Morning guys, I have taken all my " to do " parts up to where my cat has been sleeping over the winter, so we are nearly ready to begin checks and changes.
As Thunderbird 1 & 2 have not been started since about September 2013 I was just wondering if there were any procedures or best practice points I should observe?
Initially, I have to drive 10m to my home where I can get to work on him, my main concern is the serpentine belt which looks like it is need of a change ( have a new one ) and the thought of him not starting at all. I noticed that when I removed the battery last year the windows moved up a bit and it prevented access, is this normal or is it something else to have to sort?
I did not lock the boot ( trunk ) so have replaced the battery fully charged but not connected yet.
Any advice about starting up in my circumstances would be much appreciated.


Cheers,
ArtyH

 

The windows dip to allow access and without a battery they can't dip, so you can get the door open without a battery but once open you wouldn't be able to shut the door completely. Once the battery is reconnected, you should be able to reset the windows by holding the switch down until the window is all the way down and keep holding for a moment until you hear a very faint click and then raise the window and hold until you hear the click again. Hopefully that is all there is to it otherwise you will have to do more troubleshooting.

 

Thanks for the info, however for some reason when I disconnected the battery, the doors were shut and the window went up not down, that is the possible problem, I thought they would have gone down too. Just checking in case this always happens or in fact there is a bigger problem? Question is how to get the door open in this situation?
Thanks again for any more advice.
Cheers,
ArtyH

 

When you reconnect the battery, the window should drop when you pull the outside handle to open the door. It will continue to drop a bit more each time you pull the handle, and won't go back up automatically until you do the reset procedure.

 

Arty,

The doors will open without the usual window drop gap. A bit more of a tug required but it won't damage the rubber. Designed this way so the doors can be opened in the event of an accident with total power loss.

Just don't try closing them without the drop gap!

Graham

 

Thanks Mike and Graham, I had hoped that was the case, just wanted to be sure and its better to be prepaired when the time comes. Many thanks again for taking the time to reply, Ill keep you updated.
Cheers,
ArtyH.

 

If you have trouble starting it, check the fuel pump. There have been several cases of pumps failing after storage. But that may have been US cars with our ethanol laced fuel.

 

As I was very low on fuel, I half filled my 2005 XK8 with 10% Ethanol (the only fuel available) on the Autoroute from Gibraltar to Malaga in Spain last year and it just died after a few miles!

Got it started again with difficulty and crawled to the next service station where I filled it with 98 octane. Coughed and spluttered (the car, not me) and then ran OK again.

Even though the later UK spec models manufactured after 2001 are supposed to be ethanol compatible, I'll not be using that stuff again.

Graham