One would think these cars were a common occurrence. Great to see kossevv also undertaking the process. I'm sure we will be able to help each other, as well as leverage the forum.

Our restoration is being done by myself and @smgdata, a fellow Jaguar V12 enthusiast and forum member.

Our car came from Ohio. History was 3 owner car. First owner was Jaguar dealer, second was an enthusiast who didn't do any spanner work himself, but the invoices and history we have shows this was a no expense spared type of guy...... ie "remove engine to fix oil leaks", "6 hours to detail engine", etc. This owner also undertook a full baremetal respray in 1990, and that paint is still on the car today and is perfectly serviceable. The third owner used the car sparingly and finally stored it around 2000. The car was fully running when it was stored, and it was nicely dry stored. This meant that the car I found was in very good order. Paint as described above. Interior 8/10. It has had new door cards made, new headliner. Dash top is original and uncracked. Glass and seals are all good. Dash wood has lacquer cracking (will be replaced with a new panel already bought)

Once the car arrived in California, a tank drain and filter change was done. Fuel pump was hit with a hammer. Plugs were removed, oil added to cylinder walls and let sit. Turned over on starter. Refitted new plugs, changed engine oil, hit Manifold Pressure Sensor with hammer, and it started.

We have been fettling with various things on the engine and currently the car starts and runs very nicely. We have the cold start injectors disconnected as per Grants suggestion, and with a good push of the gas pedal, it starts fine. The one time we drove it we seemed to suffer from fuel starvation problems, but it wasn't consistent.

We are only using one tank currently as we haven't touched the other tank yet, and we know the switchover valves are both stuck and will need to be replaced.

The biggest nasty surprise so far with the car is the state of the rear cage, which is a mess. The exhausts are also shot. The previous owner told me the car was only driven in rain/snow once, and after that, he steam cleaned the bottom of the car and also the engine bay. The result of that was the car didn't run afterwards and had to be towed away to be dried out. Unfortunately, it appears he didn't properly clean up and around the rear cage and corrosion has set in. Its not a show stopper as a rear cage swap is not prohibitive. The rest of the car (floors, rocker covers, under the rear fenders) is good enough for now...... original, no holes., some surface rust that will have to be treated.

This weekend we are going to attempt the following :

1. Replace steering rack (existing is completely shot)

2. Replace front brakes (flexi, disc, pad, caliper)

3. Fit Transmission link and properly adjust (currently its a bit of a lottery what gear its actually in)

4. Fit new tires (round ones instead of the current 20 year old square ones)

We will replace the fuel pressure regulators, fit the ReOpus system as well as the 4 wire Fuel Trigger Board to start off on the best footing we can. When we last drove the car, when it wasn't seemingly fuel starved the engine felt very good so I think we have a good chance to get to a very good car.

We will have 2 fuel pressure gauges, one per fuel rail, as well as an oscilloscope to monitor fuel pulse width, so we should be able to see most things as we drive.

The current questions we are considering are :

1. New fuel tanks or not ?

2. Replace the racetrack fuel rail with a later rail.

We will keep this thread updated as we progress. I'm sure we will be asking a lot of questions. We have gotten this far using this forum, so charting our progress is our way of saying thanks to all!

 

Sarc, this is so awesome! Post photos often to keep me inspired! My new fuel tanks should be arriving sometime next week and we'll go from there. Per advise from other members I ordered new ones from eBay, the Spectra brand. A lot of people seem to be happy with them.

While meeting with an upholstery shop today that's going to redo my Ferrari, he had an E type. I showed him some photos of the interior on the XJC and he told me to budget $6000-$8000. BOOOO but that was expected!

So what's the plan when you finish the car, are you keeping it or will you be selling it?

Veso

 

We used to call that Percussive Adjustment. Works wonders for one's frustration level too.

I will be following this thread with great interest.
(';')

 

if the tanks are not leaking, just drain them removing the small 13mm bolt, then remove the large 22mm bolt which has the mesh filters attached and clean them. BUT: have two new rubber seals in advance!

 

Yowee!

