project Broadsword's Fleet Thread

[Broadsword]

Good news! The C1 is back together with a brand new clutch and driving very well now. After being out of the country for a while and coming back fresh to the job I simply used an engine crane to pull the gearbox nice and level from underneath. It was quite easy to mate to the engine with it just hovering at the right height. Other than that some of the bolts were being a pain (crud on thread being the main complaint), a broken vacuum line was fixed easily and a non-start at the end turned out to be a broken wire on the side of the head. The clutch bite point is a touch low (well it was way to high before, maybe I'm just not used to it with a new clutch), the adjustment was miles off on the clutch cable, so that might still need some fine tuning. Other than that we are in business. For now I'd like to remedy the non-working driver's lock barrel, underseal the lovely solid chassis and fix some trim pieces. It goes in for an MOT in two weeks.

The XJR is still in for paint. I saw a few snaps of it being prepped while away. Other than that I'm patiently resisting the urge to keep bothering the guy trying to do his job!

[Broadsword]

The C1 has been doing daily duties for a week now. It's doing quite well. Steering/suspension/brakes tight as a drum. Engine is fantastic, very quiet. The main issue is that the starter has developed a fault, which seems to be getting worse. The bendix won't throw out from time to time. I'm starting to think the starter motor did not appreciate hanging in the breeze for a month while I was away. I'll try clean the starter up next weekend, or else replace it with a scrap yard unit. That is the only reliability issue.

Today I replaced a load of smal things to make it a nicer car overall. This included.

*Replace missing weather strip on driver' side roof

*Replace cracked hazard warning switch

*Replace manky hand brake lever trim

*Replace driver's side interior door handle which broke

*Replace delaminating rear view mirror

*Quick T-cut of headlight before I get round to wet-sanding and laquer

*Small clutch adjustment

 

Jobs to do:

*Pull some dents

*Refurbish headlights

*Some fresh number plates would be nice

*Fix driver's door lock

*I'd like a half-decent matching set of tyres (let me know if any are going for sale cheap!)

*Fix stater motor

*MOT (due soon)

*Underseal before winter sets in

 

[Broadsword]

The C1 keeps getting more improvements. I really like driving it. Clutch adjusted just right now, new number plates and I’ve even fixed the driver’s door lock. The starter motor failed in the week. £25 and 20 mins work on a Saturday morning saw it sorted. The car is delightfully easy to work on. MOT is first thing Tuesday morning.

The Corsa C has had it’s minor bump damage mostly fixed after a good donor car was found in the scrap yard and I put on a good used injector pump. The car is mostly sorted now bar needing a less squeaky alternator…

In other news the paint-shop messaged saying the XJR manual is finally going in for final paint!!

Busy times!

 

[Broadsword]

A very nice Christmas present, the XJR manual is now back from paint. To kick off I'll just leave you with some photos...

 

[JMotor]

That's ended up looking sooo good. 

Amazing what a repaint can do. 

[Broadsword]

Walkaround video. Still lots of tidying up and fettling to do but you get the idea.

 

[timolloyd]

This is one of the best cars on here right now. So good to see these getting some proper investment.

[grogee]

Phwoar, nice Christmas present! Lovely colour. Those wheels look ace.

[Bren]

Fabulous. I really like these.

[horriblemercedes]

I covet my neighbour's ox 

[Broadsword]

It has been very hard to do any meaningful work on the cars due to the very cold weather. Some progress nonetheless on the Jag. The tracking has been done. The place that did it moaned a bit saying the job was supposedly difficult, but completed the work nonetheless. Small pieces of trim have been replaced here there and everywhere. At this point the car is so good that any minor imperfection is amplified, so this last 10% of the restoration will be the biggest challenge I feel. A bigger defect was the sticking clutch pedal. X300 manuals seem quite prone to the clutch hydraulics seizing up. That was the case here. I decided not to mess around and replace both the clutch master and slave cylinder. The original bits are NLA, but simply performance sell a modified slave cylinder from an XJS (the pushrod is modified to make it work on an X300) and I think the master cylinder they sell is XJS, but fits.

