Broadsword

That is one caddish Jag! I never liked the look of the basic XJ40, but the moment it is hunched down on big wheels and wide tyres with the quad light and most importantly the presence of the V12 in my mind increases the visual appeal (don't ask me how I came to that conclusion, it's special logic). Great colour too!!

It does indeed have a DMF, a very heavy looking item.

That’s it, we’re out! The weighty Getrag lump is free of the red Jag. In the end what I needed was a 50 cm extension bar and a shallow impact swivel socket to get the harder to reach bellhousing bolts out. After that the final challenge was teasing the gearbox off the locating dowels, since it was seized on. Before too long the gearbox popped off and there was ample room to push back, lower on my little motorcycle jack and drag it out from the side. Doing this job in a small single garage on axle stands is only just about doable. It’s not terribly complicated but I really had very, very little space to manoeuvre. It was exciting to see how how bad things were inside. The release bearing is absolutely shot. How it didn’t disintegrate is a minor miracle. More impressive than that is how the pivot on the fork was seized solid and the fork was seized on the input shaft. It would barely move. How the clutch didn’t stick is beyond me. For a moment I wondered if the car had been in a flood. There was watery rusty residue in the bellhousing. Soon I realised what had really happened. Water has dropped from the air box drain direct to the top of the bellhousing and leaked into the transmission. Condensation attacked the pivot and release bearing in particular. In short, with a good clean up and the new bearing fitted it will be fine. To my surprise the clutch itself is in good condition. I know this sounds unconventional but I’m not going to change the clutch, just the release bearing, selector mount bushings and just clean everything up. New fluid of course, but that’s it. I’m certain it will be great after that. If the clutch was smooth (but heavy) in this state it will be fine with this work done. By the way the clutch is BEEFY! It weighs an absolute tonne!

They should be testing it on petrol. I had an issue with failing emissions on a LPG Jag V8 once and the advice was to have a look at the spark plugs because they are going to wear out much faster on LPG. Sure enough they were very worn down and a new set of plugs sorted everything out.

Info from the XJR6 factory manual register as follows: Built 25th May 1995 to Caffyns of Eastbourne on 06/06/95.

The Rover was towed away this moring for scrap. Sad times. I kind of don't have a daily at the moment, which will become more of a headache as time goes on. The MX-5 can serve as a runabout while the weather is nice, but it doesn't do a good job at transporting people and/or stuff. An estate car would be good.. or and XJR6 auto. Not wanting the demise of a fleet member to get things down, I pushed on hard with the red Jag immediately after the MOT. The next morning I took the car to be evaluated for a full respray. This is convenient now that I have a rapport with the place on the back of NLW being done and the shop is only a mile or so from home. I will have the estimate soon, but it will be a fairly similar job to NLW bar we will keep to the exact factory colour, which is Flamenco Red. What with things going well I immediately started to tear the red Jag down. First I wanted as many body panels off as convenient to see if there is any structural rot and also to facilitate disassembly for the respray. I don't want to land them with a load of seized bolts. Again the car continues to surprise. Every nut and bolt was easy to remove. Only one snapped little bolt on the front wing, which is a no headache at all. The bumpers came off in moments as did the bonnet. Later I'll have the full interior out and the sunroof (it's stuck). There are a few bits of rust on the bodywork, but they seem fixable and I have spare front wings to go. Next I wheeled the somewhat stripped Jag into the garage for the beginnings of the big job... the gearbox. This one will take me some time, but long story short, everything was dead easy from removing the exhaust, prop, clutch hydraulics, gearbox mount and most of the bellhousing bolts. I'm currently stuck with two bellhousing bolts. One is right at the very top and one holds the top of the starter in. I'll need many more extension bars and an excellent impact swivel stocket to get me over the line. Once the box is off I can assess what manner of clutch overhaul I'll be doing. One extreme is just chaning the release bearing if by some miracle the clutch had little wear (remember you can't by a new one OEM spec), the other possibility is conversion to single mass flywheel and using and XJS clutch kit. I've removed the intake system too for a whole lot of tidying up. Of course the throttle is sticking as it is on most XJR6s. Working on this one has been a pleasure. Bar those two difficult bellhousing bolts the car hasn't been fighting me at all. It wants to live. Much more to come!

I like to get a good period correct key ring for any of my more interesting cars.

Bonus headlamp washer a la HubNut. I’ve never actually see the headlight washer system working on an X300.