Got my Malware protection installed here. Applied the leave it alone technique after the effort the other day failed. worked this time.

Percussion maintenace. Yup, used from time to time in vrious degrees and with vartous tools. Fist, foot with shoes on, rubber hammer, steel BFH's. I've several hammers on my bench of varius weights and shapes. Not to mention the sledge in the corner.

Ever watch NCIS ? Gibbs, the lead uses the technique on Denozo, the senior. Head slap.

As a football fan of long standing, I recall star defense tackle, Deacon Jones. His first move was a healthy head slap on the other player facing him. Banned nowadays.

A tie back, my Jeep's starter faied to crank. I whacked ot with my "staff". Something along Friar Tuck's weapon1 It got the messagre and the engine started and I got home. It's last gasp....

Carl

 

Yes, even just adding the price of the pieces it gets pretty scary. I have had success with these guys.... Jaguar XJ6 1968 on Leather Seat Covers | eBay I used them for my XJS seats, which I recovered myself. A good interior was one of the strong points the Ohio 12C had......... the interior is actually dark blue........ the only issue is the dash wood, which we have already sourced a new part for.

 

we ran into a snag today removing the rack. the top Bolt would not clear the engine sump. sarc took a rotary tool and is cutting it out. can anyone confirm that the top bolt gets taken out towards the engine? when it gets put back together we were thinking of putting the nut on the engine side instead. with a nice new set of poly bushings.


i'm 100% for the later HE fuel rail and ditching those coldstart injectors.

so far the engine is running beautifully. "on one tank with pump Hose directly into left tank" we found out when you have it on idol you can adjust the rotary knob on the Ecu in the trunk and now it idles perfectly.

 

Issue :: Steering rack leaking power steering fluid from every possible orifice

Solution :: New steering rack, polyurethane bushings and tie rod ends

Status Update :: Steering Rack removed from car.

Snags :: One of the 3 bolts that hold the rack on was in the wrong way, meaning it came out towards the engine block and there was no way we could make it clear. A cheap Chinese rotary tool was killed trying to cut the head off the bolt before the Dremel 4000 showed up with a cutting wheel and went through the bolt like a knife through butter.

Tips/Lessons learned :: The bolts that hold the steering column splines together have to be completely removed to enable the splines to separate, as there is a channel cut in the spline, which the bolt goes through. (See the pictures) We also chose to disconnect the steering column at the spline inside the car just before the column goes through the bulkhead, rather than trying to undo the bolt on the spline just on top of the rack as it was much easier to get to the one at the bulkhead.

 

Oh yeah, that sounds familiar....
Very nice labels on your pictures. Leaves no question what one is looking at.
(';')

 

Today was front brakes. We replaced flexis, brakelines, discs, calipers and pads........

Not much in the way of learning, just liberal amounts of penetrating oil the night before and everything came off ok.

Next is belts and repairing the currently seized SMOG pump, because of course with a 76 car in California, we get the privilege of having to get a SMOG check done... fabulous

 

The SMOG pumps are not worth the effort to repair. Very generic and inexpensive. The one that came with the 4.2 that formerly resided in my 83 S3 was exactly like the one that seized in my 79 IHC Scout II 4x4. CAVEAT, keep your pulley when you turn in the seized one as the core.


If you are extremely lucky, a dose of ATF thinned with acetone might free it???


One fellow removed his and skillfully hid all traces of it ever existing.
got by the SMOG tech!! Car passed.


Further SMOG idiocy. My Lump came up for SMOG in October. A young pre tech told me that my car had failed the "snap throttle" test and would likely fail the sniffer. A new BAR idea???? I theorize the idea is to create a high vacuum and see if the car will smoke a bit.


Off to another shop. no such test. Techs loved my car. Cadillac LT1 and 4L60E power. decent install done by me. Passed with flying colors!!!


Carl

 

I managed to get the pump apart and freed, but unfortunately, the bearings are too far gone. A new one is on the way. As you said Carl, not an exotic part.... seems to fit many, many cars. While messing around with the SMOG pump I did manage to change all 4 belts, so thats another thing ticked off the list.

