hainkm

Random Bits…

(03/11/2023)

Over the past week I started working on some other parts of the car. The first of which is converting the puddle lights to LED over their incandescent lamps the car came with.

I’m using these small cobb LED strips. They have a high density of LEDs in a small strip. I did have to notch the strip a little to clear for the screw, but I made sure to notch on the negative side so if something shorts out, it’s just bonded more to ground.

Next up is power door locks. I picked up these after market door motors. I thought about going something out of a GM product like from the GMT platform, but these looked well built and I got four for the price of what one used GM actuator would be. I decided to take my chances.

This also shows the wiring and connectors I’m using. These are all Ampseal16 connectors which use the Deutsch DT series pins. The Ampseal, in my opinion, offer a lot more options as far as keying multiple same-pin connectors to different shells (like in a door where I have a lock, a window motor, etc)

I need to make a small bracket to adapt the factory door lock mount to this new motor – I plan to do that next.

On the topic of wiring, I took the opportunity to change over the power window motor wiring from the bullet connectors also to Ampseal. The door lock uses the ‘yellow’ lock where as the window is using ‘red’ – same, but different!

Last for today was to install some Dynamat on the roof of the car. This is the thin/light stuff which works great for a roof. I plan to Dynamat the floor, but I need to get the engine pulled and pressure wash everything first.

All four tires are off!

(03/04/2023)

I finally managed to break free the last tire!

Now I can put a heavy coating of never-seize on it and put all the wheels back on. I need the chassis to roll still to eventually trailer it to my dad’s to get the engine pulled. Last thing I want to do is hammer on the tires again…

A bit of a gap

(02/24/2023)

It’s been a busy month and I haven’t had a moment to work on the car until now.

I DID manage to get a second wheel off! Two down, two to go!

Behind each wheel is a small compartment. I found there are five screws in the wheel well area that can get in there. The passenger side I knew had wires in, as with the driver. I did find yet another mouse next in the passenger side.

And on the driver side? I found a random tank! Again Jaguar with the “shoving something wherever” motto. I’m pretty certain this is a coolant overflow tank.

One last cooler.

(02/04/2023)

Today I removed the engine oil cooler. You can see things are getting pretty bare under the hood!

Dissimilar metal welding

(02/03/2023)

When aluminum is bolted up to steel for 15+ years, it essentially welds together. Imagine if there was salt and water on top of this (thankfully this car has never seen Michigan salt)

It took many soakings of penetrating oil and hammer swinging to get this wheel off. Fun part is, all four are like this. One down, three to go…

So many hoses…

(01/28/2023)

Today I removed so many hoses. Coolant lines, oil lines, transmission lines. So many hoses. The engine bay is starting to look bigger.

The disconnection

(01/21/2023)

Once part of the exhaust was out of the way, I focused on removing the starter and the torque converter bolts.

I’m sure with a different tool I could get the TC bolts from the inspection shield on the bottom, but with what I had, I ended up going through the starter well.

All aluminum engine, all iron everything else…

(01/15/2023)

Today I tackled getting more of the driver exhaust out along with the driver side manifolds.

One reason why they burn

(01/14/2023)

Look up “Jaguar XJS fire on YouTube” – you will find more than one result.

This picture is the main positive battery cable as it traverses from trunk, where the battery is housed, to the engine bay. Notice it pinched under a heat shield.

Yes, it is clamped and there is foam in there. Still, seems poor.