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After looking at my options for a trunk mounted AC unit, I decided the commercially available units all had too much cooling capacity for what I was after. Once you add in the prices ($800 to $1,100) I knew that was not the route I wanted to go. So i went back to the unit on my shelf that I was looking at yesterday...
And chopped the back half of the assembly off. The fans that were on there were not conducive to my plan.
A 1/4" thick piece of plastic will serve as the new fan mount. A Spal HVAC blower fan and PWM controller is on the way.
I also learned that Dymo makes heat-shrink labels for their printer. I wish I had known about this earlier as it makes labeling wires super easy and doesn't add a lot of bulk.
Lastly, I was able to clean up the exhaust air pan I removed yesterday and it's waiting for paint. I need to do some research on replacing the flaps to see what it's supposed to look like.
Hi, amazing work so far ! Here are some pictures of the rear air extractor tray from my 1985 XJ6 Series III Sovereign when I fixed the cowbells. I think the foam cushion material on the flaps is simply headliner material repurposed to save money !
I believe they scraped the foam off the part not on the door to expose the cloth before using contact cement to glue it to the small angle piece that is riveted to the tray. I used separate pieces of cloth & foam when redoing mine. Also make note of the huge thickness of putty / goop at each end of the tray to seal it to the underside of the parcel shelf. On refitting you may want to test fit the tray and measure the gap around all the edges to pick the different thicknesses needed to prevent leaks. I don't have any good pictures but when installed the trough area behind the flaps is open to the holes in the rear boot lid gutter which allows the air to be sucked away. The problem is if leaves etc clog the gutter ( or the car is parked nose down ) the water pours in bringing debris to clog the small drain tubes causing water leaks in the boot. Hope this helps even though yours is a Series II I think it's very similar.
Cheers,
Brian
Rear tray as removed, top trough is where air goes from cabin to exit around boot lid. Notice thicker foam on top of divider as well as pile of gray putty on each end to seal the gaps when installed.
Rear tray, vent openings with flaps removed ( along with the dead spiders ! )
Vent flap as removed, I think the rubber buttons at the top were added trying to stop the noise after the foam left Nice try but useless !
Inside facing side of flat, should have foam on door area.
Restored flap, new cloth, foam strip along bottom to stop opening noise, foam on inside side to stop closing noise.
Vent flap inside side showing foam.
Vent flap riveted back into place. No foam or sealant on tray yet.
One of the two cabin to boot vents before restoring, same design ! Foam disintegrates adding even more "cowbell" !
One last observation, the drains are only for the trough at the rear so if they clog, water pours inside to the large pan area causing rust and other mayhem ! The drain hoses exit inside each rear wheel if anyone wants to clean them without dropping the pan by using a small wire or string trimmer line ( my method ).
Thank you - super helpful. I wasn't sure how the flaps were attached but now I understand. It looks like the S2 and S3 are very similar in this area.
One question for you about the "One of the two cabin to boot vents" - where are those located? I'm guessing that's unique to the S3 as I don't see them on my car.
The cabin to boot vents on a Series III are on the metal frame behind the rear seat.
I'll try to post a picture tomorrow, I've only owned & worked on the 3's.
Here are two more Series III pictures, one showing the holes in the front side of the boot rain gutter to allow air to exit the cabin from the rear parcel shelf vent / tray ( and water etc to pour in if leaves etc clog the gutter ).
The last shows the boot with everything removed. The center square hole is for the sunroof motor, the two round holes on either side are for the plastic cabin to boot vents, and the big hole above is where the parcel shelf hump / vents into the tray when everything is installed.
While I wait for the paint to dry on the cabin exhaust pan, I started looking at a potential blower fan for the rear AC unit. Amazon had this knock-off of a Spal HVAC blower fan. You can see in this picture I already started modifying the wire harness on the fan. It came with a resistor pack to allow a standard low - medium - high fan setting but I just want access to the high speed wire because...
