Pulling the dash to check out the AC system and tidy things up. Front window out for repaint and rust repair.


1989 XJS
Oh, and doing a simple rear brake job:


Lots of work to replace rear brakes!

 

Brave lad! Well done!

Make sure you know how to bleed the rear brakes properly on that Teves system! And perhaps throw on a couple of new radius arms whilst you're in there?!

Good luck

Paul

 

Thanks-I appreciate the feedback! Yes- ordered new radius arms as the bushings were left on the car. Still have to get the pieces off the body of the car. Think it is going to take a combination of heat and saw.
I have read the instructions on bleeding the brakes. Going to be a while as the car does not run. I’m having the calipers rebuilt, will flush all the lines, and then just use the parking brake to hold the car until i redo the engine and can get it running. I had to do the brakes first because they were frozen and I could not roll the car.

 

As per another post, I pulled the starter on my 89 XJS yesterday as it was hanging up. During that process I found the RH exhaust downpipe cat had melted down at some point. I ended up gutting it. I found a reasonably priced replacement starter at O'rielly Auto Parts of all places and ordered that and it will be here in 4 days. I tore the old starter down and have decided it will make a good spare. Finding replacement brushes for it was a three hour endeavor online which I have been doing this morning. I found the parts in the U.K. at Auto Electric Spares and ordered them. I have ordered from them in the past. I needed a brush and holder set for a trashed wiper motor and they had it. They also have a really cool Smiths dual water/oil guage that I might buy. I have a trio guage I installed in the passenger compartment but it is in the way. The Smiths guage would take up a lot less space.
In hindsight on my latest Jag project, I probably should have documented and shared the process. I paid $600 for the 89 Jag convert about a year and a half ago. The price does a good job of reflecting the condition. Funny, it cost me double that to register it because in WA state, there is a minimum value for classic cars regardless of condition. The Jag was not running, top was trashed, interior was water damaged and the fuel tank leaked more than it held which in turn had clogged every single injector. Now it has a new leather interior, a new top, a killer stereo system, "everything" on the car had to be gone through as everyone knows. It runs good now and has 117k on the clock. Speaking of the guages, I had a heck of a time getting those all working, due to water incursion. Next up is paint and I hate body work. It has lots of dings that need fixed. I will get some pictures posted soon. Regards.

Vehicles: 89 XJS Convert, 83 XJS Coup, 69 Mustang GT Convert, 56 Chevy Nomad

 

Yesterday and today saw the beginning and completion of the front shocks replacement, front pads & rotors replaced, fuel filter replaced, and roughly 4 gallons of road grime / old oil, brake fluid, power steering fluid / rust / grossness scraped from the wheel wells.

 

What sort of car do you have??????

 

One that nobody’s done a thorough cleaning on in quite some time. Evidently the last 2 POs weren’t too concerned with the parts you can’t see…

4 gallons is an exaggeration. But it certainly seems like every time I get into a project on the car, I go through another bottle of degreaser and bale of rags.

 

Removed ABS brake accumulator bulb. Got sprayed in brake fluid even after removing pressure by heaps of pumping the pedal. Even went in my eye FFS. Luckily I had enough rags under it to prevent it going all over the engine bay paint. It is kaput and comes on on every brake press.

 

Lachy,

Good luck with the change. Did you verify that it is definitely the accumulator at fault and not the pressure switch at fault?

Paul

 

Paul
I just took it off to see how much it had pushed back inside and I stuck a bit of wire in and went in about 2 inches or close to it. So it needs replacing anyway, I'll do that first and see how it goes first.

 

New window switches and bezel, it looks starkly different with the original “ROOF” switch in between the new gear.

Removed and cleaned the MAF and associated air pipes, discovered that the entire assembly was secured to the throttle body with a (broken) plastic zip-tie.
The rubber accordion connector literally fell off when the MAF came free.
Now that there’s a new hose clamp holding it on (and a clean MAF screen), it idles and accelerates much smoother. Curious if the mpg will change.

 

Purchased both FPR and the labels, i know there an opinion that the A bank isn't necessary but i dont think it does the B bank a lot of good to give it all the work
To save pm here is a link 203636008983

 

Where did you get the labels? They look nice

 

PM you the ebay link

 

I have pretty much finished with my 89 XJS convertible, as in upgrage everything and now I am driving it. I pulled my 83 coupe into the shop as the hose blew on the steering rack plus it was leaking. I was thinking, I don't just want to pull the rack, with the subframe in the car, been there done that and it is a pain in the rear. So, I will just drop the subframe, while I am at it, I might as well rebuild it including new brakes etc., as I had most of the stuff in my new parts inventory. Plus, I had rebuilt a spare steering rack, so that was ready to go in. In the process of the work, I don't know if anyone else saw it, but on ebay someone was advertising a 5 speed conversion out of an XJS. I first thought it was an actual conversion so I was somewhat interested, but, they said it was coming out of a 6 cylinder XJS and I new that it wasn't going to mate up to my V12. Well, I took a chance and bought it. When it got here and I did a little research. There are a very few 80's Jags floating around with original 5 speeds. Well, that is what I got, all original Jag stuff. A 265 Getrag, original Jag pedals and box, center console etc. etc. Pretty cool. I guess the Getrag 265 is what Simply Peformance uses for their swaps. So I ordered an adaptor plate for my V12 and a sports clutch from Simply Performance. Now I am going to drop the engine. I had the same engine out 2 years ago and had pulled and refurbished the heads. I am going to be a few months at this as I only have weekends. Next two projects after this are repaint both of my Jags.

I was going to upload some photos, but my phone is HEIC. I converted them to JPEG, but it is still saying nope, not allowed. I will have to figure that out.

 

The OEM radiator passed quietly away a few days ago. Doing some cleaning, flushing, checking and general sorting-out while the new parts are enroute.

It’s a good thing she’s gorgeous!

 

My Xjs has suffered from the dreaded windscreen scuttle rot. She's actually pretty solid and I decided a while ago to get the windscreen scuttle and other bits of rust sorted out once and for all. So chrome off, screen out, wings off and got prepared for my local body guy to do the work. Then follows a big delay.. due to life, Covid and other things getting in the way. This week the body shop guy rings tells me he can take her for welding and paint next week so time to get her running and out of the garage. Checked the fluids, threw in the battery and some fresh fuel, and after 12 months turned the key and she fired up straight away. I love this car!!!

Here she is looking a bit the worse for wear but hopefully soon to be looking a lot better!!

 

After the heater to vacuum valve pipe split and she wet herself.... I'm attempting to replace all the water pipes. NOT a simple job me thinks

 

thought i would move the timing marks to somewhere more easy to work the strobe, so i did not sure whether to remove the rest of the pully and file a slot in it

 

Use a Dremel, Rex?