Hello Folks!!...
While I'm sitting on my hands and waiting for the "Good Jag Fairy" to stuff 786 piasters under my pillow for a set of VVT Solenoids...I was reviewing what my Tech had told me about testing the VVT's on my 98 XK*. He stated that he tried to activate the solenoids by running power to them. I may be wrong, but I thought I caught a thread here once that a certain set of circumstances had to be present to make them move (pins in and out). You couldn't just run power to them. Is my memory faulty, or were the "60's" just to kind to me....
Thanks Folks
Fred

 

Sounds like your wait is $86.00 longer than necessary, and $586.00 longer than if you installed good used ones.

I thought you said the pins on yours were bent by the meathands that took them out. All my used ones are quite nice, actually.

 

Hi Jagtech!!...
Yes..my Ford tech mentioned that they were bent. and frozen (or inoperable). But if he could get them to poke out further, possibly he could straighten them out a little. Of course I'm setting in my chair theorizing... easy to do when your setting in a chair...trying to second guess the tech.... With time on my hands. Yes, I appreciate your offer, and it was a good deal, however, Shops abhor installing used parts. And when your mechanically challenged like myself, you prefer someone to whom "turning a wrench" doesn't mean twiddling a left handed spanner.
Give me a Locomotive and Main Line Authority... I'll take you anywhere.
Drive On!!
Fast Freddie

 

Oh, OK. Maybe you could waste another $86.00 and tip him to straighten out the bent pins and test them for you. Then you'd have two spares which aren't worth using, and won't ever be needed anyway.

 

I think what JTO is saying is that someone could bend the pins but not to the point that a reasonable human being couldn't straighten them to get them working.

If the story is that the mechanic 'jumped' B+ to the solonoids and they did not function that is another story but I have never heard of a VVT valve failure, never mind two.

Something isn't right here.

 

No, his previous posts on the subject pointed out that the solenoids had been damaged during the process of a meathand repair.

I wouldn't consider them as reliable as a result, and was sarcastically commenting on the needless effort to test them and the complaint about the cost of their replacement, since better alternatives had been presented.

 

[I wouldn't consider them as reliable as a result, and was sarcastically commenting on the needless effort to test them and the complaint about the cost of their replacement, since better alternatives had been presented.]

Great Scott!!...
I didn't intend to get anybody riled, let alone sarcastic... I was mearly lamenting my situation. If I had a Jag tech with his own shop, I would have jumped on JagTech's offer. But anyone here who works for a Dealer KNOWS that installing used parts are frowned upon (least ways they frown around this neck o' th' Woods). The reason I'm having my local Ford dealer repair the car is because of the simularity of my engine to the Lincoln 3.9. And these folks are very familiar with them. As far as the price of the repair, If JagTech had some new solenoids, I would be tickled to death to buy them from him. I realize that for you Jaguar Technicians (either self taught or apprenticed), the air is pretty clear up on that mountain, but to we newbs down in th' valley, you could cut the fog with a butter knife.
Fellas, I'm just here to moan over a problem with my peers. Most functions of this car may as well be just magic to me, as far as my knowledge of operating mechanical procedure goes. I kind'a wish I'd never brought this up at all. pardon me as I just bow out.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Fred

 

The PM I sent you quoted $700.00 plus $8.95 shipping for a pair of new Jaguar factory
V V T solenoids. Less by $500 for used, which you said they refused to fit. I thought you had written is for an assistant, not an audience. My bad.