2012

We have petrol

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After a bit of reading and consideration I decided to clean the fuel tank myself. I soaked  it for 12 hours with 12:1 hydrochloric acid and then rinsed it with bicarb, then lots of water.  It looked pretty much spotless inside so I reinstalled it complete with new hoses.  

 

 

To prevent further mischief I have also installed the biggest fuel filter I could find between the tank and the fuel pump.  I have also temporarily left one of the smaller inline filters in place.  It will come out in a little while.  I have opted to use a new aftermarket pump rather than the original SU pump, cheaper, more robust and more reliable.

 

 

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Clock repair

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About 3 weeks ago I sent the clock from my 1967 series 1.5 to Mike Eck of www.jaguarclock.com to have it overhauled. The clock was in very poor condition, didn't work and the plastic lens at the front was pretty much opaque.

Here it is:

 

 

I got it back today and it is simply...beautiful. It looks brand new, and now runs on a AA battery.
I cannot recommend Mike highly enough. His communication has been excellent, the turn around time across the world (I'm in Australia and he's in the US) was quick and at US$110 including postage, given the quality of the job, it was cheap.

 

 

 

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Tanked

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Final fettling requires running the engine, obviously. But I kept running out of fuel, and a lot faster than I should. The first 5l lasted a while, the second 5l not really long at all. It didn't seem to be leaking out anywhere so I wondered whether the problem was with the fuel pump. I had already bought a replacement, so I put that in. While doing this I noticed that someone had put two in line filters in at some stage, one between the tank and the pump, and the other past the pump. Looking at them, the one from the tank looked to be full of...well...mud. I pulled it out and replaced it and mud came out of the fuel hose. Taking off the fuel tank top and looking in revealed the source of the mud; lots of rust in the fuel tank. Despite advice to the contrary I'd avoided taking the tank out as it is a bit of a pest and I figured that if the rest of the car was rust free well then so was the fuel tank. Wrong.
Taking out the tank actually isn't that hard, or it wouldn't have been if the captive nut on the most inaccessable mounting bolt hadn't been broken off in the past. In the end I had to drill the top off it which took about an hour. Tank removal otherwise took around 15 mins.
I have fashioned a plate with the captive nut bolted into it, and riveted it into the bracket. The inside of the tank is a bit rusty but not terrible. I'll get it cleaned out and have it back in soon.

You can see from the image below how superbly inaccessible the bolt is. I think the captive nut was sheared off by accident damage; there is a fair bit of bog in the panels at the rear of the car.

 

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What's that noise?

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Now that the wiring is in I've been running the motor a bit. As you would. And I've started hearing noises. As you do. Ones that weren't there before.
Rob had come over and we spent a while trying to isolate the source of a rattle at the front of the engine. I had thought it was the idler pulley, but inspection and reassemble had made me think that it was OK. The next culprit was the recently attached, but original un-kitted water pump. It did seem to have a little coolant leaking out of the tell tale hole. I had had the pin hole repaired in my rebuilt pump, so off came the old one and in went the new. In about 10 minutes, not including gasket making time.
And the noise was still there. Bugger. It's the alternator.
Now I have always regarded electronics with a great deal of suspicion, and alternators are at the top of the list. After all your auto electricial always "sends them off" to be overhauled, usually by someone called Keith, or Werner. The conversation usually goes something like this:
Auto electrician puts both hands on hips and shakes his head knowingly "Hmmm no, I can't sort that out. We'll need to send it off to Werner. He'll know what to do. Mind you it'll cost you." Toothy smile..
In my mind I see a tiny rickety galvo shed in a backstreet. There is a sign over the door, but it's filthy and illegible. The shed is packed floor to ceiling with teetering wooden shelves overflowing with a million dusty, rusty car parts. Morning glory vine grows over the roof and in the one window. In amongst the confusion is a small elderly man with wild hair and thick glasses, wearing a grey shop coat. Wordlessly he snatches my alternator, shakes his head and grunts, then, cackling, waves me to the door....
So it was with trepidation that I decided to pull it apart and replace the bearings.

 

As it turned out it was simplicity itself, and the alternator still seems to be working after my efforts. Oh and yes, the noise has gone.

 

 

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End of electrics

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The last 2 days have been a blur of rewiring.
The eventual arrival of the rest of the wiring loom meant that Martin could come back and finish the job, and finish it he did. The whole job took him around 15 hours.
At around 3pm yesterday, after final checks were complete, we connected the battery and turned the key..and she started!
There was initial trouble because she wouldn't run properly which perplexed me a bit as I hadn't actually touched either fuel or ignition system at all and she had run so well before. Eventually the penny dropped. Fuel tank was absolutely empty. 5 litres of fuel alter and she's running like a 2 bob watch.

I've come to accept that most of the rocker switches are unreliable at best and have ordered a replacement set, along with new fuseboxes.  we've had too many dodgy connections and shorts.

Running the car or course meant filling the cooling system. I was fairly disapointed and then fairly worried when coolant was seen to run briskly out from under one corner of the water pump. Assuming that I'd somehow damaged the gasket I took the pump off, cleaned facing surfaces and reinstalled it with a new gasket. And it still poured coolant. By this time I was worried that I had somehow misinstalled one of the 9 water pump bolts and cracked the water jacket in the block. Given that I had photographed them on removal I thought this unlikely but...
Lacking any credible cause I decided to put the old (probably servicable) water pump back on in place of the newly reconditioned one from SC Parts. Unbelievably, no leak. Even more unbelievably, the recond unit had a rust hole in the cast iron in the back of it! It's heading back to the UK for a replacement. This puts SC Parts ratio of usable to unusable parts to below 50%.

 

 

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The wires finally arrive

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The wires have finally arrived. Sent by good old Royal Mail they seem to have been carried by donkey, camel, rickshaw and carrier pelican to arrive in only 26 days from the day they were sent.
The 3 bags contain the few things missing from the otherwise comprehensive "Under Bonnet" loom. Things like the alternator wiring, the fan loom and another dozen or so vital components.
Martin is coming over tomorrow and with luck we will have liftoff.

 

 

 

 

With yesterday's reinstallation of the steering column and wheel it became apparent that the front wheel allignment was way out. I mean way out. I read the manual, got confused with 16ths of an inch and whether I needed my toes in or out.

So I rang Ron to ask him what to do. He laughed and duly arrived with a spirit level and a piece of string. 10 mins later; perfect.

 

 

 

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We have a steering wheel!

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The New Year signifies rebirth, a new start with endless opportunity. Full of such hope I ventured out into the shed, intending to install the steering column and steering wheel. What better way to make a new start as a RHD vehicle?
Sadly, it was not to be. Fiendish Sir William Lyons, in his neverending quest to save a penny, had struck again. The Federal spec cars had to be fitted with a collapsable steering column, which had different mountings on the bulkhead than the older column. But the new mounting point captive nuts were only fitted on the LEFT of the car. The RIGHT still has the four nuts for the old column. Damn you Sir William! Cursing, I retired for the day.
A quick search of "The E Type Forum" archives lead me back to Mike Cassidy's excellent series of articles and instructions on how to proceed. Armed with knowledge, a drill and a good strong arm the job was done in an hour.
Prosaic really, and very Jaguar. It'll get there, but in it's own sweet time.

I will need to swap the indicator stalk over and modify the starter switch mount to move it to the left, but those are jobs for another day.

 

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