Bit embarrassing... not sure! I cleaned everything electrical I could find under the bonnet, cleaned up the extra fuse, cleaned all the connectors onto the relay, in fact, I just took apart and cleaned everything that looked electrical. I turned the ignition on and pressed the horn with expectations of nothing other than the solenoid clicking and nearly jumped out of my skin when the horn blared out its dulcet tone!

I 'think' it was that extra fuse under the bonnet as it was very corroded and so were the contacts in the fuse box.

 

As Doug always advises: The best thing you can do for XJS reliability is to clean every single connector and earth you can find, throughout the car. That and drive it as much as possible; these cars hate not being used.

 

Hi Greg in France, it was your previous post that I found through Google, that drew me to the forum so it's your fault I'm here! Very informative - thank you.

I did intend to use the car today but life got in the way, as it does. I just need to get some covers on the back seats so the mutts can go in without wrecking the leather and I do want to use it. I also bought rad caps and two more sensors for the old girl today from David Manners, injection coolant sensor and gauge sendor. Not sure either of them are needed or will make any difference, but hey, while I'm spending...

 

 

Very good plan to have a spare injection temp sensor. The car will NOT run if it goes bad. I suggest installing the new one and keeping the old one in the glove box. I am glad to be of help, as are all on this rather happy forum.

 

That is what I intend to do, change and keep the old ones. I have had this car a few weeks now and driven it just once for about 5 miles! I intended to put it away in the garage and spend some 'quality' time fettlin' but, my garage is currently full of other peoples cars and they keep letting me down as to fetching them. I have a horrible Jeep thing in there and it was supposed to be staying for a fortnight, that was 7 months ago! Also have a friends Fiesta who has now moved about 150 miles away so quite what I am supposed to do with this car I do not know. Never do favours for anyone!

But of course, I will continue to do so, as I am a 'nice man'

 

Today I have managed to swap over speakers in the front doors. what a faff! door cards off and while the driver's door went back on easily enough, the passenger side put up a proper fight! While I was doing the passengers side, I popped the fuse for the interior lights when reconnecting the door open 'telltale' - big red light at the bottom of the door. No biggy, change the fuse... Off I went in search of the relevant fuse in the fuse box under the drivers side crash pad, no fuse listed for interior lights. What? So I pulled each fuse out and checked them individually in case it was another of those cases where the fuse was not listed. Of course, all the fuses were fine. Into the boot in search of fuses, under the bonnet in search of fuses and when all else had failed, I read the owners handbook. Another fuse box under the passenger's side and there was a nicely popped fuse

So expecting instant success, I changed the fuse and it didn't work! Really dodgy contact in the fuse box so the lights would only work if lateral pressure was applied to the fuse, not really ideal if working interior lights are wanted unless you want to hang in the passenger's side footwell pressing fuses while opening doors and getting out. Eventually, a fiddle/bodge was dreamed up which worked so interior lights now working. Of course, it took longer to do the lights than it did to do the speakers! It seems to be the way with the car: one job leads into another which was totally unplanned.

While I was in the door, I took apart and cleaned the mirror switches on top of the door, one now works but the other is dead (but if you swap switches then the fault changes to the other mirror so definitely the switch) - partial success is better than none?

As I had used a fuse, I wanted to get some more to keep the fuse box full, it seems no one sells them anymore. Factor, accessory shops nothing, finally, Halfords came to the rescue at the grand sum of £1.14 after application of trade card... I did buy a load of other stuff, even I am not 'cheap' enough to use the trade card on a £1.99 purchase

 

ever sense i did the engine swap the exhaust has been dumped right after the mufflers in front of the rear axle. it sounded good in town but it was almost as loud inside the car as outside and it droned really bad on the highway. to get the exhaust back up threw the rear cage over the stub axle and down around and out the back was going to be a nightmare esp with a 2.5 inch pipe really not even sure it could be done the factory exhaust was probably near half that size. when i was installing the new fuel pump earlier this week i got the idea of just going under the center of the diff (irs) and then kicking it up and avoid all that no clearance mess. a bit of a compromise as its slightly more likely to drag the exhaust on the ground but considering its under the axle the tires should lift the car up over a bump so not too likely to drag.

