Scott's Yellow Jaguar

 The last day of August, what a strange year so far.  I took a closer look at the rust area I was concerned about and was pleased to see that it was pretty limited and didn't penetrate the foot well floor.  I cleaned the area up and then treated with a rust encapsulator.  Scott was able to track down some Redline 75W90 gear lube for me and dropped it off today so I was able to change out the differential fluid.  I think highly of the Redline synthetic oils and am pleased that Scott was able to find it. I contacted SNG Barrett regarding the hoses and William Wigglesworth is going to take care of it for me, another reason I like dealing with SNG, the customer service has and continues to be outstanding. Thats it for today, Cheers, Lynn 1.5 hours

 Evening Folks,  First I want to say Happy Birthday to a Friend,  Harold is a WW2 veteran and turning 97 today.  My very good friends Ed and Michele are back in Boston to celebrate with Patty, Doug and Harold!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Today I finished installing the rest of the interior and replacing the coolant hoses,  unfortunately I found an area of corrosion that Scott will want to address at some point.  I was running the overflow reservoir and I noticed the passage was blocked with a  piece of metal that shouldn't have been there. Closer investigation revealed that someone had done a repair there presumably when the sill was replaced prior to Scott's ownership. The hose replacement has been pretty straight forward aside from that and that the hose kit doesn't include two of the primary to secondary manifold hoses.  We can either stop and wait or I can do them at a later date but it's up to Scott. Nothing else to share, stay well! Cheers, Lynn...

Today I installed the radio console and fitted it so the instrument panel will drop down to allow access for the fuses.  I thought today was going to be pretty straight forward but the previous owner hadn't installed the two upper bolts in the radio console so I had to try to find a couple of bolts that would look decent (at some point Scott may want to order a couple of chrome bolts and washers like it would have had but this will hold it in place and honestly they are hard to see).  The second problem was fixing the turn signal mechanism, Scott had asked me to see if I could fix his turn signal so that it would self cancel, usually this is a pretty simple fix of something that has slipped but not this time.  Who ever replaced the steering wheel had left off the pal nut that locks the steering wheel nut and the bracket that locks the adjustable steering column screw in place.  The pal nut wasn't a big deal but the bracket was as the lock pin/screw could have fallen ...

Hi There, Won't be a long post today,  in fact I'm going to do two posts today one for the work done on the 25th and one for today the 27th. The parts came on Monday but it felt a little like the Christmas when I was five and Santa forgot the bullets for my 'Fanner Fifty',  I got the hoses but the speedometer grommet wasn't in the shipment and I had been waiting on this piece so I could put the dash back together.  Well, it was either wait another week or so to reorder it or try to make one.  I'll let you be the judge of how it came out but I think it would take a pretty close inspection to see it wasn't OEM. After I installed the grommet then I could proceed with the dash top and so forth.  I'll let the pictures do the talking from here:   That's it for the 25th. Cheers, Lynn 3 hrs

Not an official blog entry just a few things that I took care of over the weekend while waiting for parts that are supposed to arrive today: These pictures are completely out of order but this picture is obviously of the seat bottom on the passenger side.  The rubber diaphragm will need to be replaced in the near future as they have become brittle with time and on the drivers seat the front has cracked/broken off so that it's unsupported.  I used a bit of bailing wire to bodge it and it may hold for a bit longer but suspect it will eventually rip through the rubber diaphragm.   The drivers side after cleaning The floors are very solid under the seats No Rust at all The bottom of the drivers seat with the missing clips, as I mentioned I reenforced this area with a bit of bailing wire but probably should think about replacing the diaphragms in the future The sun-visors where loose and wouldn't tighten up, investigating revealed that a screw that was to long had been us...

 Hi Ya'll, Very short day and a hot one to boot!  Got some parts ordered today from SNG, new coolant hoses, a couple of grommets for the fire wall and an 'O'ring for the heater control valve.  The turn signal activator bracket is also in and was shipped today, as I've mentioned this is a critical piece as it keeps the locking pin that holds the steering column in.  Work today consisted of lowering the exhaust system so I could get the transmission drain bolt out, draining the transmission and refilling with Redline MT90.  If you search Jag Lovers you'll find that this is considered a vast improvement over standard 90W gear oil and my personal experience has been good with it to, not cheap but the transmission will likely shift better. Looking for the access hole for the trany fill plug I found this 'mouse' hole,  just kidding.  I think that someone drilled this out so that they could install a new speedometer cable or angle drive. Needless to say it wo...

