Lump

If you're still after wheel bearings Wilson Bro's in Annex road seem to be pretty cheap. I got bearings and seals for both front wheels of the Jag for less than $80, the best quote I'd had before this was $80 for one side.

Safe R Brakes on Fitzgerald Ave can remake these if you take the old one in as a pattern. Cost me about $20 from memory

I'm pretty sure that the crossmembers are the same across the whole 2000 range but as KK-Kolenel says just grab everything you can. Over drive gearboxes are good and not the nightmare people make them out to be they can be a bit pricey though I think I paid $250 for mine and it was cheap. Don't pay too much for a straight 4 speed though they're pretty common. (sold mine for $20)

Also if it is a J type overdrive you need some spacer tubes between the body and the gearbox mount

I did a swap from manual to manual over drive (J type) a few years ago, there was no need to swap the drive shafts. Earlier auto models had splined shafts that slid into the back of the gearbox (apparently the trans fluid comes out when you remove the shaft.) The later auto shafts have UJ at each end but are not suitable for manual cars - wrong length apparently. Diffs are slightly different ratio between auto and manual cars but thats not a huge problem

Cheers Guys, I'll try some hotter plugs the next time. She does burn a fair amount of oil (about 1 litre per 330km's) but never blows any smoke!? All the spark plugs were slightly oily when I removed them to check the compression (they'd only been in there a week), could it be the valve stems or something else?

Hey Guys The 350 Chev V8 in the Jag has been oil fouling its plugs (from memory 3,4 and 8 were the worst - I changed them a few weeks ago). I did a compression test today and found all the plugs slightly oil fouled - except for 3 which was quite bad. The results are below. Results Cyl Dry Wet 1 160 160 2 150 150 3 140 155 4 130 150 5 150 155 6 155 160 7 150 150 8 130 130 I'm guessing worn rings on 3 and 4 and possibly a bad exhaust valve on number 8. I've never done one of these tests before are the results bad enough to justify doing the rings? Also are the compression readings meant to drop after doing a dry test, they remained static on all the wet tests?

Rover SD1's had five speed manuals gboxes. This would be the most common car to find the the suitable bellhousing/gbox. Lots of people seem to put toyota 5 speeds in them, but thats more than a bolt together job

Thanks for the help guys. Because this has happened twice without much warning I've had the MC rebuilt and resleeved, seems to be fine so far and my variable pedal travel has disapeered. I probably would have been fine with a rekit but decided to play it safe due to the weight and age of the car. Hopefully thats the end of it.

Bloody hell it happened again. Got a warrant this morning (I think the braking test may have set the problem off again). Anyhow the problem was exactly the same as my first post and solved the way although I had further to drive to get home this time. Seeing as all the flexi hoses were replaced I'm guessing something else is blocking the system. I'm going to flush it thoroughly is there anything I should be looking for - stuck calipers, dodgy master cylinders?

E Parrot and Son on St Asaph st (CHCH) can repair the resistor in the sending unit and set it to the correct range for your car. Also try to check that the wire holding the float hasn't been bent (affecting the reading) before refitting it and refilling the tank as this is what happened with mine - still haven't got round to fixing it yet though

Kyteler, looks likes I've had a clean out can't find the details of who I was dealing with at Personalised Plates, Judging from Leebo3's post I might have had the wrong end of the stick in regards to reusing old plates and getting the cheaper deal sorry if I got your hopes up. However if you're keen to get your old plates back on they will be available if they havn't already been brought as a personalised plate. You do need to contact the personalised plate people via email and explain that the plate doesn't show up on their site, but that the plate hasn't been registered on another vehicle. They'll run a few checks and get back to you saying it is available (hopefully they'll know what they're talking about). Though they do start at about $750 though

Basically I sent an email to the plates website asking if my old plate was available as it didn't come up when searched for on the website. I get emailed and mailed info on the plate Get a phone call a week or so later from the personalised plate woman asking me if I want to buy the plate. I say that $750 seems a bit steep for a plate that no one else could conceivably want and I won't pay that much. She says that if I have the original plates I can buy them for cheaper (it was still a couple of hundred bucks though). Unfortunately I didn't have the original plates and I haven't contacted the guy who re-registered the car a couple of years ago to see if he has them yet. I got plenty of emails and letters from this woman I'll have a look and see if I can find her name for you.

De regged Black and White plates numbers are available however you have to ring and ask for them, they don't come up on the website. Pricey though thay start at $750 - I brought a new carb instead. I was told by the woman on the phone that if I still had the old black and white plates that originally were on the car I could buy the rights for abit cheaper. I can't tell you if this is possible or not as I haven't got hold of the old plates yet to try it.

I put a tacho in a Triumph 2500 last year. It over read like yours is doing. I had to wire a diode into the the wire to the coil in order to cut down the other electrical impulses so it read correctly. I'm not that flash with electricity so the explaination above is a little hazy and I'm afraid I can't remember what rating the diode had. I'd grab a handful of diodes from Dick Smiths and have an experiment

Cheers Man, Swapped the front hoses and bled the system and the problem seems to be solved. I've got a pair for the rear too so I might swap those when I change the diff oil this weekend. I suppose as brake problems go its preferable to have them stuck on rather than off - it was still pretty anoying though

Gidday Guys, this is my first post here so I hope you can help. I've got an Jaguar XJ with a chev V8 in it. I recently had the brake booster rebuilt as it wasn't working properly. It worked beutifully for about a week, then yesterday the travel on the pedal gradually got shorter and shorter with the brakes slowing the car down. I managed to get within a couple of metres from my garage before they stuck fast. Couldn't budge it even with the gas pedal halfway down (the brake pedal wouldn't even move at this stage). I cracked open the front LHS bleed nipple which released some fluid (it sounded like the other brakes released at the same time) This allowed me to get the car into the garage - with minimal brake usage. It sounds like a problem with the master cylinder rather than the brake booster to me. Any ideas