Hello XJSers!

Today I bring to you more fun and joy of working on the XJS. The topic is changing the power steering hoses. I can get to the hoses at the power steering radiator (you DID know that your power steering has its own cute little radiator, right?), the ones at the power steering pump. The ones at the rack and pinion...uh...not so much. I made a video to show you the problem!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qwC...ature=youtu.be

I have the impression I have to either lift the engine or lower the power steering rack. Lifting the engine is not an option, sorry to say. Lowering the rack may be an option, as the car is currently off the ground and I can access the rack from underneath. Perhaps there is another way that I haven't thought of.

If it is lowering the rack...how the heck do I do that? I looked and looked and can't figure out what exactly is holding it up aside from the two bolts on either side. It looks like it should swing down somehow, don't know what to loosen to do that.

Thank you in advance!

 

Eskr,

Just a question that may help, why do you rule out lifting the engine? I don't think you have to lift it all that much to get to the connections you are trying to reach, and you probably have everything you already need.

Take a look at the attached photo. The hoses go back behind the exhaust down pipe, which, while not fun to take off, it's an impossible task either. If you unbolt the down pipe from the manifold, you can then jack up the engine with a piece of wood and the jack that came with the car (you'll need to unbolt the engine mounts first of course...just one nut on each side).

As far as dropping the power steering rack, I've not done it so don't know anything about it. It may be that doing so is easier than I've described above.

Good luck with it,

John
1987 XJ-S V12
63,000 miles

 

Besides the three rack mounting bolts you'll have to disconnect the rack from the steering column shaft. A little tricky.

There's a pinch bolt at the rack-column coupling. If you turn the steering to exactly the right spot you can reach the pich bolt thru the fenderwell (wheel removed, of course) with a long extension. The back-up wrench on the other side of the pinch bolt is the really tricky part. I can't quite remeber what I dreamed up there but I must've McGuyver'd something.

With the pinch bolt removed the rack-column coupling can be separated (some prying might be needed) and the rack will then drop down several inches

I made a mistake in trying to fit a "updated design" pressure hose. Didn't fit well at all; lots of extra grief. I should've just taken my old hose to the hose-maker-upper shop and had it duplicated.

Good luck. This is not an especially pleasant job

Cheers
DD

 

Hi all,

I think I might try what JCR suggested for my first go. I do have a 4 ton carjack that's been looking for something hefty to lift. If I can get it up just a few inches, I think that I can manage to get to the hoses. Not sure where the motor mount bolts are, though. One on each side, where abouts?

If that doesn't work, I will try Doug's way. I was wondering how I'm supposed to get to the pinch bolt, to be honest.

I just wish I had a video of how this car was assembled. It would give me great insight as to how to get to things and change them.

 

Find attached a photo of one of the motor mounts. This one is on the RH side, but look directly opposite it and you'll see the LH side one.

In my earlier photo you can see it, with the bolt off, halfway between the center and lower left hand side of the photo.

I'm sure your jack will work fine, but remember you are just lifting the engine and some of the weight of the tranny...I done it a few times with the jack that comes with the car with no problem. You'll want to get a good sized piece of wood that will cover all of the oil pan, then (after undoing the motor mount bolts and the nuts that hold the downpipes onto the exhaust manifolds of course) you'll center the jack and start cranking. I don't know how far you'll have to go to get to what you need.

After I got mine the height I wanted, I took off the motor mounts (one nut and bolt each) and stuck some sturdy 2x4's where the mounts were, then took the pressure off the jack/oil pan assembly.

Oh, since your are doing this, it's a good time to replace the motor mounts. Mine looked ok, but they were 25 years old. New ones are inexpensive and easy to swap of you've got the engine elevated anyway.

Have fun with it!

John

1987 XJ-S V12
63,000 miles

 

Hi there,

I bought my jag and it had a rack leak. So last fall (end of September or so) I took it upon myself to find a rack at a good price, remove the old one and install the new one. I managed to do it. Like someone said earlier, the biggest pain is getting the steering column loose. I took out my driver's seat so that i could lay down upside down in the foot well. Got to it from inside the car and released the bolts that connected it to the rack.

On the outside and under the car, I took the bolts holding the rack in place out and removed the tie rod ends the rack dropped out with ease. Since you aren't replacing the rack, you may not have to release the tie rod ends, but the connections on the rack lines are difficult to get. The return hose is out front, but very close to the pressure hose and thus hard to reach by just releasing the upper bolts that hold it in.

