The car starts great and goes into reverse normally to back out of the garage. When you stop and put the car in drive there is a short delay and then clunks into gear. The transmission then works great. Every thing appears to be tight, maybe a little play in the rearend. The fluid level is good. The driveshaft and U joints appear ok. The tailshaft on the transmission has a small amount of play. Could it be a vacuum leak to the transmission? Not sure if Jag uses vacuum. Or could it be a linkage problem? Thanks John

 

My friend just bought a XJ8 with a similar problem. When he comes to a stop it feel as though it goes in neutral, but once he accelerates it goes into gear and shifts normally. Any ideas?

 

I'm no transmission expert but there has been lots of discussion on the ZF transmission and its 'clunking' into first gear. Seems that this is a symptom of a valve body wear issue that leads to A drum failure due to pressure spikes.

Here are a couple links to get you started:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ly-xk8s-88390/

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...uestion-88889/

 

I just paid $400 for a reinforced A drum after mine gave out taking off from a traffic light. Of course there was an additional $1300 in parts to be replaced while the mechanic was in there + labor. But the A drum started the problem.