Mine was originally blue but was white and primer grey when I brought it home 31 years ago. Of course I had to paint it the reddest red (GM Torch Red) I could find!

 

Just over 1,000 miles in 3 days and we made it from Chicago to Mobile, AL. Here's the Jaguar sitting in front of the USS Alabama.


In didn't seem fair to make my 70+ year old Father to squeeze himself into my MGB, so I let him drive the Jaguar. He really likes it.


Tomorrow is the South Alabama British Car Festival and visiting with friends and family.

 

This year I brought my parents, my wife, two of my 3 sisters, and 2 of my 3 nephews to the car show. The matching shirts had both MG and Jaguar logos.


When I saw the two matching Jagaur Mk 2's pull in I knew who was winning the top 2 spots in my class but I was lucky enough to come home with both 3rd place in my class and the award for the longest drive to the show.


All told my 1970 MGB and 1974 Jaguar drove 2,017 miles with out a single show-stopping issue. This afternoon when we pulled off the Interstate, the alternator in the Jaguar started squealing and although my wife made it into the garage I'm pretty sure the brand new alternator I put in 5,000 miles ago is dead. But that's an easy fix.

 

Why, I'm Shocked you had such a long, relatively a trouble trip; NOT!
Congratulations!!
Given what we've seen of your work, you'll have that little problem fixed in about 15 minutes.
(';')

 

Even when you buy high quality parts, sometimes you get a lemon.

For grins and giggles I pulled it out of the car and took it to be tested at Auto Zone - as soon as their test machine put a load on it it started squealing loudly. To no one's surprise it failed.
I have a new WAI Global alternator coming Friday and I'm sending back the AC Delco Gold for a warranty replacement. I think the AC Delco alternator is going on the shelf as a spare.

 

Replacing the alternator on this engine is a very simple process and I was able to do without having to put on "garage clothes". Three bolts from the top of the engine bay, attach the battery cable to the lug, and 15 seconds under the car to turn the adjuster and slip the belt back on. I now have an alternator that charges the battery and doesn't squeal.

It's time to think about my longer term plans for the car; more to come on that.

 

Last weekend I listed the Jaguar on eBay for what I thought was a fair price. I wasn't expecting the reserve to be met and when the auction ended today and she didn't sell - I was actually pretty relieved.

So this afternoon I pulled the hood off so I can start on my Winter 2024/2025 list. There are a few tweaks I want to make like going to a coil-on-plug ignition system and a better exhaust system. I also want to pull the spacers out of the front springs to level the front down. And some other surprises along the way.

 

Although I do Seriously enjoy watching your work, Thomas (I think we all do), I'm glad your car didn't sell..... This time.

 

Time to start digging in. I pulled the fender braces off last night - they're the first thing that comes off. They looked a little ratty.


After a trip through the sand blaster and some 2k chassis paint, they looked much better.


The rest of the morning was draining the cooling system and taking inventory of what I have vs what I need.

 

Is there a reason you want to convert to Coil
on plug? Unless you are having opti issues or want more tuning options it’s a lot of money to fix something that’s not broken, but don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying don’t do it, as I looked it into myself, but after I learned how to tune the obd1 system ( mines a 94) I decided to spend the money on better heads and intake setup

 

Darren,
It's less about tuning and more about removing a potential failure point. I've heard horror stories about the new opti-sparks out there. It seems like keeping the Opti part of the equation (which is reliable) and moving the spark part outside the distributor it the best way to go. I'd be interested to hear your opinions on it.

 

The main issue with the opti is its position below the water pump, , i am running a rebuilt gm opti with the Mitsubishi sensor, it was rebuilt by the optidoc ( who appears to be gone now) but he upgraded the setup to a vented style so im pulling vacuum through it to keep any humidity type moisture out of it, and for the water pump i just added a fitting at the weep hole and have a small hose dangling from it to direct water away from the opti if it does leak. I haven’t had any issue to date ( knocking on wood)

 

I am using the same GM rebuilt opti as Darren, but I did away with the possibility of a water pump seal eventually leaking by converting to an electric pump. Then there's no need for the rear drive shaft and two seals to worry about. Barring that, Darrens work-around of rerouting the weep hole discharge is a must for peace of mind.

Dave

 

I started working through the Winter 2024-2025 list this week. First up was removing the intake manifold so I could re-seal it to address the oil weeping at the back of the block. While I had the manifold off I took advantage of the opportunity to clean it up and replace all the PCV hoses that might have been original to 1996.


I've been patiently dealing with an oil drop from the steering rack all summer. The UV dye tells no lies, the input shaft seal was a leaker. I'm going to spend some time with the McMaster Carr catalog and see if I can find something that works better.


Next up was correcting the slighty-too-high ride height in the front. Once you've done it dropping the front springs are pretty easy. I'll be removing the packing shims in the front and seeing where things end up.

 

You will have NO problem with that shaft seal!
I changed mine, sweating blood all the time from all the Horror Stories about this little task, but with care and paying attention to the splines, all went well and nary a drop of steering blood has been lost since I did it.
(';')

 

Tonight I had one win and one loss in the garage.
First was the input shaft seal on the steering rack. I thought I could use a rotary shaft seal as a better solution than the Jaguar parts, but the 1.375" OD seal was too big and the the 1.25" OD seal was too small. I guess I'll order the correct kit and be done.


The win was getting the driver side spring, minus the packing shims, back in the car tonight. I had a great idea for a tool to make this even easier - more to come on that later.

 

Do tell!

 

Short night in the garage as I'm still waiting on parts to arrive and I broke my favorite wrench. I was able to remove the front right coil spring so I can pull the packing shims from that side.

 

Had a good day out in the garage today. Moss sent me the wrong rebuild kit for the power steering rack so I get to deal with them on Monday. But we didn't let that stop the progress.

Next up was putting the front passenger coil spring back in place. , a 10" long 9/16" socket. I use four pieces of Grade 5, 12" long, 3/8" all thread rod to hold the spring and pan in place, compress the spring with a floor jack until the car lifts off the jack stands, then use the 10" socket to easily finish compressing the spring. I think it took about 30 minutes from start to finish. The long socket was much easier to use than a ratcheting box end wrench.

Next it was time for some good old fabrication. The Chevy oil pan is pretty close to the steering rack in the car, and once the motor mounts settled a bit the clearance went from passable to uncomfortable. The two weren't touching but I wanted to address it. The nice thing about having the ubiquitous Chevy engine is that parts are abundant and cheap, so I picked up a brand new oil pan.


After measuring where the steering rack fits in relation to the oil pan, I marked my cut lines.


After cutting the pan, I made a new patch using some sheet metal.


Tack welded in place.


Final piece cut and tacked.


There are no changes to the clearance to the rotating assembly.


I exhausted all the batteries for my grinder. Tomorrow I'll finish grinding, use a light to check for any pin holes, fix those, then fill it with water to see if it leaks.

 

As I'm Completely lacking your Fabrication Skills, I merely BASHED my oil pan into submission with a selection BIG hammers and several drifts..
It doesn't look Nearly as nice as yours does, but just let me tell you, That was Satisfying!!