Fitting the clutch hydraulics was a bugger in my garage and in the cold. The kit supplies new hydraulic lines due to the change in fitment in the slave from 3/16'' to 1/4''. but I opted for an adaptor on the slave. This worked well in the end and with a little bending of the exisiting lines. The slave looked pretty ropey but moved ok. The master cylinder was clearly sticking when moving the pushrod up and down and I think the main cause of the sticking pedal (you could see from the old, recently flushed fluid that the rubber was breaking up on the seals). The clutch is nice now. Weighty but not heavy. The next weakness down the line are the rubber bushings in the gear selector mechanism. I'm pretty sure they are tired because second gear in particular takes a load of reaching for. The way the gear selector mechanism works is that the lever is in a tower which bolts to the gearbox. The rubber bushings attaching the tower to the box get tired and a load of flex is introduced to spoil the fun. I'm eyeing up a poly bush kit to fix this.

Another small job was replacing the supercharger idler pulley which suddenly went bad. It's a five min job to replace, all sorted now.

The car is pretty much undriveable in this weather around -2 and icy roads. The power of the thing is tremendous, it's just scrabbling for grip. I would really like some better weather to crack on..

[Broadsword]

So, although the XJR manual is blisteringly fast, it does have a slight miss on cold idle. Also there is a sound like wooshing air. The fuel trims and fault codes tell an interesting story. There is a fault for lean running. An inspection of the spark plugs revealed they were pretty black though. I put in a hotter set of plugs (recommended by Jaguar as a service bulletin back in the day), and then the tendency was towards lean burning. At this point the long term fuel trims crept up to +50%, suggesting the car is trying to compenstate for the lean running in my mind. I kept putting V-power in for fuel, then the best LiquiMoly fuel cleaner I could get. I tried to do a smoke test around the throttle body/boost bypass where I think there may be an air leak, but it was inconclusive. The boost bypass seems to move fine under load. The car feels happiest when it's red hot and being driven hard. It really is very quick!

Today after some more spirited driving to make sure the car still had time to relearn it's life after the respray the long term fuel trims swung 150%!!! The long term fuel trims are now -100% and I note when you prod the throttle the car goes from closed loop to open loop. I think the oxygen sensors work fine because you can see them switching on the live output and my Jag diagnostics tested them successfully. I also reset the throttle position sensor, but that didn't help.

I'm still thinking there is an air leak somewhere. The data is pretty strange. Really the car runs great considering what the computer is telling me, but it need putting right. Plan is to take the whole intake system back off and go through things systematically.

[Broadsword]

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.

[Back_For_More]

Good to know about the powerflex crap.... I'll avoid it when I rebuild mine. 

[Broadsword]

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!

[straightSix]

Interesting to see a Dyno result from the Andy bracket! Have you been following the Autoalex guy on YouTube manual swapping his? Interesting that the smaller pulley didn't produce any extra peak power.  I ordered the Andy bracket for mine but unfortunately got stolen in the post and haven't ordered another yet

Also, who is in charge of the register? 

[Broadsword]

41 minutes ago, straightSix said:

Interesting to see a Dyno result from the Andy bracket! Have you been following the Autoalex guy on YouTube manual swapping his? Interesting that the smaller pulley didn't produce any extra peak power.  I ordered the Andy bracket for mine but unfortunately got stolen in the post and haven't ordered another yet

Also, who is in charge of the register? 

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.

 

[straightSix]

Ah I remember Rob Jenner from my xj40 days! From memory he has my dream car, the factory manual turquoise xjr! Also seem to remember him having a black factory manual as well. 

I'm also curious what diff ratio Alex/Tom put in there. I was considering putting in a shorter diff into mine out of my old xj40 but didn't in the end due to the advice of a few people. 

And that's interesting, I didn't know about the mechanical boost bypass. I knew the gains were mainly midrange rather than peak. Also I think the MAF sensor maxes out so not sure the ECU can take advantage of the extra airflow anyway 

[Broadsword]

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. 

[Broadsword]

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.

 

 

[2flags]

That looks a lovely little run around. I do have a soft spot for Rovers, having had them, with a small gap, for the last 39yrs. I have a 75 tourer at the moment, which happily has just passed it's MoT. 

[Broadsword]

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

 

[Broadsword]

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?

 

[High Jetter]

31 minutes ago, Broadsword said:

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

 

 

Oh, that is sublime.

[Broadsword]

Many thanks @worldofceri for the amazing shite delivery service.

[Broadsword]

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!

[Schaefft]

Another manual XJR? Where do you find these?

[Broadsword]

On 4/19/2023 at 9:18 AM, Schaefft said:

Another manual XJR? Where do you find these?

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.

 

[Broadsword]

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!

 

[Broadsword]

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.