Gastank installation build up.

Yesterday I painted the gastank and today it was dry so time to build everything up again. Not a to difficult job. As you can see I painted it proper British racing green. I left the top the Original color.
Started up the engine and all running fine again. Feels like it's running smooth. I had no time left to make a proper testdrive. I'm also planning to take the remaining carpet out and have it properly cleaned. Nice to have it running on the last day of the year! Still a lot of other minor jobs to do coming year.

Gastank rinsing and cleaning using a concrete mixer

Today I have been rinsing the tank using a concrete mixer. In the morning I went to the DIY market and bought a few cans of cleaning vinegar, parker screws, ducttape  and hammerite paint. I drove to my brother in law who has a mobile concrete mixer which I could use. With two tension straps we connected the tank to it and presto!

First thing I did was rinsing it out with water:

And a lot of brownish water and rust particles came out, this picture was taken after the 2nd rinse:

I think I rinsed it about 4 times before clean water came out of it. Then I put 15 liters of Vinegar in it and about 200 large parker screws. Not sure if this was a clever thing since the inner tank had various inner plates - likely to absorb gas movements. Then using duct tape to cover off all holes. I had it running for about 20 min and released the content which was again very brownish water. Then I rinsed it again a few times with water until it was clean. The screws however didn't came out, sigh! So I took the gastank back home again and used a flexible magnet stick and eventually got them all out. It was like playing "dr shiver". Glad I bought a new box of large screws rather then throwing in old small nuts and bolts or small stones. It's now drying up again and tomorrow I will paint the surface rust spots with Hammerite.

Main gas tank removal and cleaning

And the story continues, per blog:

http://erwinxjs.blogspot.nl/2016/11/after-last-weeks-failed-attempt-as-per.html

Finally I have some time to take care of this job. Today I have been removing the main gas tank. A job that was not to difficult. Removing the battery and the sumptank first. Then removing the main holding bars. Disconnecting the various hoses and the filling hose. In order to remove it entirely also the left iron sidebar had to be removed and on the right side the relaisholder had to be removed. Then it was just a matter of moving it out. And presto:

As you can see at the bottom there is some light corrosion in a triangle shape. But nothing worrisome.
By now the tank was already dried up and when shaking you could hear a lot of dirt moving.

When taking off the main gas hose going to the sump tank I was shocked again. As you can see it was completely filled up with dirt:

No wonder the engine would stall. I'm really surprised this car was able to run at all knowing now how much it was contaminated. Tomorrow I will try to flush and clean the tank and add some coating (pending if the local shops have these fluids available).

Oh, I also found my missing fuel pump. It was at home stored away in a cupboard :-)

Xmas postcard by Auto Becker

Click to enlarge and spot the XJS

Gisele Bundchen XJS

For a H&M fotoshoot, thought it was worth a blog update

Classic Auto top 30

Just caught this one today. And of course the XJ-S is listed. Seems like it's on the rise.

Good examples are becoming price worthy:

https://www.classicdriver.com/en/car/jaguar/xjs/1986/398126

XJS HE Facebook post by Rens Biesma

I caught this one on FB, am adding it just for the records and because I like this one
Adding the picture seperately due to the volatility of FB and Internet. The FB poster is a known Dutch car illustrator.

Leave the gun take the Connolly

A very nice gift from Jos to treat the XJS or was it for the 400 :-) Thanks Dude!

Drivetribe : XJ-S/XJS_ Dedicated to the lovers of Jaguar's underrated jewel

Why not join in?

https://www.drivetribe.com/t/KT0WgMDVQq-RdFYhd5PQ7A/Htr5_HC1SNiPt1mX9m0eNg

Lazy Sunday

Just a nice piccie for Sunday

And there was light

As per http://erwinxjs.blogspot.nl/2016/10/dashboard-instrument-panel-lighting.html

I still had an outstanding item to cover. Unfortunately I wasn't able to source this part newly (bulb holder - part nr 13H5270J).

So I figured to drop a note on the XJS FB group https://www.facebook.com/groups/4185237245
hoping someone would have it spare for me.

