The Jag in its home for the past 5+ years, with the new hardtop installed. I’ve created my own “barn find”!
As I wrote in May, I snagged a hardtop through a Facebook group for my 1988 Jaguar XJ-SC. We installed it this past weekend, poured in two gallons of gas liberally spiked with SeaFoam, and hooked up a new battery.
The tag expired in August of 2013, so it was last driven sometime prior to that. All the electrics came to life with the new battery, so that was a hopeful sign. I recalled correctly that I parked it pretty much with an empty tank, on purpose, so we didn’t have a bunch of old gas.
We checked the oil and coolant to make sure they were full, and I topped off the brake fluid which had leaked down from somewhere. With the new gas and new battery, my 15 year old son tried the key. It tried to catch a couple of times, and on the next try….it roared to life! I was pleased and pretty surprised to be honest.
The brakes behaved exactly as I recalled……the power assist works fine, but the pedal goes pretty much to the floor. It will stop the car from modest speeds, but clearly something is wrong. I had replaced the master cylinder when I bought it, but that and bleeding the brakes brought only a modest improvement in stopping power. Of course, I was the one bleeding the brakes on my back in the driveway, so I’m not sure how thorough of a job I did.
I explained to my son what “lot drives” means…..it will start, drive, and stop but not necessarily be safe for public roads. He proceeded to drive it gingerly down the private drive to his aunt’s house, and then continue down a gravel driveway to his late grandfather’s old garage. Maybe a mile or so round trip. He did this for an hour or so, back and forth, while I cleaned the gutters and otherwise tidied up the place.
The Jag never missed a beat in this limited trial run. I recalled things slowly, almost like seeing the car for the first time. The barrel-style coolant gauge pretty much stays on “C”, just like in 2013. I think I want to replace the sending unit first and see if that fixes it. If not, for $70 or so, we can install an aftermarket Hayden electric fan with a sensor on the radiator to come on and off automatically. Might be cheap insurance against the tremendous heat generated by the V12 under the best of circumstances.
Since it starts and drives, I’m going to call a nearby tire and lube shop I know pretty well and see if they will try to diagnose the braking. I think I could gingerly drive it there at low speeds (maybe one Sunday morning). I think two or more calipers are not working at all, plus it needs a “real” bleeding. New calipers are thankfully cheap, about $50 each on Rock Auto.
They can change the transmission fluid and filter too….on a V12 Jag, it’s a GM THM400, so the filter and Dexron are readily available. Who knows when that was last done. The engine oil is full and clean, but I’ve never changed it so it’s at least 6 years old. They can do that for us before we drive the 40 miles or so home, the manual says 20w50 is the preferred weight.
The Pirelli tires appear to have little to no wear….but the DOT date code tells us they are now 14 years old. The old school size, 215/70R15, is now pretty cheap. I can get a set of Michelins for about $300 after a $70 mail-in rebate.
So, once we get the brakes and tires sorted out, we will get her home and get to work with a pressure washer. I have downloaded a free 800 page PDF of everything you need to know about a V12 XJ-S, which I stumbled upon from some web link somewhere.
A V12 in an XJ-S engine bay
It looks like maybe our first DIY project will be the spark plugs. They are copper and require 30,000 mile replacements, but they rarely get done as you have to remove a number of components to access them in the “vee”. At least they are up top. But, the cruise control bellows, ignition module, throttle controls for each bank, and a few other components have to be removed. The A/C compressor blocks the first spark plug on the driver side bank, so it has to at least be loosened and lifted up a little. Ah, the joys of British car ownership!
We have right at 54,000 miles, so are we running on 30 year old plugs? We don’t know. The first and second owners are recorded in the maintenance book, and it was sold new and dealer serviced in Miami up into 1992 and about 20,000 miles.
I then have no data until 2000, when it showed up in Virginia with about 30,000 miles on it. The same owner owned it there from 2000 until 2012, when it was traded in and I bought it on the eBay auction. There is just one maintenance book entry in the 24,000 miles he owned it, showing all belts, hoses and the water pump being replaced at about 50,000 miles.
Stay tuned and we will bring you more news as it comes in!
Good luck! This looks like a fun project where the risks and rewards are both huge. 🙂
I love the concept of the do-it-yourself Barn Find. Just stick your car away and ignore it for an extended period. Anyone can do this no matter how modest one’s mechanical skills might be.
“One weird trick to classic car ownership! Jaguars love it!”
Awesome to hear your car’s getting back on the road; always loved this model. Good luck getting everything sorted. Extremely envious of your son, by the way: I think hearing the words “Here’s an old Jaguar. Drive it around a while.” would be car enthusiast nirvana, pretty much.
Sounds like a nice father-son project!
I remember some car rags from the day called these “ugly”, but I always liked the lines on them and the quad headlights on the early ones were always striking to me.
Did these come with a straight six?
The XJ-S did come with the six, though most in North America were the V12.
The XJ-SC Cabriolet was about 70% or 3500 with the six, and 30% or 1500 with the V12. All the ones for North America were the V12.
