Instead of hijacking this thread why not start one of your own. Also a little more information would be nice.

 

Thanks for the responses and help. It's almost definitely an Lucas ignition, even though I think there is only one coil, I cant find the one by the radiator. I have the Lucas amplifier right on top of the engine, and the cap and rotor I bought to replace are exactly the same.



I'll try to include a pic of the engine I took before disassembling the distributor cap so you can see where the plastic piece I'm talking about came from, if I can upload it. I'll also include a pic of the engine, hopefully it will look like a Lucas ignition engine.



I do have the Kirby palm book, and am reading the procedure right now. I will do the overhaul this week. I am waiting for for my XJS service manual from amazon, and looking on ordering the distributor service kit if I can find on online today.



I'll be looking into the cold sensor and other suggestions as well, but I'm thinking that the plastic pieces falling into the distributor damaged the internals of the distributor. I also fond the other vacuum line going into the side of the distributor looks to have been blown off, the hose looked exploded, and is really not dry rotted.



Hopefully it will work and I can go for a second drive with better results!

Brent



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The vacuum lines on the distributor are for venting the cap. The little white piece I think you are referring to is the nipple for the vacuum hose to connect to. One hose goes to the manifold and the other hose is open to atmosphere. The end of the open hose has a small filter on it. If that piece was in the distributor while running it may cause some damage. Is the piece mangled? If not it may have fallen off when you removed the cap.

That is a Lucas ignition. The coil in your photo is the original coil. There are 2 of them ]. If one is missing then you will have trouble getting the engine to rev past 4 or 5000 rpm but it will not miss. The small wires on the coil primary also go to the secondary coil. Follow those 2 wire they goes from the front of the engine through the radiator support and out in front of the radiator where the coil is mounted. You can see it looking through the grille.

 

It was pretty much broken into many small pieces.

I did find the second coil up front with your info, not where I thought it was.

Thanks for the help

 

Now you need to test both coils. Measure primary resistance. You need to disconnect the wires from at least one terminal to do it correctly. You can measure the resistance of the aux. coil from the wire at the primary coil. If you find an issue then you need to check it again at the coil terminals to make sure it is not the harness. I just replace my dual coil setup with a single coil. I just bought the Jaguar DAC6093 replacement. There is a big write up in Kirby's book about coil that are suitable replacements. I did not feel the $15-20 savings wasn't worth the hassle of hunting down some replacement.