This did trigger off some reactions, see link of my posting:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/4185237245/permalink/10154581391437246/

The first reaction was actually quite good as someone mentioned they were available at:

http://www.jagbits.com/product/13H5270J.html

For which I remarked it was fairly expensive. Which triggered another response that I shouldn't have bought a Jaguar if I consider parts expensive.

In any case, a friendly owner in the USA responded since he had this available as he was stripping down a 1982 XJS. So I made contact with him and also asked if he had a trunk interior light as well. As one side was missing, only a small broken piece left:

I was unable to find this part on the online catalogues available at the known Jaguar sites. As such I couldn't find the part number either to search further. But luckily he had this part available as well. The lightholder is made by Hella:

I agreed a fair price with him but the shipping costs were just as much, sigh! Then I asked about some other items of my interest, which he had as well. So with this extra item it justified the expensive shippings cost easily in my opinion. More on this other item in another upcoming blog.

Typical enough I shortly afterwards found the bulb lightholder available at this company, which is really a good source (and now added to the sidebar). And only for € 1,75 !

https://en.partacus.de/spareparts/detail/e0bc23a1edcae83c52550790ee375b90/

By now the parts have arrived and the install of the trunk light was a  1 minute job. And both sides have now got new bulb lights as well. These small jobs are so rewarding:

And then fitting the missing bulbholder with a new bulb light in the instrumentpanel was another easy job. So happy it's all complete and working now.

When last time I did remove the instrumentpanel one piece of black clothing fell off as the Original glue was dried out. So that hat to be fixed as well. The same goes for both cover panels which also had their clothing no longer firmly attached to it. All nicely glued again and presto. It's all in the detail.

Magazine Practical Classics: The top 100 cars voted by You!

And on NR 35 ; the Jaguar XJ-S on the rise!

Magazine Jaguar World : Jaguar XJ-S vs Ferrari 400i

I purchased this magazine last week and it arrived today. Typical enough I had written the following for a blog update but not released it yet:

There appears to be quite some commonalities between these cars.

The XJS of course had the difficult task to follow up on the well beloved E-Type. An iconic sports car with looks that were highly appreciated. In fact Enzo Ferrari considered it one of the most beautiful car ever.

The 400 had also the difficult task to outbeat it's curvy predecessors. Although the 2+2 series were never truly beloved or admired. Simply because they are not true sport cars and as such considered less interesting.

When both cars were launched at the time they stunned the majority of the audience, or should I say dissapointed them. It was a brave decission to launch these completely new designs and brake with tradition. It simply opened a new era. If you look back now it makes perfect sense. Both cars are a true seventies product.

Apart from the design aspects the XJS could not live up to the expected sport aspirations as was the case on the E-type. It was more considered a grand tourer. The same story goes for the 400, especially when the automatic version was introduced. But it's exactly what these cars are, Gran Turismo's.

Despite all the critics they both had a very long production run and were sold in fairly high numbers.

Interestingly both made use of the same automatic gearbox, a THM400 by GM.

Furthermore they are both also 2+2 but in essence only kids will fit in the back.

They both have the typical classic long bonnet and fitted with a respectable boot for Luggage.

Apart from the different designs the other big difference is the drive itself, the XJS is more refined and very quiet, it's like a flying carpet. The 400 feels firm and powerfull and is very loud, it's like a locomotion.

Now have a read and see what they have to say about the XJS and 400. Click the picture to enlarge.
Oh, another very unique feature is that both cars used for this article happen to have a manual gearbox. And in this case the Ferrari is not red either.

Magazine Fast Lane March 1987 : Tainted love

I came ahold of this time period article with an interesting review about a used XJS. One section is particular interesting as it describes a problem that I have ran into: a stuck gearbox:

http://erwinxjs.blogspot.nl/2016/08/automatic-transmission-stuck-in-parking.html

The article does have some other gremlins mentioned. Click the picture to enlarge the article:

After last weeks failed attempt as per blog:

http://erwinxjs.blogspot.nl/2016/10/fuel-filters-and-fuel-pump-replacement.html

I had to make a new attempt. To my surprise I was unable to locate my new purchased fuelpump. I couldn't believe it, completely lost. So I had to order a new one. This time around I figured to test it correctly first to ensure the + and - pole were correct. So I hooked it up with leads to a battery and it turns out it's correct. So last time around my assumption was incorrect and it was blowing instead of sucking because I reversed it without checking first. Sigh, I'm such an idiot.