The later factory full convertible were all sixes, if I am not mistaken.
The straight six was the 4 litre Jaguar AJ6 engine, a fabulous engine and very reliable. The later facelifted 4 litre XJS is a lovely car with none of the grief and excessive fuel consumption of the V12
The last guy we had with a Jaguar got elbow-deep and then we never heard from him again so don’t let that fate befall you! 🙂
Good luck, this’ll be fun to watch without having to read the 800 pages or break open the wallet. My kind of restoration.
Search for: Project XJ6
The project appears to be abandoned with rusted out dual fuel tanks.
Shame about that. It would’ve been nice for that project to have had a happy ending. Life can disrupt the best-intentioned plans, though.
If you haven’t thought of it already, you may also consider flushing out the cooling system and giving the various radiator hoses the once over. Rubber brake lines are another inspection point. Given it’s age, checking the rear differential oil may not be the worst move either.
You’ll have fun with it and it sounds like it won’t need a tremendous amount of sorting out. That’s an enviable thing to have!
Very cool. See how far you can drive it before some old man comes up to you makes a corny joke about lucas electrics.
Lucas: The Prince of Darkness.
There, we got that out of the way…
But this Jag being an ‘88 model should be Bosch equipped.
Ah, Lucas….my dad’s 1969 TR6 had more than one electrical fire when I was young. I was scared to ride in it after smoke poured out of the dash one time.
There were so many different parts used on Jaguars, and record keeping so poor, sometimes even the VIN won’t tell you what you have for sure.
But, from a visual inspection it appears I have the post-Marelli, pre-Bosch Lucas ignition…which is, in fact, GM HEI with a Lucas sticker on the case. So I may have dodged a bullet there. Cheap and easy parts. And that probably accounts for why it started right up.
1969 TR6 had switches by ClearHooters. They would smoke, but it wasn’t REAL Lucas smoke.
Fix from Triumph was to replace ClearHooters switches with switches made by Lucas.
Hole in the (plywood with thin veneer overlay) dashboard needed to be a little larger for the Lucas switch.
A few little hits with a round file & viola!! The da$$$hboard is ruined!!!
BTW – New dashboard comes with smaller hole for ClearHooter switch.
ClearHooters – HUH-HUH!!!!
Lots of the Lucas injection parts on Jaguar have the Bosch mark & part # under the Lucas sticker.
There’s never been any problem with Bosch (looking @ you, D-model injection) (looking @ you, Motronic)
Bosch injection was so simple, only half an hour was paid for diagnosis.
Thanks, Bob, you’ve really made any # of my days.
I’d flush the entire brake system with fresh fluid as well.
Don’t worry, lots of brake fluid will be changed when the rear suspension comes out to deal with the rear calipers.
Happy Thoughts about the sparking plugs unscrewing from the heads.
Yes, that’s first on the list! And the rubber brake lines. Pretty much a full brake overhaul, really. I put every brake part you can replace in my cart on RockAuto and it was about $400, so not too bad.
Nice project car, plugs back when that was built didnt last the now normal 100,000 kms so they will have been out at least once, a full pressure bleed may cure the brakes but I’d suspect soft or rotten hoses the fluid went somewhere while it was laid up, cooling system flush and check oils changed and it should be good to go.
Congratulations to another XJS owner! Glad to hear that it fired up and is running and driving. Keep us appraised of your progress. Mine project stalled after the tranny change. It’s running fine and cool. Just waiting on the front suspension rebuild. I’ve been working on house stuff and trying to get the garage cleared out so I can work on the car inside. No sense in testing my neighbor’s good will without need. Your’s is a cabriolet, correct? Just a note for the glamm squad. Lady Diana had one of those for her very own, there are photos of her driving her two sons around. Good Company I should say!
Interesting! I didn’t know about the Diana connection. She had an ’87 she drove for four years. It was customized with a rear seat for Harry and William (yes, this 4,000 pound, 200 inch long car is a two seater).
Hit the bleeders with P Blaster or whatever you have a few times over a week, meanwhile buy a bottle of brake fluid and a large veterinary syringe.
Then bleed them with the syringe until the fluid is replaced, and don’t ever put that pedal to the floor and run the o-rings over the corroded and normally untrodden part of the master cylinder. This is why home bleed jobs end up in the shop, but in your case the piston has traveled over that area so it might be too late.
Worth trying for less than $10 total.
I replaced the master cylinder when I bought it, and bled the brakes…..that helped immensely, but the problem has returned after sitting 5 or so years. So I think the now six year old master cylinder is OK, but whatever the original problem was, still exists. But I am turning it over to more qualified hands for sure.
Wow, stunning car and so glad it’s getting back on the road! Can’t wait to follow the rest the tale of this cat.
Fascinating and fun project. I admire this so much. All the work that goes into it and what a great result you shall have at the end of it, and the satisfaction and pride of knowing you did this yourselves. I cannot wait for the next installment.