Milestone! 20,000 ticks!

Here it is; December 28th, 2010, s/n 426288 has just hit the magic 20K mark since I became acquainted with her about a year and a half ago. At about 7:15 this evening, the odometer rolled over 136,223 miles and I am very proud to report that she hasn't missed a beat yet. In our 20K miles together, she hasn't left me stranded once, has lived outside almost exclusively and has truly worked for a living during her time with me thus far.

Granted, today while receiving a quick fluid check/top-up, I did reveal leaking rear brake calipers, which at least shed some light on why my brake fluid level would mysteriously drop at random times, of course duly scaring the shit out of me in the process of applying the brakes. Although, I must admit, the pedal only sank on the first application of the brakes when the car was stationery, so I was able to pop the bonnet and replenish the fluid, which brought the pedal right back up. I was initially concerned that the master cylinder seals were shot, however a quick undercarriage check put the bull's eye on the calipers. Drat! Looks like the next "major" will be dropping the rear cage out and a brake overhaul! Wish me luck!

No, we didn't disappear!

Boy, it's been a long time since I've updated this. Ok, I'll explain why; I bought another XJ6, this time, a 1996 Vanden Plas in very nice condition. It didn't need a whole lot done to it, and my intent was to drive it while I did some work on the Series III. Well, I wound up definitely driving the X300 (a lot) and let the poor old Series III sit in the corner of my workshop. Eventually, I decided I missed the older car's driving habits, so I sold the X300 and got busy sorting some issues on the '85, namely a horrific rumble from the driveline upon deceleration.

First up was the transmission rear mount assembly. Upon initial inspection, I noticed that the center "spool" bushing was totally shot. Thinking that was my problem, I put a new one in, but it made no difference at all. Next, I consulted with a friend who is a master Jag mechanic and he suggested that I need to rebuild the mount in its entirety with new rubber blocks and spring and to use two spring pads, rather than the originally called-for one. Got that all done and still no improvement! My last place to check was of course the driveshaft. Now, I'd checked it before, and all of the u-joints seemed fine, and the center bearing, while not perfect, wasn't shot. But I figured I'd better yank the shaft down and dig deeper....

What I did find (much to my relief) was that the rearmost u-joint was frozen in one direction of its axis. Had I not dropped the shaft, I'd have never figured that out! So, armed with three new greaseable u-j's and a new center bearing, the driveshaft was promptly 'rebuilt' and I'm now pleased to report that the car is smooth as glass at all speeds.

The only other somewhat 'major' repair I had undertaken was to R&R the A/C compressor as the old one was leaking pretty badly from the front plate. This turned out to be a nightmare, as getting the old one out is a horrible job, and to further my frustration, the replacement unit from Motorcars LTD in Texas had a belt pulley that was too big and wouldn't allow for insertion of the tensioner adjustment "block". And now, to add insult to injury, it's been three weeks since they received the compressor back and have yet to issue me a credit for my $300.00 back. What a nightmare....

BUT; the car is driving great, and I'm happy to be ensconsed back in my "worn baseball glove" interior, as Krista calls it ;)

Birth Certificate...

In I'm sure what was an odd request to the Jaguar-Daimler Heritage Trust, I ordered a JDHT certificate for 426288, just as a bit of a keepsake since she's been so loyal to me throughout the past 15,000 miles. I found out that her birthday was April 26th, 1985 (Krista's is April 29th, so this will be easy to remember) and she was dispatched to the US just four days later and eventually made her way from the customs docks out east to Bob Williams Ford right here in Cincinnati. Williams was also the Jaguar/Rolls Royce/Bentley agent here in town for years and years and I recall driving past their showroom as a youngster and seeing beautiful, brand new XJs (both 6's and S's) as well as Corniches and Mulsannes under massive chandeliers in their showroom. Today, the dealership is no more, but Bob Williams' daughter owns it and runs a used car business out of there. I bet those chandeliers which still hang in there to this day never thought they'd be reflecting their light off of Chevy Aveos and GMC Jimmys.....oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Aunt Sonja's Cookies to the Rescue!

I hang my head in shame, I had to do some more cobbling of the XJ's exhaust. About a month ago I heard a rather scary noise eminating from the left rear corner of the Jag upon acceleration. A quick inspection revealed the rearmost silencer hanging down, sheared off from the over-axle pipe and looking rather sorry for itself. A pre-planned trip to Sandusky the following day meant I had to act quickly, and quickly meant swilling down two chilly Budweisers at 11am in order to effect a repair patch. A half an hour later had the exhaust buttoned up and the Jag ready for another whirlwind trip to northern Ohio and back.