In the aftermath of the Rover’s demise, this is my analysis of the sequence of events.. Either one of the engine accessories or the auxiliary belt tensioner locked up leading to partial shredding of the the auxiliary belt. Parts of the auxiliary belt found their way into the cam belt housing, locking it up and partially damaging the cam belt. This immediately bounced the valves and trashed the head, possibly the pistons too. Incidentally the fuel system is full of rust but this wasn’t actually causing a running issue. Whoever did the major work on then car knew the fuel tank was rusty and cleaned it up as best they could but it deteriorated. It just isn’t worth the time and money to try and put it right. It will just get messier and messier. I’ve booked the car to get to get collected for scrap next Wednesday. Disappointing, but one has to take the tougher with the smooth. Speaking of which. I took the latest XJR manual in for an MOT. Boy oh boy does it look incongruous. The story underneath is quite different though. No rust, no problems at all really. It doesn’t even leak. It passed easily, which was a delight on a Friday afternoon. Next job for the red shed Jag is to get the gearbox out and assess the clutch. At the very least it needs a release bearing but probably a whole clutch. You can’t buy a direct fit clutch kit for these anymore. More on that later.

I don’t think there is a successor to your Gold SDI as such, so I’d be tempered to keep it going as long as possible. Even in it’s current state it will probably give less trouble than a modern.

Things unravelled with the Rover upon digging into the FTP. First I noticed no fuel was getting through and the tank is full off rust/debris, all the way to the injector pump (so there is debris past the fuel filter). Then looking at the timing belt is has slipped and shredded partially along with the auxiliary belt. There is loud clack noise from the head when you rotate the engine by hand so there is major engine damage for sure. The little bit it did run sounded like 1 cylinder.. Anyway I need a car that I can rely on and given the Rover has already had a new head, I think some underlying issue was not figured out when it got worked on by a previous owner. It's going to get scrapped. Shame really it was spot on right up till the moment it grenaded, and was a nice drive.

That is an exceedingly cool Clio. I always liked that shape best for some reason. Tiny car with slightly oversized engine is a sure recipe for win!

The fortunes in Shite are subject to rapid change. That was certainly the case today when I got a call that the Rover had expired in the middle of York. Clutch pedal jumped all the way up and the engine sounds like it's about to explode. I'll assume the DMF has grenaded without warning and taken out the clutch. Not a good start to the week.

Took the red Jag out for an extended test drive today to shake out any issues. It behaves remrkably well and the only issue that has cropped up so far (apart from the noisy release bering) is the thermostat has stuck open. I plan to take it in for an MOT ASAP.

After a day checking the latest Jag over, it’s on the road! First I had a good prod underneath to assess the rot. The special prodding tool failed to penetrate the chassis, which was nice. It’s a strange situation where the scabbiness is on top but it’s actually solid in all the right places. A good start to the day. Then the gear linkage. It took about an hour. I used the old bushings from NLW which were about 1000% more effective at being bushings than thin air. Suddenly the gearshift felt fantastic. It actually feels nicer than on NLW but now I realise you need that weighted knob to make it work properly. Excellent result! Next the clutch hydraulics. I was very suspicious of the master cylinder. Not for nothing. It was rusty on the inside. Once the old master was off I thought I’d be clever and bench bleed the brand new replacement that came with the car. I had a cap for the hard line to blank the system off while I swapped things around. Everything came off easy and bench bleeding the master was a breeze. I was expecting to be driving the car by mid afternoon. Then I realised the new master cylinder is 180 degrees out from the old one, and the line wouldn’t fit. Bugger! A trip to Halfords for some a pipe cutter and bender got me back on track. I just about managed to reroute and re-flare everything and get the system buttoned up as the sun was setting. It still needs bleeding but there was a pedal. I was quite happy at this point. The car up and running and on the road in a day was a good result. Initial observations: the clutch release bearing is done but the clutch and gearbox and fantastic. The engine is also amazingly good. They not all have a bit of a misfire and stuck throttle but this was fine. A bit of an exhaust blow but that is just a badly fitted centre section. The car actually drives well, completely contrary to its appearance. So well it might in fact pass an MOT. More prodding tomorrow but so far so good. I’ll have to think hard about the clutch. I don’t think I can get the gearbox in and out with my facilities. There is no way to get an OEM new clutch kit. My options are to just replace the bearing, which I can get or convert to a single mass flywheel setup so that I can install the clutch out of an XJS. I need to find someone trusted who can get the gearbox out. This is much harder than getting the bits!