 Good evening,  I worked on the pipes today replacing the old mild steel pipes with new stainless steel pipes from SND Barrett.  I aways approach this task with some trepidation because it is like working a jig saw puzzle with a blindfold.  The longer pipe goes in first then the vacuum pipe, while getting the pipes in is a bit of a challenge what is really difficult is trying to get them riveted in place.  There is very little space and the engine and hardware are in the way of getting the pop rivet gun in there.  One of the picture will give you an idea of how I did it. With the pipes in place I can now reassemble the interior except for the steering wheel where I'm waiting for the safety/turn signal clip. The Pipes are in, you can see the rope that I used to pull the pipe up against the inside of the bulkhead so that I could get the 'D' washer riveted into it. The little Kitty has teeth ;-) I was able to modify the pop rivet tool so that I could get up cl...

Hello, Not a lot of excitement here today,  I will offer a retraction of one of my criticisms of aftermarket parts.  I found the 'D' washers and rivets in a bag with the pipes.  This is a really good thing because the old 'D' washers didn't match up with the new pipes and I would have been drilling them out to make them work. The other thing I found, or rather didn't find were the 2 grease zerks on the lower fulcrum arm on the inside.  The passenger side had them so what happened to the drivers side zerks?  Weird!   I was able to bleed the rear brakes without removing the front shock on either side, access is pretty limited to the bleeder nipple but still doable. The new Ball Joints in all their glory One of the missing zerks, fortunately I had some in my supplies and after cleaning the area off got them installed, the big question in my mind is Why? The Passenger side had them Today I had hoped to get the pipes installed or at least started but bleedi...

Evening Folks, Today went quite a bit better  than yesterday since I was forewarned about the upper ball joint issues, namely that the aftermarket spring inside the upper ball joint was too thick.  The supplier I use is one of the best but I get the impression that corners are being cut somewhere along the supply chain.  For instance the Lemforder lower ball joints used to come with 4 bolts, a washer and a nut for the end of the ball joint, neither ball joint came with them this time.  The upper ball joints, as I mentioned had a spring that was too thick, even clamping without any shims I couldn't get the snap ring installed.  Then there was the fact that the threads for the grease zerk had to be tapped to get it to thread, thankfully I discovered this before they were assembled and I didn't have to worry about 'swarf' getting into the ball joint.  Sorry to belabor this but it is quite frustrating particularly when you see the parts getting worse over time....

 Well, today was a continuation of yesterday with corroded connections refusing to budge and new parts that wouldn't fit! Don't know why I put this in other than showing the fitting that managed to mangle my thumb! The new rear brake line is in now.  One thing I didn't mention was that the autopsy confirmed my impression as to why the brakes wouldn't bleed on the drivers front-the flex line was swollen shut. Nifty Harbor freight tool for breaking the ball joint loose, worked like a charm on this one, just keep hoping that it's well enough made not to break as there is a lot of force concentrated in that tiny area. As you can see, it came loose and I am cleaning up the 'joint' in anticipation of installing the new one. Bottom ball joint ready to pop out, I had to let it sit tonight with penetrating oil with pressure on it hoping that it will have popped loose when I start tomorrow-talk about wishful thinking! After a lot of struggling the new upper ball joint...

 The parts arrived today so I thought I'd start with something simple so I decided to clean up and paint the 'D' washers that hold the pipes in place.  That went easy enough so I thought I'd just get the new flexible brake hoses installed, how hard could that be?  Well, never underestimate the perversity of an old Jaguar!  At one point I thought I'd have to call one of my sons who are a lot stronger than me to come over and break them loose, but like Archimedes is alleged to have said, find me a long enough lever and I can move the world.  The only problem, very hard to get the worlds longest lever in this tight spot.  Eventually I was able to break them apart but managed bruise my thumb in the process.  Have you ever hit your thumb with a hammer?  Needless to say I'm glad no one could hear me. All the new parts, hope they fit Old pedal pads, a little worse for wear Nice shiny new ones, at least this didn't fight me These are the 'D' washers that ...