Author: hainkm

HVAC

(12/18/2022)

As this is being converted to electric, the heating will change from water to electric. Also, I need to make the AC electric as well. There will be challenges here…so where do I start? The display of course!

So in the Jaguar there is a trip computer that shows a clock, fuel used, etc. That isn’t really going to be necessary in it’s original form for the electric rebuild. Additionally I plan to completely use a different HVAC air box setup as the factory one is a bit more complicated than needed.

So, I started looking at gutting the trip computer to repurpose it to be a climate control computer. I plan to make it look stock, but function very different.

Lucas – We use wooden beads for PCB standoffs.

I really like these illuminated buttons, but I was quite shocked to find they were illuminated with an incandescent lamp! On the plus side, LED conversion is simple since the button is hollow up the middle!

I plan to use a 7-segment LED display, in green, to have the look and feel of 1986 electronics. Also something I like? No tail on the top of the 6. It’s a hold over from TTL 7-segment drivers and I’ve always liked it.

A full day of wire cutting

(12/16/2022)

I spent today cutting and gutting.

Lucas – we can’t make our voltage regulators work properly, but we CAN alert you when the voltage goes too high!

I uncovered this on the driver side kick panel:

This is the brake light switch. It looks like something out of the 1950s.

As I began to remove the harnesses tucked up inside that cavern in the kick panel:

Poured in epoxy. Zero markings. Inline fuse.

Here we have power resistors, covered in tape, behind the instrument cluster.

More grounds. Everywhere you look there are grounds.

Insulation all comes out in chunks. This will all be replaced with Dynamat

I’ve never seen a vehicle that had a complete electrical schematic included in the owner’s manual…

Every connector I found, I put in this bucket:

More interior

(12/11/2022)

I’m working my way around to the passenger side of the car now:

It appears someone has been in the passenger door before and left the vapor barrier in a pile. Also check out how everything has 42 adjustments.

This is in the passenger foot area. Modules, fuses everywhere. Wherever there was a place to mount something, they did.

This is all going away in favor of a much simpler unit.

Random in-line diode. It’s fine.

Passenger seat handle in the dishwasher 😀

More interior nonsense

(12/10/2022)

This piece of wood is used as a filler to achieve a radius in the rear quarter head lining. Sure.

In the backseat there are side armrests that double as speaker pods. This is the grill they use to vent that pod. This is factory. It’s gobs of silicone holding steel mesh that was attached to thick cardboard.

One positive I can say is that nearly everything comes apart. This is that same rear speaker pod. I can remove all the pieces with tabs and give it a good cleaning. While I’m at it I’m going to expand the hole for the new speaker in the rear and apply new velvet fabric as this stuff is rotting from age and the glue has dried up.

Here’s something else I don’t get about this car. This is a seat mounting point. It’s not the best picture, but it’s a little embossing above the floor. Jaguar uses a nut under it to hold the seat. Not a caged nut or a welded nut – a loose nut. Why? So we can lose it?

Oh cool, all the carpet is glued down.

This vehicle is not in short supply of ash trays.

Nothing to see here. Just washing a seat lever in the dishwasher (shhhh)

Interior Removal

(12/09/2022)

I continue to remove the interior of the Jag. The process is pretty simple: Remove a part, bag/box the bolts and label them so I’m less confused upon reassembly months later, spray with the anti-fungal, wipe down, spray with the cleaner, wipe down and let dry a day. Once dry, use the Chemical Guys leather treatment.

If you look closely here you can see mildew spots.

When the whole gas tank fiasco happened I removed the foam from behind the back seat. I plan to replace all this with Dynamat.

Again, why is this like this? An expensive ‘luxury’ car and here we have scraps of leather slapped into place to cover this spot.

Why are the front and rear seat belt tongs SO DIFFERENT? I have so many questions about how this car came about…

This panel was held on by a tab of leather (no backer) with a hidden screw!

Another hidden screw! This time behind leather that was glued on!

The back of the seat is starting to look really nice now

Red shark fins

(12/06/2022)

Quick update on the taillight project. I designed the red part of the light and had what look like shark fins created at OshPark

At this point I ran out of red LEDs and had to order more. I actually ordered GOOD LEDs for this project from Mouser. I certainly don’t want to be back in this replacing random dead elements any time soon.

A good December teardown

(12/02/2022)

Today I started tearing into the driver side door. I really wanted to get the window down so keep airflow inside the cabin now that I had a lot of the interior wiped down. Up until this point I was keeping the vehicle sealed up to not spread any mold/smells into the garage.