This is my 9th or 10th (I’ve lost count now) XJR6. I’m so in tune with these and their whereabouts through user groups and previous owners of the cars I’ve had that they come to me now! This car purchase came basically out of nowhere. It’s rough but solid in all the right bits. The paint is ruined as are the front wings and wheels, but I now have a trusted place for paint and two good wings came with the car to help me along. It has a whole three days MOT left! I have the weekend to get it back up and running. What is the main problem? The bit I care about most of course… the gear shift feels broken and the clutch sticks. For the latter there are all new clutch hydraulics in a box on the back seat so I can sort that out easily. The gear shift is strange. It was as if the linkage was falling off. I had only replaced the gear linkage bushings on NLW a couple weeks ago so was able very quickly to get the centre console out for a look. The first photo is of NLW with fresh polyurethane gear linkage bushings from Simply Performance, lovely. The second is footage the red car. There are no bushings on that. I don’t quite understand how. Look at that against footage of the refreshed linkage on NLW. Finally we need to discuss the very heavy knob. No really it seems to be pivotal to the linkage (pun intended). NLW doesn’t currently have its original gear knob. The red car does and I realise now that the knob itself is very very heavy to help with the ponderous gear shift (quote Auto Car review of the XJR6 manual in 1994). For whatever reason the linkage on the X300 manuals is flawed in some fashion so Jaguar in their infinite wisdom thought that having a approx 400 g solid steel knob would be a good fix.

Beauty and the beast as you can see. More details to come when I'm back home at the weekend! In the meantime check out those seats!

Many thanks @worldofceri for the amazing shite delivery service.

This weekend the Jag XJR manual went to its first show at the Motorist centre (near Sherburn in Elmet). It was a Jag meet so nice to see a decent mixture of XJs, E-types and some older stuff too. By far the strongest showing was of F-types. There must have been at least 20. There were 5-6 X300s. NLW was the only supercharged XJR6 and interestingly there was only one XJR X308. NLW felt a bit under the radar, but people gradually noticed what it was all about, which was nice. It got a big thumbs up from the Jaguar Enthusiast Club people. Today I was spectating at a top speed run event at Elvington Airfield. My friend was participating in his 996 flavour Porsche 911 with fresh suspension rebuild work and a fresh just run-in Hartech rebuild with a rebore to 3.7 litres. It's a tremendous car and a real credit to the owner. Apart from an undertray coming off, it didn't miss a beat and did a solid 150 mph (keep in mind you have to back off at the 1 mile marker). It then proceeded to drive us back 160 miles south in air-conditioned comfort. What a car! Check out his YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@leeevernden Just before today's fun I took NLW for an early MOT. This is due to a busy calendar for the next few months and I wanted the extra check after the Powerflex fiasco. It passed with flying colours and I was happy to see it didn't struggle with emissions. Granted I put in some magic potion and got the car HOT, but I think having run it for months exclusively on V-power has been the right call. To top off a good day, the next project has been collected courtesy of @worldofceri. Obviosuly it's another Jag. Anyone want to guess what? Clue: what would be even better than one factory manual XJR6?

Spent some time tidying the Rover today. It cleans up really well. The concern over the door ajar switches was resolved really easily. One screw removes the switch, then pry open with a flat blade screwdriver. Unsurprisingly, the contacts inside were filthy. A couple mins cleaning up with electrical cleaner and all was well again. I did the passenger side while I was there. After a bit more interior cleaning and checking stuff I rubbed down the rusty lower front grille and repainted with Jenolite. Came up a treat. I was so pleased I ordered up some fresh number plates to freshen the the thing up a bit more. I’ll get some spare keys cut. It appears the transponder is in the key fob on these. I have two fobs but only one set of keys. Might as well have a second set since it will be cheap to get them cut. Next up it was time to fit the Andy bracket to the XJR. It’s a little more fiddly to fit on a XJR than a non-supercharged item, but 20 mins later it was done. The car is noticeably faster, particularly in the mid-range. The clutch really is the limiting factor now. Despite having the friction plate relined, it just can’t handle sustained assault from 500 Nm torque. Moderation is necessary. I attach some crappy footage to give you an idea of how fast this thing is now. 1995 Jaguar XJR Manual Quick Test

Today I collected the new daily driver. It’s familiar to the forum, thank you very much at @fairkens for a pleasant transaction! Behold the Rover 45. No 1: plush velour seats are a big win. Second, it reminds me very much of the Lupo SDI which I loved. The engine isn’t as agricultural, but it is a bit like the Lupo. The turbo lag is absolutely hilarious. Above 2200 rpm good progress can be made. Third, this car has clearly been loved. It will clean up lovely. No faults of concern really. It will be pushed into service immediately. The check engine light is on (disclosed), but it drives fine. My generic OBD scanner can’t see any fault codes. Any Rover lickers here know how to read codes off these? The second very minor thing I’ll keep an eye one is the door ajar switch (driver’s door). I noted it was a bit dicky and this may have an impact on the alarm. It took a couple attempts to get the alarm light to not show solid red after locking with the fob, which I suspect is a symptom of the car seeing the driver’s door open. It’s a nice car to drive. A good, practical hatchback and feels very sturdy for what it is. Lovely. Looking forward to giving it a quick clean tomorrow.

