A used transmission came up, with only 41000 miles on the clock, so I bought it for $700. It looks like another trip to the middle of nowhere is in my future on Monday.

I needed to remove the trans, and my rebuilt valve body, which they said I could keep, because I needed to bring the yard a core. Between broken bolts, 10 different types of fasteners, things hooked up to where they shouldn't be, and a general fatigue setting in around three and a half hours into the job, on my back, I can say the XK8 is the most difficult vehicle I have ever worked on. That includes all Italian , German, Japanese, Chinese, American, and where ever Volvos and Saabs come from. It includes changing timing belts on Ferrari 308s, clutches on 911s, a total reseal on a Lotus twin cam, a transmission change on a Saab 900, a transmission replacement on a Porsche 928S including replacing the 2nd gear syncro, a bottom end rebuild on a 60s 12 cylinder Ferrari, and replacing the inside rear brake calipers on an early XKE where the exhaust almost rested on them cooking the calipers if there was any stop and go driving. It is done now, but the only other thing I have spent more time on, was a waitress in San Diego before I went to Columbia to play with the drug cartels, thinking I would not be coming back. This beast took me almost 7 hours, and half a case of RC cola. The waitress was a whole lot more fun, and we both past out for 8 hours afterward.....Whoever invented Torx fasteners should be skinned, and placed in a vat of lye.

Thank God I had a set of Whitworth wrenches, or things would have been not so fun on the driveshaft. Lowering the trans down I discovered a type of attachment for wires, that took a thinwall 10mm socket. With the 2 broken bolts on the bottom of the bellhousing, I now have 4 alignment pins, to get the torque converter centered. I do appreciate the opening behind the flywheel to remove the torque converter bolts, that Jaguar gave me.

Before I put the new trans in, I am putting on a real trans cooler, in front of the condenser, and maybe a fan. Running at 160 degrees F has to be better than sharing a radiator at 200 degrees F. If I feel ambitious I may even put a spin on filter in the cooler lines, to keep things real clean, and give a little more capacity.

I don't want to do this job again, unless someone wants me to do it for half of the dealer flat rate, which would be $70 an hour for me. I would even go by book time, whatever that is.

As long as the cats are off, I am replacing the down stream O2 sensors. Old guys can't afford to lose any of their thin cracked skin once the converters are installed.....Thanks for the rant. I will be thinking of all of you as I am removing the 2 broken studs on the cats, and running new cooler lines. It will go in faster than it came out ...Be cool....Mike

 

Mike, now that was funny, I would have liked to be there. At $1 a curse word, we could have had a big steak dinner.
Good luck on the install.


WAyne

 

 

Mike,

Great post.

When is the video released?

Graham

 

No video......I did it in the nude

 

I'm not sure you can claim the title of winner until you have worked on a French Car!

 

+1 on that. Absolute nightmare when they're corroded/seized. The 'socket' is so shallow that it soon fills with crud and corrosion - as a result the driver tool has **** all to grip on.