I have tried repeatedly to repair my wiper switch. I can get it to run slow and park .... or run fast and no park. But not fast and park. David at Everyday XJ sent me several switches to try but to no avail. Have any of you made a dash mounted toggle switch that works? The circuitry is complicated with the various hot and ground points. My Cotswold Yellow series 3 is a 1979 model and some of the bits are s2 hold overs. Thanks for your help.

Jeff

 

I've not done it.

If you would be happy with simple function, just on-off or perhaps off-low-high, a simple toggle switch arrangement should be doable. The park, delay, and single-swipe functions might be a bridge too far

Cheers
DD

 

I just repaired a 1980 wiper switch. it works fine now, at least mechanically it does. Is yours a silver-decal?

 

Yes! Silver decal. I had found an article in a Jaguar club magazine from somewhere in New England about the process which involved a stiff plastic card (he recommended an old credit card). After several failed attempts I contacted the author and he said basically "Yes, it's tricky, just keep trying until you get lucky". I never got mine to work correctly . Jose, if you have magic process, I, and a lot of other Jaguar enthusiasts will be very greatful.

 

I'm familiar with that repair...I think.

The one I'm thinking of originally came from a now defunct website called "SK Jagtech". Had lots of good Jag repair info. I think Jose has all or most of the info. I'm glad he saved it; when the website went away a lot of good info disappeared.

The 'card repair' didn't work for me....but I put the failure down to my own ham-handedness with intricate mechanisms.

Cheers
DD

 

Empathy !


I'm good at ham handedness !!!


A bit of gloating. The Jaguar and I have been out on two rainy days. the wipers did just fine, within their limits. And parked properly sans going to the Andrachuk move.


Carl

 

OK, Carl, I'll bite. What is the Andracuk move? Get out of the car and manually move them to park? I do agree with Dr. Andracuk that the normal wiper park position is up to high so I have adjusted the position of the wipers in the park position to lie down flat at the very bottom of the windscreen.

 

I did this rebuild a couple of years ago based on the same article from SK Jagteck. From what I can remember, instead of the plastic card, I fashioned a piece of aluminum, about .020" thick. Some of the copper pieces inside were pretty well worn, so I built them up with silver solder, sanded them smooth, and set them back in place with Super glue. I lubed the sliding channels with white lube, and the contact surfaces with Dielectric grease. I used Tie wraps and epoxy to assemble it. Then I said a Hail Mary, and it worked! Guess I got lucky!

 

If the wipers develop the "won't return to park position' malady.....

Rather than simply flicking the control to the 'off' position continue down to the 'pause' position for a moment, then to the 'off' position. The wipers will then park correctly.

Cheers
DD

 

Thanks George. I'll give it another try using your techniques. I am pretty sure I have a copy of the article; assuming I can find it I will post it in the forum along with your improvements for future XJ6 owners.

 

I will give this a try to see if it works with my switch. Doug, your Jaguar knowledge is beyond impressive. Do you just remember all this stuff or do your have a really great filing system? Either way we are all grateful for your help.

Jeff

 

Now that I think about it, I believe the aluminum piece may have been thicker than .020", but I can't remember exactly. You'll have to measure the old piece.

 

I use a small piece of mica, very thin, all you want to do is build up the worn area in the metal part of the case so the stalk pivot doesn't drag in its path, you want something that is a slippery material but that creates upward tension at the same time to make up for the wear. I found that the thickness of a credit card is too much, but a piece of mica superglued to the inner metal case bottom works fine. You can get mica from products you buy, those that come in see-through packages? That's what I call mica.

and talking about products you buy, women's purses, shoes (men and women), and electronics come with packets of Dessicant that people throw away, when they are so useful. Put them under your car seats to eleiminate moisture. Dessicant = French for Dryer. I use them in my guitar cases to stop rust on strings. Yes I'm a musician, since the 1960's, a Beatles freak!


Yellow series3: does your switch look like this one in the picture? Same functions? I have several with the silver labels, another like this one and another with different functions.

 

Hi Jose. I am on the road and will be home at the end of the month and will let you know exactly what functions my switch shows at that time. Thank you very much for your help on this. Since my 1979 s3 was one of the first ones, do you think my wiper switch is in actuality a s2 switch? BTW, I have read about a private message function in the Forum but have never used it. Can you point me in the right direction in that regards? Thanks again.

Jeff

 

for private messages, you click on the name of the forum member and a menu comes down, and you can select "SEND PRIVATE MESSAGE", that takes you to your messages inbox where a message window opens with the forum member that you want to send a private message to.

as to which switch they put in your car, they put what they had as it was being manufactured, I'm sure Doug will agree with that. Remember Jaguar were basically hand assembled, and if they ran out of a given part, someone ran to the parts bin and got what they had available at the moment.

also even though my car is a 1984 MODEL YEAR, it was built in June 1983 but to be sold as a 1984 MODEL YEAR. So my parts are dated 1983 and I have found some parts dated 1982. Lucas dated their parts, that's how I know the switch I just fixed was made in 1980, it has the month and year engraved in the metal case. So you could have 1978 parts in your early Series 3, but it doesn't matter, the parts will correspond to the Series 3 no matter what. What may have changed is the color of the labels on the wiper and turn signal switches, headlights switch, and ignition switch fascias.

 

Yellow:


1. Doug described the Andrachuk maneuver better than I ever could. I have used it, instinctive.


2. I suspect Doug has two receptacles for his Jag lore. His head and media of mixed etiology aka paper and disc.


Carl

 

You're welcome, and thanks

I remember lot's of Jag stuff but generally have manuals close by, and a folder full of notes.

Series IIIs are my favorite, been elbow-deep in several over the years. And been on Jag forums for 18 years....so you pick up a few things as the years go by

Cheers
DD

 

here's the Nashville Music City Jaguar Club article written buy my friend Mike, who used the credit card shim only to regret it later. Click on the PDF file to open it or to save it.

also a picture of the 1986 Silver label wiper switch. This one does not seem to need a repair, it is positive in all the positions.