Lol thanks.

So when I went back and measured I was over the full line. So sucked 1 litre back out. I'm right at the full line now on the cold marks. After dinner and a game of crib I'm going to go run the car for 10 minutes, the cycle through the gears, then measure the hot side. If it's good then I'll try to move it again. At least now with the brakes not hold the car me and the wife can push it instead of having to use the ford edge to lol.

If I cant move it next step is to change the filter. It could be clogged from sitting for almost 5 years. I'll pick one up monday.

after that if I still cant get it to go into any gear I'm not sure what my next step will be. Fingers crossed.

 

**** ya boys! It moved! I let it run for 10 minutes then cycled through the gears. Its goes into the gears rough but that will get fixed over time.

So stooked. I'm having some drinks now.

When moving it man it was hard to stop it with just the front brakes. Luckily I had no problems

So now its back in the garage facing nose in and over further and straight. Next thing I'm gonna do is now that I can move it is pull it out and clean the engine bay. Get rid of as much garbage as I can.

 

Thats great, well done.... it moves under it own steam!
Cant wait to see the progress of the engine bay, its on my list but some ways off.
Planning to gather parts for cam cover change and a good old fashioned clean.

 

I just took the vacuum and small brush around to suck up the loose stuff. I think I'll keep the deep cleaning to when I start working on the engine.

I'm basically ready now to remove the rear cage.

I'll be pulling the rear cage out from the side.

I do have a question

how high should i lift the rear end to pull it out the side?

Also do I need to lift the front end up at all? Would rather not if I dont have too. And if I have too does it have to be as high as the rear?

I'm sure I'll have more questions. I have Greg's list oh how to remove and also OBs pictures and tips.

HAPPY Easter everyone.

 

Great looking local Xjs still hunting for my own V12, your doing an excellent job.

 

Not all that high, really. And no need to lift the front....although when time comes for re-installation it might be helpful (but not essential) to level the car by lifting the front.

The pics shows the cage out of my Series III sedan, just to give you some frame of reference. I wanna say the point on the under body where the jack stand sits is 12"-15" higher than normal. The under body is very similar on the XJS




Cheers
DD

 

Hahahaha... You the Man!!! Good show Sir! Good show!

Same here in the beginning with the brakes on mine, just fronts. More than that, my idle was high and I had lots to sort out with how much air she was taking - throttles AAV and linkage... The idle had a huge impact on how she went into gear, and such, too... You're good, and so is the car! You'll have all this smooothed out in no time, I'm sure!

Good stuff!

 

Metal - thanks. It takes better pictures lol. Its covered and dust lol.

Doug - I have 2 6 tonne stands that start at 15inchs high. I have been using them at the front and my 3 tonnes at the back but I'll be using the 6 tonnes at the rear

jay - ya my engine runs but its rough. Shifts rough etc lol. After the rear end it will be engine time!.

 

Well back to the work schedule.

I made a checklist using various resources in these forums and elsewhere to follow for the cage removal.

Also found someone to lend me a motorcycle lift to use. Easier than using a single jack I think. Its rated for 1500lbs so should be enough. I'll be picking it up today.

Its chilly today. High of 6C today.

I'm going to just removed the speed sensor wire like OB did in his build thread.

Then I'm going to try and undo the rear exhaust. I may end up just cutting it off with a reciprocating saw if it does not want to play properly. I'm not going to go with an over the axle exhaust anyways so not a concern if I have to cut it.

Once that's done I'll spray every bolt/nut with some PB Blaster and let it soak overnight.

Suppose to be a shitty kinda week weather wise so it might slow me down a bit.

I'm going to go slow with the removal so I can take pics and make a step by step guide. Yes I know there are guides out there but I'm combining them all sort of because some have pics but not details like size of sockets used etc. While others have all those details but no good pics. Hopefully it will help someone in the future.

Cheers

 

We had snow/cold today so didnt even bother going into the garage. Suppose to start getting warmer again.

 

Well its sunny but -4 C lol.

Anyone know if when removing the rear cage if I undo the torsion bars first will it matter? I want to use the motorcycle jack but i cant get it through the wheel well as the top of it just touches the torsion bar. So wondering if I can pop those off at any point?

 

By "torsion" do you mean the trailing arms? If so, yes, remove them now,,, and be prepared. Start spraying some sort of rust buster on the area where the cup/cone goes to the underbody of the car, now. I guess some folks leave the the cup/cone section when lowering the cage/axle and undo the arm at the axle end,,, but you're going to want to remove and service those at some point, might as well be now...? They can be tough!

 

Yes trailing arms. Coffee hasnt kicked in yet lol.

I actually already loosened the bolts so I could swivel the safety strap out of way for the jack stands the rear end of the car is in much better shape and most bolts I have dealt with have come out with only a little muscle. So I'm gonna go crank the heat in the garage and start tinkering. I can working with the door closed but I like all the natural light I get. Maybe after noon I'll open the door.

Thanks

 

Yeah, it wasn't the bolts so much that I struggled with. The trailing arms on the body side are fastened with a bolt BUT, (and there's always a buttt) the arm end has a designed CUP in its end that is received by a cone shaped protrusion designed into the body of the underside of the car. You see it. It's the cone fitting that usually gets stuck and it's not always or only rust. It's the FIT. It's a very tight fit by design and the torquing of the bolt at the factory or in work done post factory, kinda crushes the cone to the cup, then some rust preventative, then some grime, then the press fit. It can be tough... Many folks use something like this to break it free, and heat.

I hope you're LUCKY and it just drops. Might wanna order a new set of the bushings that go into the section of the cone, cup trailing arm to body, now - ahead of time...

​​​​

 

Oh ya all the bushings are gonna be replaced. I know those ones are cracked and brittle already.

 

Rescue, find the small line round the cup/chassis join that indicates where the top edge of the (female) cup on the arm fits up to the (male) cup on the chassis. Get a cold chisel and a lump hammer and WHACK that join and after a few goes it will pop off. A HARD whack, mind.
FYI: Removing the other end on the lower wishbone arm requires the shock absorber bottom pin to be removed, and you will find it is held in place by a bolt with a flat cut off one side of the hex, this is to enable the bolt to be withdrawn, once undone, past the shock absorber guide tube in the wishbone. This bolt also ha a special star-shaped locking washer that has to be bent back from its locking position to undo the bolt. The photo shows the area, and the star washer before it was locked down. This end of the arm must NOT be tightened until the weight is back on the wheels.

 

thanks for the pic and info.

Just taking a lunch break. Got the emergency cable undone, exhaust bolts all out (the actually came out fairly easy).

After lunch I'm gonna take off the drive shaft, abs sensors, and the trail arms at the front. I think that's it. then the 8 bolts are only thing left.

 

I did NOT know that, and don't remember what I did here...
Thanks for that...

On my XK8 I tightened lower control arm bushings while the car was still jacked up... I'm paying for that now. 😏

 

Well got everything else off. Just need to do the arms to come off and undo the bolts.

Those arms are gonna be a bitch I can tell by the way they were looking at me.

 

Well after dinner I got a burst of energy. After reading a tip about 2x4 and a hammer.. this is the result.




Ready to drop tomorrow. Only took about 4 hrs to get to this point. And it was a lot of hand wrenching and taking pics and stopping for a drink etc etc.