Sat, 13 Sep 1997

In the II & IX pennys

A pun for the Brits out there in Jaguarland...

A day of mixed successes - The IX needs a new exhaust - we almost decided on the cheap and nasty mild steel NZ$500 for parts only... then much agonising about s/s - is it worth the investment? - then a side trip to Vital Parts (John & Paula) for the MkII brake pads - ended up chatting, as one does at Jaguar shops!, "Go for the stainless" they said " if you don't use the car regularly the mild steel will rot out in 2 years" - probably true but double the cost???? - oh well we deserve some peace of mind - we'll go for the s/s. We actually haven't done it though! - It is good making decisions isn't it? The better news is that our man, T.J., did a magic job on the steering universals and tie rod ends - she wasn;t bad to drive before (or so we thought) but with everything shipshape in the steering department - what a difference! The power steering is appalling by modern standards (even 'Marles' varamatic' type) but now is quite bearable, no more whirling hands on straight roads!

Having purchased the pads and chatted some more I remembered the vacuum chamber leak on the IX - "have you got one?" "mmmmm" - John goes ferreting in amongst his shelves (a myriad of them - all groaning under the weight of carved up Jaguars) - "yep - here," he whips out a distributor from a box of twenty, flips off the cap, unscrews the Vacuum unit and plops it on the counter "$20". "Done!" (I am a sucker for such gracious service). "Do you have horns?" (the IX sounds like an emasculated cockerel at the moment) - "Snail, bull, flat, MkV, low or high?" - "ummmmm!!!" - he has several boxes of them, all untested... I measure up the flat ones and make a mental note to compare when I get home. (I still haven't measured them up yet - a diversion with the II's brakes).

An hour later I manage to get away from Paula and John, buoyed up by their enthusiasm for Jaguarbilia.

Arrive back home having braved the great masses at the shopping mall (eating does get in the way of car repairs doesn't it!) and jack up the II. She had her offside (right side, here we are RH drive) seals done by me a couple of months ago, the pads seemed fine but one had been doused in fluid when one seal finally gave out. - I put both back in as they seemed solid enough(I only had the seals, not new pads then). The nearside I left alone, running out of time on that weekend. Yesterday, John had to brake sharply on the motorway and came back home saying she was veering to the left under normal braking. There was no obvious leakage so I said I'd do the seals at the weekend. That evening the seals blew totally, - thankfully close to home. Hence the trip to get the brake pads at Vital Parts.

Jacked her up - whipped off the whole caliper (I'm an expert now!) in five minutes and spent then two hours cleaning off all the crap, oil and grease. I swear the POs had *never* replaced the seals since she was built! The inside of the cylinders were half full of sludge, the pads were, soggy, would be understatement - like Weetabix, and, to boot, jammed in the caliper (swollen?)

With judicious use of a wire brush thingy in the electric drill I got the whole shebang clean - but the whizzing brush did spray the whole of the workshop with fine specks of filth!

Reassembled - so easy when everything is clean! and reinstalled, bled brakes and did a test in the driveway - fine. let's have a spin down the road. The sound of those twin exhausts is just divine (did Sir William tune them up himself???) - OK, lets hit the brakes - aarrggghhh!!!@~#* with some dexterity I managed to stay out of the nearside ditch (full of recent rain). F***ing hell - I should have put the new pads in both side shouldn't I!?!

Back up the road - more sedately this time - and back into the garage (just as well I hadn't cleaned up totally)

Ripped out the offside caliper (it is easier I now know, to take out the whole caliper rather than do a *quick change* (aka Jag nomenclature!) of those pads. One pad was so stuck it fell apart as I drifted it out... The wire brush did it;s magic and within twenty minutes I had the whole lot back together. I didn't have time to bleed the brakes (again) - so tomorrow will be the proof of the pudding - you will hear more, have no fear!

Meanwhile - I'm planning the IX horn removal (left side low note), where to start to tracing the lack of electricity to the rear interior lamps and, importantly, where to mount and install new inertia lap & diagonal seat belts. We have decided to put them in - even though it will "de-originalise" the car - besides we do want to feel safer. Anyone have some guidelines for us ?- we do want them to be discrete and we don't want to have to hack the woodwork about - too much.

Ah, yes - I forgot - MkII windscreen/shield wiper experts, where are you? - ours are fading - sometimes they seem to 'park' in mid screen. Is the motor and gearbox 'user-friendly'? - should I pull it apart? will lots of springs and mirrors come flying out? (our copy manual seems to be extremely lacking in the electrical department) Once again your collective expertise is called upon...

By the way - please keep the pushrodders in this group - they rattle a lot (!) but the technology did pass in lots of respects to the 'saloons' - how else did Lyons make his money but by carrying over parts and designs into newer models - a glance at the dashboards is enough! - anyway - we have a V and like having their ilk in with the 'saloons'

Channel IX

Saloons

MK VII-IX