Wednesday 30 January 2008

ALL FIXED

Well what can I say, Chris, not wanting this to beat him, changed the crank sensor... Still the same problem! Joe stepped up and took a look.

I was watching from home on the camera system at Motor World. Waiting, wondering if we will ever get a chance to unleash the Jag's full potential :(

After an hour or so, of re-going over everything we had done previously in the service, he moved the dizzy cap a few degrees to see if it was a timing issue! It turns out that even though the Jag has its own self timing system, it was too far out for the car to compensate...

So again, because I never took note of how the Dizzy cap or rotorary arm were positioned when I removed them, this caused all of the misfiring! (typical)

*** Good News ***

All Fixed!!! So happy, Thanks to Chris and Joe

Sweet As!

Saturday 26 January 2008

Fault Finding day

The day started by picking up a new ignition coil from West Leigh Motor Factors. 20 quid lighter, we headed off to Motor World to see what the problem might be with the misfiring.

Chris changed the coil and we took it out for a test drive. Even though the car was still not running 100%, the car certainly didn’t hang around and we very quickly disappeared off down the road… Smiles where seen all around.

Ignition coil was not the problem!
We went in search for a coil amplifier connector. Wasn’t sure this was causing the problem, but went back to our new recently acquired friends Howard's Car Spares, where I new there were two poorly jags rusting away.

Another 10 quid lighter we headed back to Motor World. Chris fitted the Amplifier and Ramus & I went out for another drive. For some silly reason I decided to take the Motorway! Don’t ask me why... The car was running sweet as, until we hit 70'ish mph, then all of a sudden, we experienced some violent coughs and splutters from the engine and decided to abort and leave the Motorway. The car went into Limp home mode again and would keep on cutting out.

We slowly made it back to the workshop where we scratched our heads! What could the problem be??


Only option, was to let another mechanic take a look at it. (Trusty Joe)

Fitting the Headliner - 1st Road Test



This was a pain the A$$. The headliner had been delivered to Motor World earlier on that day and Chris had kindly put it in the Jag, so the windscreen could be fitted.


Me and Ramus had a hard time getting the wires, screws and sun visors to fit. It took us a little over an hour to fit and we broke most of the clips that hold the headliner in place.




Once it was in, it was time for the test drive... Test drive it was!


We slowly drove to the cash machine, so I could get some readies out as the car was running on FUMES! (Thanks fuel filter).

As we left the bank we noticed a knocking noise from the wheels. This got worse the more we drove.

We made it to the petrol station. I removed the fuel cap and was nearly blown over by the pressure in the fuel tank. £50.00 later and the needle barley above the half way mark we set off.

The knocking noise was really bad and the car started to wobble, also the engine was violently misfiring and had gone into limp home mode :(

When Chris went to check the wheels he noticed that the wheel nuts where really loose, really loose, this was an understatement!! In my haste to get the car back on the road I had forgotten to tighten them up.

We decided to take the car back to the work shop and look at the misfiring problem tomorrow. We where all still in shock from the near death experience of the wheels falling off. LOL

Monday 21 January 2008

Body Work

Had the car booked in today to have some of the body work sorted and the wheels tidied up.

There was some rust on the boot, side skirts and below the rear bumper. I also chose to have the coach lines painted back onto the side of the car.

This seemed the best time to have this done as the headliner is away for re-lining and there are still some problems with the engine!!

Cant wait to see what its going to look like...

£150 quid for the wheels and £290 quid for the body work. (can't grumble)

Sunday 20 January 2008

New Front Chrome

Decided to change the front bumper chrome today as the old one had rusted. It took ages to get the clips off the old one as they had been in place for the last 18 years.



I was quoted 340 pounds for a new piece of centre chrome but managed to get a second hand one from Howard's Car Spares. 40 quid for the complete bumper!
I think I am going to be buying lots from them LOL.




Not much else to do

Spent most of today cleaning the engine bay, quite a boring job and spent most of the day thinking about driving the car around.

Just made it home in time for dinner.

Saturday 19 January 2008

Jag Purchased

Today I purchased Project Sovereign.

I wanted to do a complete service on the car before I took it away. Changed the Spark Plugs, Dizzy cap and went to change the HT Leads. School boy error, I never marked which lead went where so when we came to start the car it wouldn’t turn over.

If it wasn’t for Chris's knowledge I would have never got the thing started. She was running very rough still but at least it was running.

We removed the headlining as this needed to be re-lined, I had arranged for this to be dropped of on Monday to Portchester Trimmers. We did have a go ourselves at re-lining it but I won’t go there, it was no Blue Peter special.

We went to change the fuel filter as the car was on the lift. After most of the petrol tank had emptied itself over Me, Ramus and Chris. We went to take the filter off, one of the nuts was not playing ball and had to be ground off..... Petrol and Sparks - not my cup of tea.



Yes that is me under the car risking my life for the car (Trying to find the sump nut...lol).

As you can see from the picture we had to remove the windscreen to get the headliner out... Lots of wires and screws with no idea where they go....

Could not take the car away today as it had to have some body work done and it needs the windscreen fitting