Just purchased a 1982 XJS HE Here in Kansas City, Missouri. Picked it up pretty cheap due to an issue it was havin. Needless to say, when I saw it online for sale, I fell in love with her. Only problem so far that I have found is that she starts and has a rough idle and wants to die all the time. Sometimes she will idle for a little while. I did notice that the drivers side air intake box has a strong suction and the passenger side can barely hold a piece of paper over the intake hole and can hear what sounds to be an exhaust leak under the passenger floorboard. The car sat for a couple of years and the gas tank was removed and cleaned out with a new fuel pump added. The previous owner said he had a guy do a tune up a year ago but the rough idle almost sound like they messed up the firing order. That and the passenger side air intake havin hardly any air movement is where I am at now. Also have 2 blue connectors in front of the distributor, on attached to each fuel rail via zip-ties. No idea what they are for. Connected to nothing.

Thanks for lookin.

 

You must be LHD, in your case the driver's side intake will suck harder as that is where the idle air comes from, the other side will only come into effect once you lift the throttle off idle. Maybe send pics of the wires and where they come from, I'm sure some of the chaps in the know will chime in. As for falling in love over the net, I can relate, same thing happened to me, got her as a non-runner, came down on a flatbed.

 

Congrats on the car. Resign yourself to carefully going through all the major systems and replacing them, and you will have a reliable car. There was a quite recent thread started by another new owner that drew replies that gave much comprehensive advice on hat to do and how to get the car right and reliable. Anything else than doing this will make you unhappy, doing it will give you a terrific car !
Greg

 

Attached is a pic of the auxiliary air valve, commonly known as the AAV, this attaches to the drivers side manifold at the rear. See that little bolt (half unscrewed) sticking out the AAV? Thats where you adjust the idle, It governs the amount of air allowed into both manifolds. Hence the one manifold sucking harder than the other on idle. These AAV's can also be a cause for grief, they have a little piston in them that varies the amount of bypass air allowed for a cold engine, they often get stuck and you have a high idle. Can be fixed, anyways plenty for now, let us know what you find.

You mentioned bad running. Does it rev up easily? Driven it yet? It may just be low idling... But a few blocked injectors and it will sound pretty ill, the PO of my car said the timing also sounded out, was just blocked injectors.

 

Yeah I saw her on the net, talked to the guy and he said it was hard to start, and once it would start, the idle was bad. Oscillates up and down and very rough. If you try to press the throttle at all, even just a touch, or of you try to put it in gear, it will die instantly.

 

I'll take some pics of the car tomorrow and of the engine. Just put a brand new optima battery in it. 720cca. After a few minutes of running and quite a few restarts. I notice the lightning bolt on the dash lights up. That's a sign of a bad alternator huh?

 

I would also like to know where I can get a repair manual with pictures that have vacuum line locations and electrical so I can find grounds and possible make a new injector harness and so forth. DO they make a chiltons or a Hayes manual for the 82' XJS HE?

 

Not a good choice for these cars....but perhaps better than nothing.

Best to seek out the factory manuals and tech info

In the "how to" sticky thread at the top of this section there's a section called "downloads". Go there and get the S58 Engine performance guide. It'll have a LOT of info that'll help you....although your 1982 might be slightly different here and there.

Also get the S57 wiring guide for the car...which you might find stand-alone or on a CD with other tech info

Also download Kirby Palm's "Experience In A Book".....600 pages of XJS repair info and advice. A great resource

Cheers
DD

 

Oh, I forgot....the S57 Wiring Guide is available right here on site

Go to the XJ6-XJ12 Series I-II-III section and then to the "How To" sticky thread at the top. In there you'll see "Wiring diagram S57 Series III"

That's what you want.

The first 50-60 pages are for the Series III sedan. Scroll down slowly and you'll see where the XJS section begins. It covers '82-'87 XJS.

Cheers
DD

 

Check that the exhaust is clear. Had one like that in the shop, was full of dog food and mice nests. Once cleared, ran fine.

 

Thanks Doug, that's going to come in handy I think.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I have yet to actually jack the car up and look under it. To do that I may just cut the pipe mid car and remove the muffler to do so. At the rear, it is sagging anyway. Unless there is an exhaust flange that I can unbolt that is easily accessible somewhere.

 

There sure is an exhaust flang at the rear, and once you see it, you'll probably see why your exhaust is sagging, a twist and retighten? Worked for me. As for the rough idle, you can check that your injectors are clear and firing, that was the problem on mine, hard to start and preferred to idle... Could also be some of the wiring to the sensors that control the mixture (coolant temp sensor and air temp sensor, locations vary, but they are there, checking the wiring and the ohms is the way to go) plus the throttle position sensor... All pretty easy to go about fixing.

 

Right on. Now to know where this stuff is located. Hence why I was wanting a repair manual lol.

 

Car now runs!!!!!!!!! And strong! I just did some more tinkering and looked at normal american car things. I saw the litte mas air flow sensor on the drivers side airbox inlet and decided to pull it. it was dirty a hell. All I had was Starting fluid, so I sprayed the she-nan-i-gans out of it and replaced it. Thought to myself, this cant be what it is so I went to start it up with glim thoughts. Muh baby purs like a kitten! Slight tic here and there but I think that will runs its self out because it has been setting for a while.

 

Great news!

 

Good news.

Do you have a pic of the widget?

Cheers
DD

 

Ok so after I had it running normally for around 30 minutes while I putted around the parkingh lot of my apartment, I left in my Avalanche to get something to eat and to have my exhaust looked at. A couple of hours later, I came home and wanted to hear muh baby run....... Acting the same rough hard to start way as in the begining.... It has to be something very small to cause an all of the sudden ( no issue) problem.

 

Ok so here are some pictures. The blue connectors to the right of the distributor- have no idea what they are for.

My 1982 XJS next to my 2005 Avalanche.




Blue connectors unknown. And what is the little tubular accordion looking thing for?




The sensor connected to the throttle cable is broken. 1 of the connection tabs are broken off.

 

Looks like a good, clean 'honest' car. Congratulations.

Those blue connectors are probably for the cold start injectors....which were known to give trouble. Jaguar stopped using them in '84 or so.

The accordion thingy is the cruise control servo and bellows assembly.

The 'sensor' on the throttle cable is the transmission kickdown switch. And just FYI, the switch next to the throttle capstan is a fuel injection enrichment switch

Cheers
DD