 

This weekend was fitting the new smog pump and changing all of the belts (4 on this car)

Also managed to fit remote central locking. Extremely easy as there is the switch in the center console so it's very easy to tap into that.

We finally got the transmission selector adjusted properly so the car goes into Park properly.

Tomorrow is refitting of the steering rack and bleeding the brakes, then maybe a quick blast around the block again :-)

 

Um, the first chance you get, you might want to check that the door solenoids haven't stiffened up so the locks don't work.

They seem to get lazy when they haven't cycled for a while.

You could ask me how I know but I don't think you'll have to.
(';')

 

Everything is working fine...... both from the switch in the console and from the remotes, yay!

 

Exercise, oh yeah. good for electrics and mechanicals on many things.


Did a lot of it swapping out the flush mechanism in one of my toilets, AKA "loos".


Could've laid on the floor to do the underside. Not good at that any more. So sat on the seat, lid down, of course, and worked semi blind.


Two crescent wrenches and a pair of old tech pliers got the pipe out at last. Good thing it was plastic and somewhat corrosion free!!


Inspection helped in the open. Enlisted a deep socket from my impacts. It and an extension plus a Snap On rachet wrench and whizz, back in with the new..


It flushes nicely. Used a ton of tools.


Lessons restated:


Exercise benefits, things mechanical, electrical and human!!!


Sore shoulders, though!!



Carl

 

Just to complete the remote central locking info..... here are a few pictures showing the install.

This was the unit I used...... less than $20 with free shipping, hard to beat.
The unit needs +12V ignition (which you get from the central locking switch). You also have to connect the orange and orange/black wires of the unit to +12V ignition, so in fact you have 3 wires connected to the +12V ignition wire
Ground (I connected to a bolt that holds the gear selector cover in place)
"Lock" Which gets connected to one of the other wires on the central locking switch
"Unlock" which gets connected to the final wire on the central locking switch

The pictures show you the location and wiring. The control unit tcukes nicely underneath the console out of the way. I was careful to route the wiring loom around where the ashtray sits once the ski slope is back on.

 

Next is the distributor and ignition module.

The plan for the distributor is to remove it from the car and check vacuum and mechanical advance functionality, then change the opus ignition pick up as well as fit the 4 wire FI trigger board.

With the cap off, I was surprised to find that the mechanical advance appears to be working. What I was expecting was easy movement of the rotor about 10 degrees in the anticlockwise direction, accompanied by a sharp snapping back when you let go...... I'd be interested in getting feedback on whether the video supports a working mechanical advance....


Upon removing the FI trigger board, it became pretty apparent that there was no vacuum advance going on at all, as the sensor carrier was seized solid to the shaft. I had heard of the mess looking like someone had put wood varnish on the shaft, and this was a very good description of what it actually looked like. Also the vacuum capsule was dead, so that has stopped work for the moment until I can get a new one ordered.

I'd welcome any recommendations on what type of grease/lubricant I should use when reassembling the sensor carrier to prevent it from getting stuck again.

The new 4 wire FI trigger board is shown in comparison pictures to the old one, as well as the rotor arm which has to be changed also.

After some discussion on this board, I had decided to go for the REOPUS ignition system instead of the CRANE system. Although the REOPUS was more expensive, I liked that fact I could fit it in the original box, and that the sensor inside the distributor was a direct replacement fit. There are "Before" and "After" pics of the Ignition box. Its amazing the original was still working. When I was taking the old board out, it cracked and crumbled in my hands. On the new REOPUS board there are 2 LEDs which indicate various states on the board. I decided I'd quite like to see these even after the module was back in the car so drilled 2 holes in the side of the module casing and carefully bent the LEDs so they pointed off the sides of the REOPUS board and out through the holes.

Thats it for now.... now its parts ordering time, especially the vacuum advance capsule

 

Remote locking is perhaps the Most handy mod ever invented!
(';')

 

Good work!

This will be a nice thread to stash away when I get to my V12.