Is there a manual way to make small adjustments to the tilt of the steering wheel in 1999 XK8? I have looked and watched videos and have not found anything that helps.

 

Release the two manual locks and move the column to the desired position and close the locks or did I miss something?

 

I see the knob on the side that sets the Automatic On/Off function, but I have not found any manual locks. Are they far under the dash/column? Are they levers?

 

Are you saying yours is an electric system ? If so perhaps you should have stated that.

 

Yes, it is electric, and I just want to make fine changes in the final placement of the steering wheel after it locks. I guess I wrongly assumed they all had this feature.

 

Dont know mate I like to keep it simple ,Mine is manual.

 

Thanks. Surely, the engineers at Ford/Jaguar put some type of final adjustment into the steering column for different size people. I just want the wheel to tilt downward (back towards me) just a bit so I can see gauges better.

 

Nothing LOCKS. The motor can move the column to a preset MEMORY position but the 'joystick' knob moves the column manually.(unless the tilt motor position sensor assy is faulty)

 

Wayne, for years i couldn't get the telescope / tilt switch on mine to work. Like Bob said Memory buttons 1 and 2 worked though. Don't laugh but heres what I did:

Took the valence panel below steering wheel off. Located the connector for each motor (1 for tilt, 1 for telescope). Unplugged the connector, then using alligator clips connected to my 12volts battery charger, I touched the motor terminal. When it was "just right" I programed Memory 1 button, moved wheel to new position, stored that in memory 2!

FYI, with the panel off you'll see the motor and shaft for tilt. If you unplug the motor electrical connection you can easily turn the tilt shaft by hand. Plugged in, its not moving.

After a year or 3 of doing this, I said enough BS. Bought 2 12volts dual pole relays, spent an hour or 2 mapping out the wiring, plugged it into the fuse box for switched ignition power, then connected the wires to the motor terminals. Bought a piece of ebony, cut it to fill the valet switch hole, drilled 4 holes (top bottom left right) and put a momentary on switch in each hole. From that point forward I had instant precise control of that darn steering wheel. This bypassed the forward motion switch lockout from the factory.

Things got interesting a few years later. The headlight portion of my turn signal stalk became intermittent. (Yes, of course I discovered this on a pitch black night on some deer infested backroad - Murphy's Law right?)

Well I bought a used replacement stalk and harness. To my surprise, the new stalk fixed the switch on the steering column! Guess they shared the same wire harness.

Just thought you might be interested.

John

 

Thanks, motorcarman. I've only had the car for about two weeks and fine-tuning things. It was simple. I just did not know that on/off knob also adjusted the positions.