of course this seemed so much simpler than it ended up being and i hacked the exhaust off right after the x pipe before i even started mocking things up. mufflers didn't fit where i thought they would fit so had to change where i planned on putting them so had to go back near where they originally were but rather than kicking them out towards the sides kept them straight to each other witch then ment i had to kick the exhaust out to the inlets and then kick it back in after the mufflers. being that i don't have a exhaust tubing bender and mandrel bends are hard to come by locally and crush bent pipes get too mishapen in the radius to cut them apart to make custom bends, i ended up just making a couple miter cuts on the metal chop saw to get it to go where i wanted it too. probably not the best for flow but it will work. for now







got everything mocked in place held together by bailing wire and duct tape







then almost as soon as i started spot welding everything after i had things where i wanted them i ran out of mig gas. so i had to throw roll of some flux core wire in the welder. that was fun but after all the joints were spot welded in a couple places dropped the exhaust back out welded it all up and put it on the car for good.







after it was all in place and welded in i did end up hitting the lower sections of pipe with some black header paint as if you were far enough back from the car to be able to see under the car the pipes coming from under the diff looked a little funky but the black header paint made them blend right in.




there is still a nice rumble outback but inside the car is actually quiet now. and no more drone on the highway. inside the car you can actually hear the electric fans on the radiator over the exhaust. and now im going to have to fix that very slight leak on the exhaust manifold you could hardly hear before...lol

ill eventually get a full custom bent exhaust made at a exhaust shop for this car but it was still a nice little few hour project that made the car much nicer to drive on the highway.

 

What is this drone everyone talks about? I've got gutted cats and dual high flow mufflers (not a fan of glasspacks) with side exits ahead of radius arms and I've never really identified anything as droning. Maybe I just keep her above 4500rpm like your supposed to.

 

a drone is a harmonic frequency (think tuning fork) that comes at certain rpm ranges generally at low throttle positions. the exhaust would would becomes louder at at part throttle than when you have it wide open than when your in the rpm range that creates the drone. adding a little bit of tail pipe behind the muffler even without getting it out from behind the car probably would have gotten rid of the drone. i wanted to get it to exit out from under no only to reduce the noise inside the car but you would get a bit of exhaust smell in the car from time to time as well and that is also a problem. i generally keep the tune up on the engine a bit on the rich side to keep the engine safe from detonation so the exhaust has a strong smell.

if you ever do experience a drone your know it. it can be loud enough that you can feel it.

 

I actually got the chance to go outside and do a bit on the car - not raining for the first time in a fortnight! I changed the coolant injection sensor and the gauge sensor, neither made the slightest difference but then, I didn't think they would! Also pleased to note that with the caps on the rad hardly any coolant leaked out and the level is still fine Checked the PAS, again fine and did the 'unplug the oil pressure switch' and got zero reading instead of it instantly going to the top... is that right?

Also, while on a roll, I took the dashboard out, one of the big multiplugs was barely connected and fell out straight away which I don't think is right? I shall take it all apart and clean everything anyway but I think the connectors in the car need the most cleaning!

 

I installed LED bulbs in my gauge cluster (binnacle per Jaguar manuals)...wow I can actually see my speedo and tach in the dark now. I used the Super Bright on the upper corners, but it was too bright in the lower speedo socket such that it cast a glare on the 1st barrell gauge on the left. I changed it for a "regular" LED and that was the ticket.

Got the Mega Squirt tuner to fix the issues with the 92 Coupe. Good news is He got it all working. Bad news is there may be a couple of dead cylinders. Compression check in order. But he said he remembers it had some "burned valves". Compression check on the parts car engine is next.

