Thousand Dollar Supercar

I had a cheap guitar practice amp kicking around, plus various old speakers and a hand-me-down micro system. I chopped them all up and made a new speaker panel, like so: I got some new fabric (the old stuff was rotten) and covered it up... Then I put the guts of the guitar amp in behind, and put the controls where the knobs of the old valve radio were. This meant I had to use rotary switches for on/off and for the overdrive button. I cut holes in the cabinet for the guitar input and headphones sockets. So in this photo, the original knobs are now controlling the guitar amp: I've also got a few vintage bulbs, a plasma globe and random junk in the hole where the radio dial used to be. This is just 'proof of concept' decorative electronics and I'll be developing this aspect further. =) I sat the micro system in one of the side cupboards, so that (in theory) I could play my music and jam along. The cabinet actually produces almost excessive bass for some reason, but anyway..... I put some lights in the back of the cupboards, and that's about where the project got to in 2014. Here are some staged photos:

Oldschool home entertainment circa 1940s(?) (edit: I now believe it was made around 1957): I didn't choose this project - my brother just turned up with it on my birthday in 2012 (a frabulous, grabulous, zip-zoop-zabulous present). It contained the expected Bakelite record player and reel-to-reel tape machine housed in the top, and a built-in valve radio. I set the needle to 88mph to see if I would be transported back to 1945: Nothing happened except a loud 50Hz hum. None of the other gizmos was fully operational either. I pulled the radio and speakers out: My plans were to use the cabinet for storing booze, and to put some electronics back into it which were more functional and decorative than the original stuff. Basically keep it as a man cave accessory / conversation piece.

I've had enough time to grieve the loss of my Alfa now, and to grow sick of jump-starting it to move it out of the way. Yowser made me feel guilty for hanging onto it for ever and ever and ever, so it's finally listed for sale. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/alfa-romeo/listing/2865335316

I promise I wouldn't know an AE101 brake kit if it had a label on. You must have tagged the wrong person?

I'll be in Wellington unfortunately, on the wrong week for the Wellington meet. =(

I went to visit some fuel injector specialists to see about eliminating possible causes of my car's stumbling idle and poor starting after days of inactivity. Because of the logistical hassles of leaving the car with them, I decided that I should first try ordering an injector seal kit myself. Here's the fuel rail removed from the mighty AJ6. 'AJ' stands for 'Advanced Jaguar' - nothing but the finest electronic port fuel injection, don't you know. I ripped into installing the pieces from the kit, having never dealt with fuel injectors before. I almost wrecked the first one trying to get the filter out of it - they're a tight press fit into the rail end of the injector. Then I almost wrecked it again trying to get the old pintle cap off - they clip on firmly but the plastic was too old for my bodgy removal methods. Subsequent injectors got easier as I refined my methods, and eventually they were all done: On the plus side, no injectors were harmed in the making of this post and the car still works. Unfortunately the idle's still not what I'd expect for an EFI car.

I’m in town again this week. Might try to find my way out to this place to show off my white automatic Toyota Corolla.

I like that your service manual comes from the thirties! Hard to get much more oldschool than this car. Unfortunately, whenever I read your build thread, my brain plays this song: Let it never be said, that Austin is dead... Ruby ruby ruby ruby!

Yay page 2! Discussion link: https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/58671-thousand-dollar-supercars-1988-jaguar-xj-s-36/ The cheek of it - Dillon Photography cut me off in favour of some hairdresser's car! I filled the tank up with injector cleaner and went racing at Hampton Downs to blow out the cobwebs. After I locked up my brakes severely and made huge clouds of smoke, the angry man driving the pace car informed me that we were not in fact racing - this was only the track cruise.

It turns out I do have such a thing, hidden under the gear selector: One bulb to light them all Quite a job to find them Ten leads to bring them all to the Prince of Darkness bind them. Why was I taking my centre console apart? The varnish was lifting off the veneer: I removed the varnish pretty easily with a stripping disc, but this just confirmed that the veneer itself was cracked, not just the varnish. I probably should just buy a new one for £175.00 from the finest English craftsmen, but meantime I tried some Danish oil: Unfortunately if you press that growler face below the right-hand ash tray, it doesn't call upon the power of ten tigers. It's just a switch blank where the cruise control would be on a V12 car.

