Spent the day with my kitty. She is now completely reassembled minus the headliner installation but that is ready to go. I just have to get the headliner to the garage where the car is. Shouldn't take more than 20-30 minutes to reinstall the headliner and the trim panels, and the put the sun visors and mirror back on.

At this point I have two gremlins I cannot seem to figure out.

First, the outside mirrors are not working I replaced the drivers side mirror and hooked all the wires back up correctly as well as zip tied the connectors securely together.

Second, the battery is draining itself nearly dead after less than a week sitting in warm weather. It is a new battery. Once I jump start it off my other car everything seems to be fine although it took awhile to recharge today. Hmmmm.......

Looking forward to getting her back on the road. Once the headliner goes in she is off to my friends body shop for a good polishing and a couple of body side molding pop rivets to be replaced. After that she gets an oil change and grease job, new anti-freeze, and the brakes bled.

Assuming I get the battery drain and outside mirror problems solved that should only leave the A/C and the cruise control to tinker with. I did replace the bellows control with one from an XJ6 but haven't had chance to test it yet. I intend to replace the Harrison A6 unit with a Sandan model.

 

The mirrors are notoriously unreliable. The first thing to do is to remove the non-working mirror and unplug it from the loom (SECURE THE DOOR END OF THE PLUG so it cannot fall into the door). There are two motors in the mirror and each works forward or back, depending which lead has positive on it. If you have those small white connectors with a small "prong" to locate the connector correctly, each motor is worked by the pair of wires that are on one side of the prong. So if you imaging the prongs as the spine of a book, the two wires on the left side work one motor and the two on the right the other.
Clean the tiny connections well, and give them the direct 12v. If one or other motors does not move you have a duff motor. If the do both move, then the cabin switch or the circuit to the mirror is duff.
As for the battery, have you checked the boot lights go off when you close the bootlid? A pad of rubber on the inside of the lid to ensure the switch plunger is really well pushed down is a very good plan, anyway.
Greg

 

Greg,

The trunk light seems as good a place to start as any to be the culprit of my battery going dead, which it did again today. I had taken the who unit out when I was getting everything out of the way to remove the gas tank last winter.

I went to the junk yard this morning for a replacement dome light (success) and while I was there I looked at the trunk of an '89 coupe. On the lid in the front left corner was a square piece of plastic with two attaching crews. It was beveled to fit around the curved lip on the inside of the trunk lid and it comes down to make contact with the trunk lamp switch plunger. Naturally I took the screws out and brought the part home with me to install on my car. I'll have to mark and drill two holes for the screws but that's easy. Hopefully this fixes the dead battery issue.

Update: My car is now completely re-assembled minus the headliner installation. Everything is back together and seems to be working (except the outside mirrors). A new problem though today. Trying not to panic or get despondent but once I got it started today and was letting it warm up and idle I noticed some rpm surging, around 50 rpm's up and down. With the hood up I manually advanced the throttle and noticed hesitation at low rpm's, I also heard a ticking noise. At one point the car actually died, but did start right back up. I am speculating that I may have a plug wire not properly seated on a plug or the distro cap causing it to arc to ground but couldn't tell in the daylight. Any other things to check for? Obviously I need the car to be reliable and sound before I venture on any long trips. Electrical arcing under the hood is not a recipe for success with these cars.

 

Two steps forward, one step back.

Last weekend I had a very noticeable tapping sound from the motor and it was surging like it was searching for a constant rpm at idle but the computer couldn't find it. I suspected a grounding issue with a plug wire. This evening I went thru all the wires and re-seated them and the problem went away. Car started easily, ran smooth, volt meter was dead on in the middle, rpm's held steady at 650.

But then I noticed it. A drip, drip, drip from the fuel line hose off the FPR on the "B" bank going to the fuel cooler jacket. I immediately shut the car off and then set about to replace that length of hose which was accomplished in short order. I then re-started the car to check it out and things seemed fine.

