Hey folks,

My latest trouble with the Jag is that when I pull the driver's side door handle, the door does not open, and there is no tension in the handle when being pulled. I'm guessing a spring or something came loose. Anyone ever experience this? Thanks.

 

Almost certainly a linkage rod has come undone. Remove the door trim for a look-see.

Cheers
DD

 

Agreed the linkage probably came undone. The facelift XJS handles are like the series 3 XJ6 handles, right? The spring inside them does apply tension in order to return them to position but a lot of the resistance you feel is from the linkage.

 

I had the same problem with my '94. It was a linkage problem but so far resolved (I hope).
After removing the door card, I could see where the linkage had separated from the plate attached to the exterior panel. I couldn't tell how it was all supposed to stay together, so I took the passenger side door card off first. Comparing passenger side to driver's side I could see how it's normally assembled, so then I knew what was missing on the offending side. There is a nylon pin which passes through a retainer that is similar to the retainer found on some license plate inserts.

Square in shape, and slit out to the four corners with a hole in the center for the fastener pin. You pop the expanding fastener into a square hole (with the linkage attached) into the outer latch plate. The fastener then expands the insert to grip all 'round it's exterior.
Unfortunately, as time progresses, that nylon pin no longer transmits sufficient outward pressure to stay captured in the insert. Apparently what happens is the act of closing the door with hubris, launches the pin from the insert when the door abruptly stops at the latch plate. That nylon pin lands down at the bottom of the door.
So look to see if the door latch actuating rod is truly floating free of the outer door plate. If so, try to run your hand along the bottom of the door. I was able to get my hand in there after peeling back a rubbery sort of sealing card that ls affixed at the bottom of the door behind the card. Of course you have to use just two fingers to find, then retrieve the pin. It will surely take several attempts. This was likely planned out to be a hidden frustration by some diabolical Jaguar Engineer who sympathized with the unions.
(Editorial conjecture on my part)
I found that I could re-insert the pin through the linkage and into the retainer using a pair of very long handled needle nose pliers. Unfortunately, the pin kept popping out with each door close.
Very Frustrating. The only way that I could see to fix the problem was to put a dabof pre-mixed epoxy on just the back side end of that damned pin, since you don't want to get the epoxy on the barrel of the pin, thence onto the inside surface of the insert. I wanted to avoid affecting the ability of the linkage to pivot, yet still capture that pin so it wouldn't fly out. Next, re-inserted the retainer back into the square hole in the outer latch plate. Once I got the linkage and pin married up, I was able to push the pin and linkage into the retainer. I reached up behind with a slender popsicle stick with an additional dab if epoxy and added it to the back of the pin. (You might want to use an inspection mirror to look behind to see how the pin fits into position before adding epoxy and making the final assembly).
I carefully worked the door latch from the outside while holding pressure against the pin with a pencil eraser in such a way as to avoid disturbing the inserted positioning of that damned pin, preventing it from rotating and smearing any of the epoxy. Then walked away from the thing with my fingers crossed to let the epoxy set up overnight.

The quick set epoxy "sets up" in a short period of time, but it doesn't reach its final strength for many hours, so you have to trust in the gods and be patient. Better to have a cold beer, get a good night's sleep and check your work the next day.

I'm sorry that this was such a long post, but it took me awhile to arrive at a strategy that I thought might work. There's little chance of finding a "breaker" in New Hampshire where I might find a carcass to get the needed parts, even then, they'd likely be well-worn. As always, your results may vary from mine, but so far, so good,