muffler , black out the window till thay can't see and mount race seats with rivets or screws or don't even mount them at all .
Most WOF inspectors perceive the WOF laws with safety in mind , and will put there name behind a job well done , some take it a bit seriously over the top . Go some were else . Don't go to vtnz or vinz or jaguar or your asking for trouble .

BTW the eaton m112 takes 60hp to drive it , and is like having your hand over your carb on an old car , it having to spin the blower with vacume , so expect very little power when drawing air through it with vacume . So the fact it ran with effectively two TDC's and the belt off the blower is quite a feat . Congrats on getting it home !

 

Yeah keep the faith Al. The way the car makes you feel when driving it is worth the cost of a boring VW Polo. Imagine how grey and dull life would be if you did as your accountant suggested.
The fact it's hard work to keep the car roadworthy means your car becomes rare as diamonds.

 

Well done AL NZ in resolving your problems.
I once had to diagnose a severe engine running problems on an XJR6 that turned out to be a missing trigger wheel tooth. Someone had attempted to manually turn the engine over by levering a screw driver between the teeth, and broke one off. The trigger wheel is sintered, so quite brittle. When the belt came off it must have got jammed between the teeth and broke them.


The TV damper on a 4 litre engine will be tuned differently from a 3.2L engine, so even if the part from a 3.2l engine will fit, it should not be considered a long term solution.


Good luck with the "extractor" exhaust system. I can offer water-jet cut 8mm thick stainless steel flanges as a starting point.

 

.... The trigger wheel is sintered, so quite brittle...

Does this mean the triggger wheel is made of compressed metal particles? Was that chosen as the most economical way to manufacture them?