Next I decided to close the garage doors and turn out the lights to see if there were any electrical issues in the valley. I quickly noticed little blue phantoms dancing around from multiple points mainly around the 2,3,4 B bank wires area but from other locations as well. I am suspecting that the plug wire insulation is not thick enough and I should replace them all. They have a code number of 0915 on them if that means anything. Using my flashlight I would to make note of where I was seeing the blue dancing phantoms in the dark. I identified about 6-8 distinct areas where the blue arcs are concentrated.

I am deathly afraid to drive the car until I get this electrical arcing issue completely resolved. The thought of an engine fire destroying the car is more than I could bear.

Thoughts?...........

 

Brad
Renew the HT leads with top quality items like magnacore etc. If the plugs are not that recent, change them too.
Greg

 

Greg, Thanks.

HT leads? Same as spark plug wires?
Anyone here in the states with a good supplier recommendation? I need to finish the car up quickly to move it to another location. Thx.

 

Greg, I looked up plug wires and found the Magnecor KV85 Competition 8.5mm plug wires set. Only comes in red, but that might look kewl. I assume those are what you were talking about. They appear to have much thicker wire insulation on them then the style I have on the car now. Seem a bit pricey but not when you consider the alternative of an engine fire.

 

That's the boy, Brad. get them on ASAP. New plugs too. Also check the dizzy cap is good and the rotor. Ensure the dizzy snaps back well when the rotor is advanced.
Greg

 

Distro cap and rotor are both good. rotor snaps back as it is supposed to. I learned about the distro shaft lubrication a long time ago. Anti flash shield, internal wiring, vent tubes and hoses, rubber gasket, and hold down screws all in good order as well.

Magnecor wires, model 1507, not available retail anywhere near me so I had to order them on line. Wish the distro connectors were vertical rather than "L" shaped. Seems to force the wires out to the areas making contact metal parts and tight fits as they route around the distro cap.

 

I do not think you need to worry Brad. I sometimes have the straights and sometimes the right-angle ends on the dizzy, depending upon which seems to go easiest, and which seems to be best at the plug end. the spark will not leak from good leads, whatever they are touching. I mean, half the length of most of the leads are touching something or other on a V12!

 

Ain't that the truth!

 

Greg and all,

This latest little episode makes me wonder and suspect that all those years I was thinking everything was fine under the hood because I had serviced the distributor, replaced the fuel line hoses, cleaned everything, replaced the plug wires with approved OEM from a jag parts supplier, etc... in reality I was bordering on disaster due to the insufficiently insulated wires.

I was quite shocked to witness all the little blue dancing gremlins in the valley with the lights off in the garage. Sobering to say the least. Magnecor KV85, model #1507's, 8.5mm competition wires are now on order. These are substantially more heavily insulated than the OEM 7mm style I have on there now. Maybe in a perfect world the 7mm's are adequate but given how tight everything is in the valley and how almreal world.

A bit pricier than I would like. Yep.

Peace of mind that I am not bordering on an engine fire every time I drive the car. ost all the wires are touching others and metal pieces it's not enough in the Priceless.

My 2cents to all. Check out your system with the lights off in the garage.

 

New Magnacor ELECTROSPORT 8mm wires arrived yesterday. Blue wires, black boots and reddish distro cap ends. complete with plug wire numbers attached, e.g. 1A, 4B, etc...
Very nice and finished look. This looks like the the best choice. the 8.5mm wires would have been unnecessary overkill and $80+ more expensive. The Magnecor set is custom fitted for V12's and comes with the plug wires already marked as noted above. Thanks Greg and Richard at Magnecor.

 

New spark plug wires installed. Took the cruise unit out and the throttle stand to make the installation much easier. 1A and 1B are still the most difficult. Wires look great and I feel much better knowing I have greatly reduced the opportunity for an engine fire due to electrical arcing.