I’m still amazed for such an expensive car the door cards are essentially a pressed carboard…

I’m also amazed how much of this vehicle is GM based. This is the window regulartor:

Here is a VERY old style of door lock actuator – a solenoid.

A neat feature of the jag is that when someone unlocks the door with a key or the little flap inside the cabin, the other door will lock/unlock at the same time.

I’m going to ditch these solenoids (they are toast anyway), but I plan to retain this magical feature…somehow. Sensors. Lots of sensors.

Inside the solenoid shows how they accomplished this in ’86:

Ok, back in the car we find more hidden plugs in the wiring harnesses!

This is the button that actuates when the door is open/closed. Why is this soldered when everything else on the car has a plug? The passenger side and the trunk lid switch are also soldered, so this isn’t a one-off.

Back to the trunk we have the power antenna motor. I love power antennas. There’s something charming about them. This one is in perfect condition sans a rubber grommet and I was able to source a replacement. Even though I rarely listen to FM, I will still connect this to the head unit.

Grounds everywhere. Any place there could be a ground, there’s a ground.

Hidden behind the passenger quarter panel is this evap canaster. Just tucked in there.

Then there’s this.

This is a timer. A milage timer. From what I read the O2 sensors need to be replaced every 30k miles. Modern vehicles would look at the output of the sensors and tell you when things aren’t working as they should and trip a check engine light. The XJS? Timer. When you hit 30k miles a light in the dash appears specifically for these sensors. The sensors could have failed 10k miles ago. They could be still good. Timer. Reset the timer and you have 30k more light-free miles.

I am very impressed with the internals though:

Lastly for today’s tear down…these lights. The bulb is just sorta shoved in there. These will be LEDs.

Demolding

(11/27/2022)

I mentioned earlier that the vehicle has sat a long time. Unfortunately what happens with a lot of vehicles that sit – they get moldy.

This was one of the more challenging parts of the car for me. I needed to clean the interior to remove any traces of mold/mildew, but I needed to do it safely (mold is dangerous for anyone and I’m especially sensitive to it) and do it in a way that didn’t trash the interior.

The first thing I tried was a “mold bomb” – this is one of those aerosol cans that fogs an area. Complete bust. Complete waste of money. This thing did something and sputtered and then just made a mess. 0 out of 10 would recommend.

After a lot more reading online, I came up with this solution. This is a disinfectant / cleaner and then there is another product from the same company that is a mildew cleaner. The combination of these two items seem to do the trick on all of the interior. Everything I’ve used it on has been left clean and smelling nice and does not seem to affect the materials.

This is after the first spray down of the dash and steering wheel. A little hard to see in the picture, but you can see on the right side where I stopped and the mold is still there.

This door card wiped up so nice! All of the leather is then sprayed down with a leather cleaner/treatment from The Chemical Guys.

The interior plan is as follows:

  • Clean everything inside the car
  • Remove everything from the car
  • Disassemble as much subsections as I can (like the door card can come apart in like 4 pieces)

The teardown begins (resumes?)

(11/23/2022)

About 15 years ago when the fuel leak was discovered I had fully intended to just replace the leaky fuel tank with one of those racing fuel cell type tanks. I even purchased the tank, a pump, filters – the whole deal. For some reason gasoline, or maybe the off chance of a fire in my trunk, scared me and I never finished it.

I had removed the back seat from the car to ensure no fuel was actually in the cabin, but then after that I just kinda parked the car. On 11/23/2022 I resumed the teardown of the car, this time with new intentions.

Here’s the trunk. The car is in perfect shape (well, more on that later) and I just need to remove all the wiring and plumbing mess that was factory installed.

See all these hoses with bolts plugging them? At one time they all went to the fuel tank, or the external sump tank, or the external fuel pump. Lots of external things on these cars that other vehicles in 1986 would have had mounted internally.

This full wave rectifier looks like an afterthought, but I have to believe this is probably factory? This is just many of electrical gems to be found…

What’s with all of the inline fuses and taps? Why is this wiring harness such a mess?

And then I came across this discovery. See this sticker? That’s a factory Jaguar replacement part. Great, right? Factory parts are typically superior to aftermarket, right? Yup, that’s certainly true. However, this is a rear quarter panel. This means the car was wrecked at one point in it’s life. The repair looks to be done quite well and was possibly done at an authorized factory repair shop. I haven’t uncovered the mystery of how bad the wreck was, but my dad and I believe that it sideswiped something. The driver rear quarter was replaced, there’s evidence that a completely new door was fitted and evidence of body filler in the front driver side fender.