I had a very hard time getting the connections to catch in both the pressure hose into the rack and at the back of the pump. Not sure why, but took a whole afternoon just fiddling to get it connected.

Once the hoses were in, the rack went back in and again the biggest pain was getting the steering column connected.

My steering wheel was a bit off center, but the alignment guy put it right for me. It works fine since.

The only word of caution I have to say is that I started this in late September and it kept me busy tinkering around with it in my free time until November. I am NOT a professional mechanic and have a very small tool supply. I managed to get it done, however.

Good luck, let me know how it goes.

Tony in New Mexico

 

Hi,
I just finished replacing the high and low PS hoses. Not easy, but the hardest part was refitting the end pieces. See the thread of mine not long ago for more detail. The thing that made it easy was taking the 3 bolts out of the rack, then it just rolls down far enough to reach the fittings from inside, of course the car was on a lift. The high pressure hose went right in, you've got to get it started by hand. Taking the low pressure hose apart, then attaching a well greased hose with long pliers, and, the clamp with long screwdriver helped immensely. If I did it, you can too.

 

I want to purchase this car but it has a problem with starting but wont stay running has to wait to restart again

 

hey this car has been setting for 4 year but was cranked every now a then went to change water hoses that when it started acting up wont stay start

 

Hey gthawk,


That's what I ended up doing. I cleaned the whole area while I was down there, too. And you are right about the hoses not going right into the rack and pinion, I started to wonder if they were actually the right size! Eventually they went in, and it took about 30 minutes to bolt them in. There's so little room, that I had to turn them about 1/8 or less, flip my wrench over, and turn it again!


I also discovered that I was missing about half of my exhaust nuts, so my exhaust was leaking into the motor area. As I said, and in all, not too hard, just had to be patient (very patient) and get through it.

 

Eskr,
That's great. Glad that helped you! I am new to XJS,s, and, am learning while I go. Next, I need to replace the rear calipers, and, will be ready to drive the car. This job may be the toughest one.

 

Dear gthawk1,


My condolences in hearing that you are to replace the rear calipers on your 89 XJS. While I am myself not yet close to being finished in this undertaking, I assure you that there will be much frustration and possibly some blood involved. If I were to recommend anything, it would be to have ready ample band-aids, your favored beverage (alcohol in nature highly recommended), a cell phone, and a spare vehicle for which to remind yourself that you do not "need" the Jaguar (as in, it is a "want" that most of us are willing to be hurt by, both physically and financially). While you are in the throes of gnashing your teeth and cursing all engineers of the XJS, may I also advise that you add to your frustrations the following:


1. replace the discs if they are even looking slightly outdated. If you decide not to, please be aware that you will have to remove said calipers, hand brake, and a slew of other merry other structures merely to take them off later.
2. clean and lubricate well your hand brakes. I repeat, as this is important: clean and lubricate well your hand brakes. Morris, my XJS, decided to lock one of the halves up, and it started to cut into one of the hand brake "calipers". Not too badly, I caught it before it did any serious damage. The disc got ruined, but the disc was old anyway and needed replacing.
3. replace any old and/or worn out bushings. I shall admit I will not be doing this, as my do look good and in shape at this time.
4. reapply rust-retardant paint and/or undercoating to the underside of the car where needed. Unlike the upper paint job, the underside is oft not pretty, and years of wear have possibly worn away the old stuff. Your application itself does not have to look esquisite, as it is more important to give the undercarriage protection than to lift the car and have friends admire. However, any rust spots should be taken care of accordingly and not simply covered over.


I am certain there are other jobs that can be done whilst you are involved in this procedure. These are merely the ones that I am making certain of to take care of. I wish you the best of luck. May the winds be at your back and the sun upon your face.

 

I did buy this car it cranks runs for 3to4 minute then dies wait few minute later do the same . I notice there are no fire at the distrubitor or coils after it cranks and dies PLEASE HELP

 

There is only access to remove the rack using open end wrenches. If you have gear wrenches then all the power to you.

One of the bolts/nuts is accessed by removing the drivers side wheel and using a long extension.

It is a pain but no way more of a pain and dealing with unbolting the engine, dismantling the exhaust, getting a lift over it, etc.

The worst part is getting the fittings on the PS lines at the correct angle to reinstall.

It is an annoying fiddly job having your hands up and running out of blood constantly, but it is totally doable

 

Everyone is ignoring you because you just started randomly posting in someone elses thread. Please make a proper thread asking about this.

it sounds like your ignition amplifier is overheating