In my last post I thought I'd made the idle better, but it turned out I just made the car idle faster when warm and hardly run at all when cold. So I kept researching. Most results relate to the more-popular V12 engine, and you also have to contend with the fact that the AJ6 had at least two different fuel injection systems on it over the years, with and without various anti-pollution devices. Here I've removed more of the intake bits to check for gunk and vacuum leaks: Some crankcase oil must end up condensing on the throttle plate and running down into the throttle position sensor mounted underneath it (TPS arrowed, throttle assembly shown upside down): I cleaned the TPS and measured its resistance. It seemed correct and linear except slightly higher at idle than immediately off idle. I measured and adjusted the throttle plate gap, reassembled everything and followed the idle setting procedure. Basically you fake the coolant temperature reading to cause the idle stepper motor to close, then you unplug that and set the base idle speed with the air bypass adjustment screw. I couldn't quiiiite achieve a low-enough base idle even with the air bypass fully closed, which I guess isn't ideal. The idle speed seems good now (hot and cold), but the car still struggles into life if it hasn't been started in a day or two and its idle still stumbles a bit. I tried new plugs and I tried spraying flammable stuff all around the intake to check for more leaks, but no luck. The next step of the idle setting procedure is to check the exhaust CO at idle, but I'll obviously need to find a shop to do that. I think you adjust the CO with a calibration screw on the airflow meter. My iteration of the AJ6 engine has no exhaust gas oxygen sensor, therefore I guess it just bases the fuelling on the AFM reading, a wing and a prayer? (fun fact - this is better than the early AJ6 EFI which just used manifold vacuum with no possibility for calibration - the vacuum would deteriorate at quite low mileages because the engine's valves didn't seal very well, or something nightmarish along those lines...) Anyway, my aftermarket electric aerial destroyed itself already. A piece of a little cog broke off and jammed the big cog..... ....but the Jaguar inline fuse did not blow. Instead the motor got very hot and began to melt the surrounding plastic, until a wire connected to the motor burned through. Electric aerials are very important and I couldn't deal with mine being out of action, so I bought another of the same brand. When I opened it up to oil the crap out of it, I noticed it had been revised - the cog which broke in the old one is now made out of a black material in the new one. Hmmm. Also, I spotted this XJ-S (not mine) with a lame personalised plate: It looks like they've parked their planet-pillaging V12 in a bay reserved for bicycles only, which of course they could get away with....because they've got a Jaaaaaaag.

Or how about these ideas?

I haven't seen the setup - would I be able to see anything from in my XJ-S if there was an SUV in front of me?

I knew it!

In the event that you have no shame, I'll be going back through the CBD in my groovy rental Mirage... It needs some "Mirage VI Panther" stripes. Then it would be awesome just as crap, but with stripes.

I’m bored of staying in my hotel room. Nothing on TV but Coronavirus 24/7.

I'll be in town as well, staying in Thorndon but I'll have a rental car.

The Jaaag is not allowed near any mechanics until after Nats, so I'm just mucking around on it myself without achieving anything. I found the reason that the windscreen wipers don't auto-park when you turn the switch off: It's true what the XJ-S Barry Bible says - the switch doesn't ground the park circuit of the wiper motor properly. Not sure if it's just dried grease on the contacts - the switch is riveted together and I didn't want to risk wrecking it. You can buy new old stock switches, but they go for more than I'd pay for something made by Lucas. I have discovered there's a pull-to-wipe function which parks the wipers if you hold it down, and I guess I'll live with that. Fun fact - the self-proclaimed Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne, once had a job in the Lucas factory, as did his mother. It seems he tuned car horns and she assembled circuits. Anyway, I became concerned that my diff might have leaked out all of its oil, so I looked for its filler plug. The internet taught me that in the boot, behind the spare tyre, below the fuel tank and behind some sound deadening, there are these removable covers behind which you can see the brake discs (arrowed): You can see the diff filler plug through one of these holes, but with my diff model (Salisbury 4HU Powr-Lok, 3.54:1) you can't really use the holes for access to remove the filler plug with normal tools. You also can't access the brake calipers through these holes, so I conclude that the holes exist to homologate them for brake cooling because racecar. The way to get at the diff filler is to take off the plate covering the whole underside of the diff area. This photo is with the plate removed: You can't see it in the photo, but the speedometer drive comes from the diff. This must somehow explain why the speedo reading decreases during lateral grip tests. Turns out the diff did need some oil, but not as much as I feared. Back to my other problem then - the idle. I joined a Jaguar forum, and they pointed out that I should read the XJ40 sedan section for info on the AJ6 engine. Also, I should clean out various intake components and look for vacuum leaks. So I removed the idle air control valve thingy. The arrow shows the location of some sort of manual bypass adjustment screw: The valve didn't seem gunked up, but after I cleaned and reassembled it, tightened a few random intake hose clamps and started the car, the car stalled. On the second attempt, it was idling low and would get close to stalling when the engine speed fell back down after a throttle blip. So I just gave that adjustment screw a random tweak. Hey presto, idle is up and is smoother. Maybe this adjuster really is meant for compensating for vacuum leaks... Anyway, the idle's still not 10/10 but I''m seeing signs that I'm on the right track. I''m wondering about getting the fuel injectors tested and cleaned (new ones don't seem to be available) and then getting the idle set up properly. After Nats of course. =)

See the first post in this thread for the location. The next meet will be the 18th of March, but I'll be in Wellington that week. It's probably for the best that the XJS has fallen out of favour.. Definitely don't watch the bidding on this auction to see how cheaply you could put yourself into a V12 coupe.

I’ve turned up early but there’s some construction happening on the top carpark and it’s pretty busy. I think I’ll head home if nobody else is likely to show up anyway. :p

Bump. Third Wednesday of the month is tomorrow.

I can endorse Avenga's services - we used his Charger on my brother's stag do in 2013. Posing for silly photos at the rifle range: I arranged this because I saw the writing on the wall - my brother and his wife now only own a white hybrid SUV. =(

Do you reckon the engine / gearbox from my Alfa 33 would fit? This photo is from an installation in a mid-engine Porsche 550 Spyder replica.

'N' was a very good year. Every road-legal car I've ever owned has been an N plate, except my black Alfa 33. /spam

Attendance was better than last month - we had two oldschool cars, plus a bike and a 'modern' S14 Silvia. =) Sparkly filter adds ALL of the sparkles!