I want something better. Below is a pulse-width modulated motor controller that is rated for 40 amps. You hook up two wires to the + and - power source and two wires to a brushed motor. It comes with a switch to reverse direction (which I won't be using), a potentiometer to control how fast the motor spins (which I will be using), and a display that shows the output % (which I won't be using). I used one of these on the power feed for my milling machine and it works very well, is easy to use, and is not expensive.
I tested it out and it works exactly as I expected it to.
that were the right size and weight to act as flaps. Being aluminum I don't need to worry about them rusting.
I picked up some 1/32" weather resistant EPDM rubber to act as the hinge and seal. I picked up some 1/16" rubber but I felt it was too stiff of a hinge. I glued the aluminum to strips of rubber.
I then folded the rubber over itself, punched holes through both layers, and had a flap.
I need to pick up some soft foam to cushion the flap and deaden the noise but this should work well. At least better than the duct taped holes I started out with
Not much. I know it's not a scientific measurement but it will open with anything more than a moderate puff. The 1/16" thick rubber would have required too much effort to open IMO.
For comparison, it looks like the S2 has the same vents located just in front of the trunk opening...
And the same hole in the parcel shelf...
But the S2 does not have the vents in the bulkhead behind the rear seat...
Sorry I'm late, dodging scuds here...
On my Series 2, most of the cabin ventilation exhaust is purged through these reverse scoops in the trunk floor.:
You can see how much "Dust" is removed from the car through these.
That valance is BLACK and not that dirty otherwise!
These open holes into the trunk are another reason I don't take this car out in the rain.
(';')
Far too well done to be PO installed (unless done by Thomas, but he'd have done a better job.).
Actually, I'm only the 3rd owner. First/original owner was, by all accounts quite a twit.
2nd owner, fella from whom I bought her, wasn't into that sort of thing, concentrated on Paint and Interior upgrades; all leather and wool carpet/headliner instead of vinyl.
Cosmetic as opposed to function. Well, except for the Chevy installation.
So, I'm going out on a limb and say they're OEM.
(';')
Interesting. My S2 has the holes right near the spare tire but they don't have the cover/hood like yours. I bought sealing plugs but left them open in case there were any fuel vapors that needed to be vented.
The XJS of this era had a 90° hollow tubular plug that fitted into the holes that went rearwards, making an exit path for air thus extracting fumes from the boot (trunk) as the low pressure area behind the open end was created as the car went along. I have just spent an irretrievable 10 mins looking for a part number on JCP with no luck, but photo here:
Blue ring shows the OEM blanking plugs, the red ring shows one of the extractor plugs which are situated in the lowest part of the boot where the spare wheel indent is.
The weather in Chicago has made it tough for me to get motivated to go out in the garage, but this morning I found my mojo, cranked up the garage heater, and turned on some music. First up was lining the edges of the exhaust extractor pan with butyl rubber and bolting that back under the parcel shelf in the trunk. After that I reinstalled the battery. I also think I decided to omit the rear AC unit as I didn't want to cut any more holes in the car for something that wasn't truly needed.
I did decide that the rear cage plate under the differential had probably seen better days. Moss sells a new one for $125 which isn't that bad, but I wanted something a little stronger than stock since I always lift the rear of the car from there. After 51 years of use and abuse the plate has seen better days. So I pulled it off the car, cleaned it up, grabbed a ruler and a pair of calipers, and brought it into my office under the watchful eye of Ava.
After two hours of measuring and remembering how to use Autodesk Fusion, I felt comfortable enough with my work to finalize the sketch. The biggest change was making the holes for the grease zerks bigger and longer.
After double checking my work I sent the design to SendCutSend and asked them to cut a proof out of .048" steel so I could make sure it works. If no adjustments are needed I'll have them cut another one from 1/8" steel and bolt that up to the car.
That looks nice! The bigger access holes will certainly help. I might like one of those in 3/8 aluminum, maybe 1/2"? Would want it to jack up the car without bending, although with a good wood block 3/8 would be ok. Thoughts?
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