Fast forward to this past week. A cursory check of the patchwork showed that things weren't looking promising for St. Louis' finest any longer, so a careful drive ensued to the workshop for.....wait....more cobbling, but only this time, my patch had to last. My first thought was a trip over to Lowe's to see if I could find any sheet steel thin enough to be rolled into a tube and clamped between the pipe and silencer, however in my rummaging through junk in the workshop, I spotted none other than one of Aunt Sonja's famous tins of her lovely homemade chocolate chip cookies sitting on my pinball machine. And even better, the tin's contents had been consumed leaving me with my patch of choice! And how befitting at that, as the tin she used was none other than from the ever-so-elegant Pepperidge Farm.

Some handy work with the tin snips and fifteen minutes later the exhaust was back in action. I'm not quite so shameful about this one, as Pepperidge Farm Pirouette cookies only wind up in the most elegant of households...and on the most elegant of automobiles ;)

The Jag's First Rally....Success and Comfort!

This past weekend, the Indiana British Car Union held their annual London to Brighton Run over 145 miles of rural back roads. Always a fun event, I last participated in it back in 2005 where we clinched third place out of about 25 entries in my 1967 MGB-GT. This year, since the MG is still laid up with a failed clutch release bearing and the carburettors from my E-Type are apart on the workbench, the trusty XJ6 was called into duty for the rally. We set off bright and early on an absolute scorcher of a day, all fluids brimmed and the air con keeping us nice and cool. After an hour-and-a-half ride out to the starting point of London Road near Indianapolis, we set off on the rally at 10AM sharp and rolled in to the Hilltop Restaurant five hours later, still feeling great and with a mostly completed questionnaire of clues which we had to find answers to along the route. This year, the field was about the same, 25 cars, mostly of the MG or Triumph variant with one Sunbeam and one TVR for flavor. I must admit that although most of the roads would have been more fun to negotiate in a sports car, the outside ambient temperatures and humidity reminded me that we were fairly lucky to have been graced with 40 degree chilled air from the XJs fascia vents all day. Scores tallied had us tied for fourth place with another team who won by virtue of having brought an older car than we, so we were duly awarded a fifth place plaque. Not bad by any account, and not to mention the fact that Krista is a newbie at this sort of thing. And kudos to her, she held up remarkably well for being cocooned in my mobile ice box for several hours. But do note she's wearing a sweatshirt in the photo ;)

Oh, and the Jag? As always, she performed without complaint. And we just so happened to roll 130,000 miles on the way home.

Failure.....Sorted! And a tune-up to boot!

With the Jaguar off the road, I was forced to quickly explore options regarding radiators. My initial thought was to have the original unit re-cored, however after speaking to several folks about it, I changed my mind and opted for a modern aluminum replacement. Granted, the modern rads aren't as stout as the old bronze/brass units, however aluminum is far more efficient in dissipating heat, not to mention is far more cost-effective, so with that, a replacement unit was sourced from a local vendor for a mere $178.00 and was duly fitted along with a new auxiliary fan switch and of course the obligatory coolant flush, still keeping with Peak's 'Global' mixture. After the new rad found its way in, I had to wait for assistance on refitting the bonnet so since I had an hour to kill, I opted to fit the new distributor cap, rotor and ignition lead set I purchased from the good people at British Parts Northwest. The cap is a genuine Lucas unit, the rotor a heavy duty blue epoxy unit from True Spark Ignition (who fabricate ignition parts for Brit cars exclusively) and the wire set is a true Limey-made Intermotor set. Not that I'd had trouble with any of the aforementioned components, but I figured with the bonnet removed, there was no better time to swap everything what with the extra working clearance afforded me at the time. Afterward, the bonnet was refitted and the cooling system bled and we were back on the road and running a rock-solid 90 degrees Celsius on the dial. Now to just figure out why the aircon isn't as cold as it was before I fiddled around with all of the hoses/condenser during the radiator R&R.....

Finally, the FIRST debilitating failure!

Well, it's been a long time coming perhaps, but the Jag finally experienced a part failure which rendered her undriveable. Upon arrival to my workshop on Saturday, June 26, 2010, at 128,060 miles, I noticed a pinhole stream of pressurized coolant spraying out from behind the recently installed A/C condenser (which, after a new drier, expansion valve and 2.5 lbs of R-12 freon, is working a treat). I guess I must have either nicked something a few weeks back when I was R&R'ing the condenser or else the rad must be past her structural prime (although functionally, it still worked perfectly). Either way, my plans for driving the Jag to the Vintage Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio Raceway the following day were thwarted and instead I found myself comfortably ensconced in my grandmother's lovely borrowed Lexus LS400 for the five hour round trip. So a call to Welsh Enterprises is in order for tomorrow morning, and I expect to see a new radiator by mid-week so we can get on with racking up more comfy miles. But let's keep one thing in mind, it took 11,837 miles for the Jag to physically let me down. And I'll add to that, it couldn't have happened at a more convenient place. Still love this car.