Fri, 10 Oct 1997

The IX - Filthy hands & nails

I cannot now find any fingerprints! after three evenings of WD40, emery cloth, wire brushes and scrapers my hands are not ones that have been doing dishes...

I spent several lunch hours racing round from shop to shop for the brake seals and hoses. I thought I had found THE place for cylinder seals - but alas to no avail - they rushed in the parts for me and I dashed back to the shop only to find they had dug out ones for the 3.8 MkII - the chap looked at me and could see I was crestfallen - but said "never mind - try giving the makers in Australia a call - they may have them". More searching! - sometimes it does get me down... Nevertheless at the shop next door they had retrieved the brake hoses for me - the correct length (to within 5mm) and the right fittings on the ends. A success at last - although it was tempered by the fact that the night before I had stupidly taken off only two of the three hoses, thinking "2 the same at the front and one for the rear". No such luck, the nearside front was different again!!! back to the shop and a another call to the supplier.

Last night I had "off"; a works pre-xmas party in town - lots of smoked salmon, champagne (well, methode whatnot) and loud conversation - a shame there weren;t any Jagphiles there - but there was one Roller owner so I did manage some sensible chat. I digress. All four wheel cylinders are now as shiny and smooth as I can make them with my limited capabilities and tools. One unit is quite pitted so I am trusting the seal will take up the slack and keep the oil in. The seals are not frayed or torn and the chaps at the brake place reckoned they should be good for another year or so without heavy usage. They were so good they pulled out all their catalogs and made phone calls trying to track down my seals. I have sent a fax out tonight to PBR of Australia to ask them if they can supply me with IX seals and dustboots.

Maybe someone in Aus knows these people and whether or not they can get 2 1/2" seals for the Dunlop cylinders? Any guidance welcome, thanks

Now I have two rebuilt calipers, 3 new hoses and a tanker load of brake fluid - tomorrow will see me barking my knuckles again under the wings. Thank heavens the IX has huge wings! I can squat inside and get at all the fittings without bending my back into position 356 from the Karma Sutra!

While I was inside I managed to extract the low note horn - it has been defunct for years and we are fed up with the pipsqueak we get when we push the horn button. Boy oh boy those securing screws around the horn were in tight - the alloy has electrolysed in around the screws. Some judicious use of screwdrivers with tommy bars was called for! With the outer cover off I then decipher the horn system. Push button, base magnets energise pulling the diaphragm in. The magnet attached to the diaphragm then hits the contact breaker lip and cuts some power from the magnet. Diaphragm (that's a hard word to type!) then flicks away releasing breaker which then re-energises etc etc. The points in the breaker were covered in white dust and the adjuster spring (controlling height at which the diaphragm magnet hits the breaker lip) was not doing it's job - I needed to put in a couple of washers so that the breaker was back in range. Reassembled and hooked up the electrickery. A feeble meowing sound ensued. A tweak on the adjuster screw though brought some sense of Jaguar into play. Now all I have to do is trust that the thing will still work when I put it back in! I'm not so sure that the mechanism is working at 100% 'cos I had to tweak it several times for the horn to work this morning. maybe the points are just too worn?

Seatbelts - ah! there is now only 8 days before the rally and we are getting jumpy - we should be polishing, vacuuming and getting our wicker hamper ready but here we are still covered in grease and oil! We do have the rally plate, a badge, some maps, a brunch ticket and an obscene amount of junk advertising indicating that we cannot possibly be seen dead in a Jaguar without a Barbour hat, shooting bag, fly fishing rod, 6 gun dogs and yellow wet weather breeches! The rally list has proven that we are the only IX to go on the rally - there are Anglias (!) , Alvis, some 120's, a couple of 140's, a '34 SS, a DS420 limo, two MkVs, a '22 phantom, '55 super snipe, a smattering of E's, zillions of XJ6's, Healeys, a Bristol 405 and lots lots more. I will be have the Brownie ready to hand to record all this - all I have to find then is a scanner...

More digression, back to seatbelts:- We have now found:- 1. A trimmer who says he knows how to safely extract the veneers off the B pillar; and, 2. A registered maniac, sorry mechanic, who installs seatbelts AND says he knows about older cars and what the saefty guys will look for.

Thus, on Monday, the seatbelt man should arrive at the trimmers to find the front seat out and the pillars ready for him to drill his holes.

Are we going to be pleasantly surprised that the man arrives at the right time? Will the veneer man be ill on Monday? Does Monday exist?

Wait for next week's thrilling installment folks!

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Channel IX

Saloons

MK VII-IX