In any case, I mounted the new one and it was working instantly. I have to say this one seems to make more noise then the Original one. It's a known complaint on some sources I have been reading recently.

After a small test drive it was however playing up again. On further inspection it turned out the sump tank wasn't filling up. So again I had to drain the main tank (I'm getting good at this). Although I had cleaned/rinsed the sump tank last time around it was of course silly to think the main tank would be properly clean, see blog:

http://erwinxjs.blogspot.nl/2016/10/gas-tank-sump-tank-contamination.html

Oh, also this time around the fuel gauge no longer appeared to be working fine (while last time around it magically started working by itself). When removing the sender unit and shining some light into the main tank it became very apparently the bottom was heavily contaminated just like the sump tank:

So very likely the hose from the main tank to the sump tank is heavily contaminated or partly blocked with dirt resulting into gas flowing very slowly into the sumptank and consequently drying up and the engine stalling. When disconnecting the fuel hose between the fuel pump and sump tank I blown air into the sump tank and I think this did the trick as an air of dirt left the tank via the sender unit hole. to avoid any future clogging up I guess I have no other choice then to de-install the main tank and have it properly cleaned and give it a new coating. To be continued.

Battery trickle conditioner charger

As I know the previous owner had installed a new battery I was interested to keep it in a good state. On my other cars and bikes I had already wasted money on new batteries as I wasn't bothered to keep them charged. When browsing around I had seen Jaguar branded battery trickles which I thought was cool:

The price was however not cool and twice as much (about 130 US Dollar) as a regular charger. It appears these Jaguar chargers happens to be CTEK chargers only with a different cover and a Jaguar logo. I then found out the Jaguar part nr: C2P25122. When searching with this number I found various sources but the prices were almost the same everywhere. Then I tried SNGBarrat and noticed they could offer it locally for only € 60,-  Excellent! That's even cheaper then a real CTEK charger.

It's handy to have it with a cigaret charger so I don't have to fiddle around with extra wires on the battery. And I received the package yesterday. Nice. It did have an American power socket, so I only need to buy a converter plug.

The book of the Jaguar XJ-S by Brian Long

When I was in Berlin visiting a bookstore there was a small section with car books. To my surprise I noticed this XJS book which happened to be a German edition:

I liked it very much. So once at home I did some further checking and of course it was available in English. It's really a great book covering everything about this car. So I had to have it. I purchased the latest revisited edition. And it arrived today. Am very pleased with it

Fuel filters and fuel pump replacement

Today I had some time to finally build up the fuel system. The parts were delivered earlier this week, 1 new seal, 1 fuel filter for the sumptank, 1 fuel filter and 1 new fuel pump

 This looks clean now:

When removing the normal fuelfilter this is what came out of it! Heavily contaminated. Clearly not replaced for a long time:

The sump tank I had cleaned last week. Just filled it partly with gas and partly with small stones. And then shaked it for a little time untill it was mostly shiney inside. I also had it soaked a little using Forte but I think that was a complete waste.

When placing the new fuel pump I noticed a small mistake. The large screw which should be used for plus is marked minus. And the small screw which should be used for grounding is marked plus

When everything was build up again the engine didn't want to start. When connecting the old fuel pump again it worked instantly. However it wasn't running great and eventually stalled. Then it run again but it did not ran smooth and was playing up. I really suspect the old fuel pump is worn out, which does not surprise me seeing the heavily polluted filters. And the brushes are likely also poor. Hence I had already decided to have it replaced. The new fuel pump is however a very cheap one, I will do some further checking again but I sense it needs to be returned. Unfortunately I ran out of time to properly check it. Not happy, I should have ordered a new Bosch fuel pump instead.