Books and Manuals, Series III
Doug Dwyer
Your Jaguar is well known for it's robust construction and long life.
However, proper care and feeding is a must and guesswork regarding it's
many unique features really can't be recommended. Anyone contemplating
performing their own repairs and routine servicing must invest in the
appropriate technical literature.
If your Jag still has the original owner's handbook then you've got a
great technical resource sitting right there in your glovebox ! These
handbooks provide a surprising amount of technical and service
information, almost like a condensed shop manual. If you have it, read
it ! If you don't, get one !
Readily available and quite inexpensive is the "Haynes" repair manual.
These manuals are written with the novice in mind and cover most of the
basics fairly well. The problem is that coverage for too many models
is condensed and generalized into one volume, the generic results
leaving many questions unanswered and many stones unturned.
Your best bet is to purchase the genuine Jaguar shop manual, known as
the "ROM" (Repair Operations Manual). It is the most complete source of
technical information you'll find. Don't hesistate, don't try to
convince yourself you don't need it. Just buy one ! You'll be glad you
did. For the SeriesIII cars the ROM is part number AKM 9006. Several
editions were released and the most readily available these days seem to
be Edition 2 and Edition 5. Either one will do the job but I strongly
urge you to seek out and purchse the Edition 5. It's revisions make it
more useful than the earlier release. I might add that the ROM covers
both 6 and 12 cylinder models.
As good as it is the ROM can be nicely supplemented by the Jaguar Parts
Catalog. For 6 cylinder cars this is part number RTC9885xx, where the
"xx" indicates the edition. I own and constantly refer to RTC9885CF
which covers models made through August 1985. It is my understanding
that later releases are out of print. The beauty of the Parts Catalog is
it's superb illustrations. These illustrations are very useful when you
are trying to understand exactly how things are assembled. It is a very
useful reference and you'll learn a great deal about your Jag by
perusing it's pages.
One shortcoming of the ROM is the wiring schematics. They are too small
and difficult to read. Jaguar addressed complaints (generated by
American technicians, as legend goes) by releasing the "S" series
electrical guidebooks. A different guidebook was released for each
model and for the Series III XJ6 you'll need "S57". In this guidebook
circuits are individually illustrated on separate, full sized pages, a
huge improvement over single, fold-out schematic in the ROM which
requires that you ferret out the circuit in question from the entire car
illustration (note: the edition 5 ROM is much improved in this regard).
Also shown in the S57 are all the ground points, connector locations,
and component locations. I cannot possibly overstate the usefulness of
this book. Be advised, though, that the "S" books, to the best of my
knowledge, cover only the North American models and won't take into
account changes for other markets. The S57 covers the 6 cylinder models.
I'm not sure if a 12 cylinder edition is available.
All of these books except the S57 seem to be available from many Jaguar
vendors as well as Amazon.com, E-bay, etc. I suggest checking out the
"Vendors" listings under the J-L Homepage or visiting the various
mailing lists, as the subject of "Where do I buy a ROM?" comes up often.
You can also buy an issue of "Hemmings Motor News" at your local news
stand and in it's pages you'll find dozens of vendors for Jaguar
literature.
I could well be wrong but as far as I know only one vendor is presently
offering the S57 books. Call Jaguar Services (located in Illinois, USA)
at 800-842-0912 or 708-331-9151.
I might add that a great number of postings to the J-L mailing lists are
questions which can be readily answered by reading the correct books
and manuals. Remember this: you can actually carry the books and
manuals with you on a road trip ! E-mail may not be an alternative when
you're broken down in the boondocks !