 

X Type broke down again so had to drive the 65 miles to work in the XJR-s.
Set off at 0500 and arrived at 0610.
15 miles of country lanes and the rest on dual carriageways and motorways.
I hate driving in the dark but luckily it was clear with a full moon so not too stressful.
Hate these poxy new LED headlights that everyone has now, the glare is intolerable in a low slung car.
Still, it went well and got me there so that's good.
Now it sits for 2 weeks in a car park until I get off again.

 

My exhaust runs under the diff and it constantly rubs on the road in dips, to the point where my 2.5" pipe is now flat on the bottom and my car is NOT lowered.

2.5" pipe will run between the half shaft and LCA, run it closer to the hub to keep it away from the brakes.

 

yeah iv had it rub a few times already, certainly going to revisit the exhaust down the road. tire track depressions at a stop light are the worst if you forget to drive on the high side of them. esp as the car squats a bit as you take off from a stop. for right now just happy to not have it dumped under the car anymore. i tried to make it around the axles once before but i needed a tighter radius than off shelf elbows, i might order a few mandrel bent tight radius u bends and try again. its livable as it is but it could be a lot better.

 

I built my JagRod's 2 1/2" exhaust with some U-bends I got from Speedway Motors...it will go over the axles and clear with careful positioning. I don't have a great pic currently but...you get the idea. BTW, I built mine with a chop saw and angles...no way a muffler shop could bend a single pipe around the engine mount, steering pinion and filter. I'm rather proud of how good it all came out.

Dang can't get the pictures posted?

 

iv seen some pictures of your build. but i don't recall seeing how you got it around the suspension. but i remember your miter cuts around the steering i keep telling myself im going to take it to an exhaust shop and have a custom exhaust bent up for it. it really needs pretty much a total re-do . my down pipe around the steering is actually not bad its a couple exhaust bends cut up and one ding put in it for a little extra clearance right by the steering rack. when i did the swap i was wanting to take it for a test drive did my down pipes fired it up and it was so loud you could feel it start up 20 feet away. so then i tied it into the stock mufflers and tail pipe section, and that was nice and quiet but just way too small would move your pant legs from 3 feet away from the tail pipe. the engine ran hot and wasn't happy, so then i cut that off and pulled the stock tail pipes out, and stuck a couple 2.5 inch mufflers on the end of the the exhaust where i cut it off. where i originally tied it into the stock mufflers. that was tolerable and the engine happy. so it stayed that way for a while but it was pretty loud inside the car and droned on the highway.

as much as id like to just drop it off and have them make one that's not going to have 100 welds in it. part of me just resists leaving the car with someone else to do that. i dread getting a call they they took it out for a "test" drive and wrapped it around a telephone poll or something like that. plus i guess i don't mind the practice an trying different ways of doing it im running 2.5 inch rams horns on it right now id like to put headers on it some day but i don't feel like the sanderson headers are any better than the rams horns. so that leaves me with building a custom set of headers not sure if i could build headers that i would be happy with yet. just wish i had more available time to play with it...lol

 

This car belongs to a friend of mine 2.5" as close to the wheel hub as possible

 

Isn't that a little contraproductive, Warren?

I mean, geometry would say to put the pipes as close to the diff as possible, as the travel of the wishbone ans drive shaft are longer at the wheel, so it would be more likely to hit the pipe. Where as closer to the diff, the travel is a lot less resulting on less need for space...

Or am I mssing something?

 

that looks quite simple, takes far less of a bend than going over the top of the axle. i suppose moving it outboard gives you more room because of the shape of the cage. you could probably use a little more bend but rotate the bend slightly so the radius of the bend is a little closer to the u joint where there is less travel. but your entrance and exit points are the same. ill have to play with that routing a bit too. it does look like his lca is hitting the pipe a little bit under compression of the rear suspension.

it may be my eyes tricking me but looking at the size of the exaust in relation to the lca looks closer to 2 1/4 inch than 2.5 exhaust.