He still has the “turquoise” factory manual XJR featured on many a magazine. I also thought it was turquoise but was told today it is aquamarine. It’s the last XJR manual off the production line and has only 12k miles on the clock! The backstory on the car and how he got it is interesting. Jaguar basically neglected the car and shoved it in a corner for yonks! The black car I remember too, K44 XJR. That got sold on some time ago and should be out there someone. It was a car that was used and enjoyed I’m told. I remember seeing it on eBay when it was last for sale and drooled over it. Really cool looking thing with a good number plate! Doesn’t seem to have a MOT these days though.

Rob Jenner operates the XJR factory manual register (I reached out to him via Facebook). I didn't ask about converted cars, or whether there is a tally out there. Yes, I've been following Auto Alex with interest regarding the XJR manual conversion. Yesterday's video was great. A lot of goofing around, but we did get to see some detail about the conversion. I have driven a converted car with that helix paddle clutch and can confirm it's a mighty thing, but very grabby. EDIT: On the matter of the lack of additional power with the larger supercharger pulley. The thing is a larger pulley will produce exactly no additional boost. Why? Because there is a mechanical boost bypass which will bleed off any excess boost. I don't understand why Lenthall didn't explain that bit. It will of course change the power/torque curve, but the total boost remains the same.

With the fundamentals of the mighty XJR manual now more sorted, attention turns to the smaller details. I'm not really feeling the car needs to be faster, but it doesn't have the famous engine timing hack (the so-called Andy Bracket). Since it seems rude not to, I placed an order for the Andy Bracket today. People go on about it adding this and that amount of power/torque, but never quote dyno figures. I found someone who did go to the trouble of putting and XJR6 on a dyno before and after installing the Andy Bracket. The car in question was a XJR manual. The thicker line on the plot is with the timing mod. Interesting result. Another thing I did was contact the chap who maintains a register of all RHD XJR manuals in the UK. I have been informed my car is thr 52nd right hand drive XJR manual produced. It was manufactured 10th May 1995. It originally wore the plate M822 FFB and was sold by Hartwells Bristol. Given how rare the factory manual cars are, it's nice to know which out of the 102 RHD cars you have. Looking at the original handbook pack I found the business card of the dealer and scribbled in the vehicle ID was noted it was a Hertz Leasing car!

Interesting progress on the XJR manual. Ever since it went back on the road following the extensive rebuild, it has felt both really tight but also wayward. What with the respray and various other bits and bobs I never really investigated it in massive detail. I didn't really know where to start with the issue. When the wheels got alinged, the guy was quite cross with the car and said something was wrong. It was banging like the exhaust was knocking. Really it should have been very tight vis a vis the front end and steering thanks to Powerflex upper and lower wishbone bushes. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, I discovered what you see in the video below... That there is your expensive Powerflex upper wishbone bushes allowing several mm lateral movement. Basically they aren't doing the job of a bushing. I couldn't believe it. A friend said he had experienced the same. I got on to Powerflex direct and they have admitted the part has been designed wrong. AND THEY ARE STILL SELLING THIS JUNK!!! Next step was to order some OEM front upper wishbone bushes and get them fitted pronto. Pretty exciting really because I was certain this would finally make the car drive as it should. The job took a while this weekend because I had to press the buhses in, which was a faff for an inexperieced operator but I got there in the end. Just as the sun was setting yesterday I got the Jag on the road. It was a revalation. The car is totally transformed on the road. It used to be ok in a striaght line but with an unpredicatable rear end, not as much grip as you would like, vague steering and occasional bump steer. I previously thought it was the steering rack, but I was wrong. The car has no rattles or bangs anymore (yep, the front end was banging it was that bad), I now have masses of mecahnical grip. The rear end can actually be kept in check and the steering is an absolute delight. It handles far better than a 28 year old 2 tonne RWD barge ought to. It's an absolute weapon at full throttle. More driving around this weekend followed by rechecking every bolt on the front end an retorque everything. Then another wheel alingment will be in order. The car is now running well and looks great. I can finally start to think about smaller jobs and details. One thing to address is the rubber gear lingake bushings which are known to wear out and cause a unpleasant gearshift experience. In my case first to second is not good. You can feel the lingake flexing away from you as you grab second. Should be a realtively easy fix. I plan to be at the Motorist near Leeds for a Jag meet April 15th to finally get the car to a show.