...never mind. Answer is "yes".


Undid the column lower cover. The potentiometer had fallen off the gearbox for the tilt motor. I ran the motor to the end stop, wound the pot so it had a turn spare after that, clipped it in and bingo.

Now it remembers the tilt position again. Happy days. Now all I gotta do is get all the gravel out of my hair and shirt from doing my best limbo-dancer impression clmbering up under the dash.

Phil

 

Yeah, I had an old girl friend who said it wasn't much fun working on your . . .

That said, about to start the same process: the sound board in the turn signal is becoming intermittent; likely a loose wire either in the speaker/sound board or multi-function switch. Lots of fun and laying on your back either way . . . . and then finding a third hand to support soldering . . .

 

The sound turns out to be that someone didn't like how loud the alert was so put a tiny, tinny little speaker in place. I've ordered the correct type to put back in.

Phil

 

I used to be like you guys,struggling and straining to work underneath dashboards. Then one day I saw a guy using one of these and it changed my life.

I made my own version of this out of stuff I had lying around, but they’re not expensive to buy. It’s called a Dash creeper.

 

My old joying head unit outdated itself to such an extent that i could barely find working apps for it, i was lucky and cause i found nice discounted atoto with plenty of ram and options joying didn't have, i couldn't resist and went for it
atoto screen is a tiny bit larger than one of joying so while joying was an exact fit now i had to cut the console moulding to make it fit and given that all tracking wires i did in the past swapping units was straightforward, so far result is excellent and i really love it

 

I put a new handle on my shop door

 

Went to the JEC Northern Show at the Avro Heritage Centre south of Manchester. Lovely weather and a lot to look at. There must have been about 200 cars there but only two X308's - Graham Reece's immaculate XJR and my Super V8! The Daimler got a lot of attention...

Having said that, the star of the show was the 1963 Vulcan B2 XM603 Cold War bomber in its anti-flash white paint scheme.

 

Sometimes I think I should join the JEC as they seem to do plenty of stuff.
My XJR is way too ratty for shows though as it needs four arches & under the rear lights sorting to look decent.

 

I did a 150 mile round trip to Leicester to buy a OSF wing from someone breaking a x308 on FB. They do just fit across the car in front of the back seat, no chance of putting it in the boot. It's got a little bit of rust but it's much better than mine, so I've wire brushed it & treated it with a kill rust thing. It can then sit with the NSF wing I've already got until I can afford to get them sprayed & fitted along with new rear arches welded in & the rust spots under the rear lights fixed too.

I have noticed the last few times I've used the car that the fan stays on when parked, I know it's hotter weather than I often use it in but I don't recall that before. it goes off within a few mins so I don't think it's very hot. Do they normally do this & I've just never noticed?

 

Even after being sat in traffic and the weather being 30+°c out here, mine never runs the fan on.

 

Cheers, that's what I thought. I don't remember it doing it before, I didn't even know these cars did that till the last week or two. I'll have to poke about when it stops raining.

 

Mine does it all the time, i thought it was normal but i found my thermostat running a bit high lately and now that it is replaced i'm curious if it will stop fans from running

 

Interesting to hear others do it then. I did check last night & it's still full of coolant, which is a good sign. I'd started to wonder when the plastic waterpumps stopped getting fitted, although I think they only got used for the AJ26?

Once a couple of bits arrive it's getting booked in for timing chains, so I'll mention it to them & they can check/replace the pump while the front of the engine is in bits.

 

The plastic ones were also available aftermarket by looks of it, because my replacement engine is new enough it should have been a metal pump but it wasn't. It had been changed also.
I did also replace the thermostat after the first one jammed closed. That's one point where the fans would run on after I shut the engine off.
Maybe worthwhile doing, but in typical fashion the bolts are tiny and are made from cheese. Caution advised. Start soaking them down with penetrant on a daily basis now it they're going to be pulled.

 

Ta for the tips Phil, I'll give them a few good sprays as even even I just let the garage do it while paying them for the rest it'll make life easier for someone.

 

I found also that the engine would run warmer at low speed. Get the RPM above 3000 and the bypass is pushed open by the pressure from the pump.
Try park up, bring the revs up to 3500 for 30 seconds or so then switch off. See if the fans run on. If so, water pump is good, thermostat is failing.

 

Isn’t there a 3000 rpm limit in park and in neutral?

 

Not in 2000 there wasn't. Maybe on later revisions of the ECU.

Phil

 

I believe there is on the XJR & Super V8 but oddly not the normal cars.

 

That makes sense. 3000 sees the bypass valve open so worth a try. On mine it started to open about 2700, quoted 3500 because it would be for sure.

Phil