Hi Jag gurus - I just purchased a 1990 XJS that is pretty well preserved in terms of no rust. The owner kept it in the garage it's entire life. The only problems seem to be electrical. I am trying to sort through it now.
Someone put a new radio in it and used the antenna remote wire as the radio ground. This burned the antenna module. I re-wired the stereo correctly and replaced the module. One problem down. While I was in the center section behind the A/C control on the LH (Driver side) I saw a ground strap not connected. I do not see where this is supposed to go. I assume it is the GP12 grounding point. I am wondering if this is the root to most of the problems.

• When I hit the brakes, the blower motors slow down or go off
• Dash lights dim as well
• Center vents don't blow, defrost and side vents do blow

Any thoughts would be welcome.

I will be rebuilding the entire front end suspension due to a lot of rattles. Any thoughts on beefing up the front end?

This will be a project car for a while I think.

 

That errant earth strap will be involved in those oddities. Where it attaches, no idea, never got that serious with any of mine in that area.

Suspension "beefing up" WHY??? You are not racing it, tracking it, Rally Crossing it.

I have stayed OE with Metalastic bushings all my life, and we had, and still have, some terrible excuses for roads, many still unsealed, and never had issues.

 

Hi Grant,

Thanks for the reply. I will try to find the ground point, or other connection point for this strap this weekend.

Metalastic? I assume that is the OEM supplier for the Buschings? I was thinking the springs and struts mostly. I know all the Buschings need to be replaced as well as the ball joints. This is a 33 year old car and the front end seems very loose and rattles. I am awaiting a set of Quick jacks lifts to come so I can lift her up to see what I am getting into.

Any suggestions on best "comfort" struts to look into?

 

Springs, NEVER replaced any on all the Jags I hav eowned and driven HARD.

Shockers, I run Gabriel Gas, suits me and our conditions well. Others in your market will have their favourites, BUT, the car requires nothing fancy to do what it does best.

33 years old HAHAHA., my 1976 XJ12 @ 760000 kms, is still running the Coventry springs it came with, and a set of 6 Gabriel fitted 20 years ago, still fine.
The 1963 MK10 is still as made apart from shockers, and that "whale" got Bilsteins a looooong time ago.,

I have never been one for messing wirth them. They do what they do precisely, BUT, finding any Classic Jag that is maintained, and set up as designed, is bloody hard. When you do, and drive it "properly" it is a beast of beauty.

Most of your rattles will more than likely be the top shocker bushes. NOT known to last more than 5 years on a Daily Driver (as all mine were). Here I use rubber shocker bushes, from an Aussie Holden, or Ford, cheap as chips, and available anywhere.

 

Going from memory here but working on a few late 80's early 90's xj's I seem to recall the ground strap in that area being attached directly to the back of the stock radio. The stock radio didn't have a separate ground wire running from it to a ground point. When installing an aftermarket radio with it's own ground wire, I used a ring connector to attach that wire to the end of the ground strap.

 

DITTO on Noah's post. I did the same thing when I installed an aftermarket radio in my 88 XJS. I connected the radio ground to the OEM ground strap using a ring connector.

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone.