Scott's Yellow Jaguar

 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 ...

Yesterday took a few minutes to fix a couple of little things: Not so much a fix, need a new grommet to seal the bulkhead where the speedometer cable passes through Not sure if this is work of the mouse or just age but I wrapped it with friction tape to protect the wires Before After This I'm quite sure is mouse damage, fortunately they just damaged the outer sheath This is why the boot lid was difficult to open and especially close, the springs had migrated off the post and were rubbing against the body.  With a bit of lubrication and a little judicious leveraging of the springs the boot lid works as it should. Scott mentioned that his radio would only pull in one station so with the radio and console out I looked at the antenna, this was someones idea of a proper fitting.  My understanding is that most of the radios were installed by the selling dealer and it seems that this is how they did it.  Short of installing a new antenna I think that cleaning this one up is abou...

Worked on SJ in anticipation of getting some parts soon,  as you may recall when I changed the coolant I found the sweet stuff in the passenger compartment  footwell.  The only way it could get there was from a leaking heater transfer pipe but now with the top two out it looks like it's the one buried deep in the bulkhead.  I planned on replacing all three so not unexpected but still a PITA although with stainless steel Scott will never have to worry about this again, Have to remove the coolant reservoir to get to the lower pipe.  Once the area is clear then the rivets have to be drilled out to release the pipe. Beginning to get a parts collection Removing the dash top, was a bit of a thrash in that someone had been there before me and cross threaded a couple of the nuts.  I think that running a tap over them and using new nuts will likely solve this problem. Well, that's it for today. Cheers, Lynn 3 hours