"She's Gone"

Ok, cue Hall & Oaks "She's Gone" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnVXIUyshng)

What a pleasure it was working on Jennifer's car,  she said it felt like Christmas when she looked at her car for the first time, needless to say Jan and I were tickled!

Who brings their mechanic a gift?  Thank you Jennifer!

Well folks, that's all till we get a new project, what a treat to work on this fine car for a very special Lady!

Cheers,

Lynn

Time to go

After a little bit of 'gnashing'  'CD' (JJ)  got her front end aligned, and she's fueled up with premium ethanol free gas!  Took her to Commercial Tire this morning and they were very helpful then Jan and I drove her into Eagle for gas, then back home all the while watching to see how she did in the heat.

She ran great and showed no tendency to overheat.

Cheers,
Lynn

"That's All Folks"

Tomorrow I'll be taking 'CD' (JJ) into the local tire shop for alignment,  the new Coolcat 'otter' switch is installed and worked great.  Test drive today showed no evidence of overheating and it was pretty warm out there.  I took the old switch apart and tried to fix it, I'll see if I have any pictures of it but I'm not sure I'd trust it anyways.  The car ran well again today on it's test drive, I'm hoping that I can get it back to Jennifer this weekend.

Inside the 'Otter' switch.  this one had come apart where the bimetallic plate came loose from the base

I soldered the bi-metallic plate to the base, it was spot welded form the manufacturer but the welds had failed and the plate was loose in the housing.  I tested the switch after I soldered it and it seemed to work but I don't think I'd trust it.

Jan helped me shine JJ up, lot's of oxidation but she really responded to a little TLC IMHO

It will probably be awhile till 'CD' returns to my garage, given the clutch holds up for the summer which is a big concern.  I was checking the new SS exhaust system that we received this week only to find that the resonators were for a latter car.  One runs into this sort of problem regularly with the '58 being a transition year and one just has to be aware of this potential problem.  I emailed Will at SNG and he'll take care of it for us.  Next time around we'll work on the IRS, drive line and possibly the clutch, that will be a good time to install the new SS exhaust system.

Cheers,

Lynn

0 hrs

Wrapping it up, at least for a little while.

No photos today, sorry about that!  Today with Jan's help set the ignition timing back from 36 degrees BTDC @3.5K RPM to 30 degrees BTDC @ 3.5K RPM and then took it out for another test drive.  It ran really well and had just a little bit of pinging with lugging it a bit going up hill.  I think that will be tremendous improvement in how the car drives.  The ambient temperature was over 90F and the car showed no tendency to over heat :-)

Tomorrow I'll install the new otter switch (turns the cooling fans on and off) tomorrow and then get the front wheels aligned on Thursday.   After that I'll let CD ('JJ') head back home till this fall when we will delve into a few of the other issues i.e. the rear suspension and maybe the clutch.   Sadly the clutch is a big deal as the clutch can only be replaced by pulling the engine and transmission out together.

That's all for today,
Cheers,

Lynn

1 hr

Test drive

Evening Folks,

Started out this morning cleaning the front wheels with their years of accumulated grime and dirt.  I just couldn't put them on the car with all that crap on them.

This is after the first washing ;-)

A little better

After I cleaned and installed the wheels CD was back on all fours and ready to roll, or so I thought.  What I didn't expect was that she wouldn't go in gear!  Well back up in the air with her and I readjusted all the play out of the linkage and low and behold it worked.  Well, that's good news bad news as it means that the clutch and throw out bearing are at the end of their useful lifespan. Sadly, replacing the clutch on these cars is an engine out operation and not for the faint of heart, then there's the while we're at it phenomena.

Enough of that, I took CD out for a test drive and even with the front end needing alignment she ran well and tracked well with the steering wheel centered-yeah!  That being said I noticed the oil pressure dropping as I drove and settled out at 20 psi, not good! So time to turn around.  I suspect that the oil sender has bitten the dust so will check with a direct reading gauge (I'll just pull the one off my car and check).  Aside from that the engine sounded good except that it pings somewhat, I'll check the timing on it.  This year Jaguar had a lot of emission related changes and one of them was a 20 degree distributor which often results in the engine being way too advanced causing it to 'ping/detonate'.  Detonation is no laughing matter as it can damage the engine so we need to fix that!

The other thing I noticed was the difference between our cars, I had forgotten how many little modifications that I've made to Shawnee B A to allow me to drive her comfortably.  If CD were mine the sun visors would be the first thing to go ;-)

Till next week,

"That's All Folks"

Cheers,

Lynn

2 hrs

Nearing the end....rear shocks and bleeding the brakes

Time to bleed the brakes, since the front rear shock absorber has to be removed to get at the brake calipers it seemed like a very good time to replace the shocks.  The shocks were definitely beyond their "use by date".  They were leaking have almost no resistance to moving them up and down.

I'm coming to the end of 'phase' one on "CD" (JJ:-) but after an 8 hour day had to stop before I could get her back on the ground.  While it was up in the air I greased all the grease points, checked the differential (not going to change the fluid till I drop the IRS next time).

"CD" getting her tail end checked out ;-)

Installing the springs on the new shocks, this car has 4 shocks on the rear suspension.

A couple of the old shocks, if you look closely you can see how they are oil stained from leaking

Nice clean new shock on the bottom, they all have a spring on them and have to be carefully removed since they have a lot of 'kinetic' energy.

This caliper was problematic when I started to bleed the brakes, it wouldn't bleed!  I checked down stream and there was fluid there so I took out the bleed valve, still no flow, turns out the 'bb' was stuck and after some probing with a pick was able to get it to work and completed the process of bleeding the brakes.

Brake reservoirs filled up and wired up.

Got the rear wheels on and tightened up the shock mounts, noticed when putting the wheels back on that the bump stops are very close to the new tires. Will have to check to make sure they don't rub when the car is on the ground.

Well, Jan say's dinners ready....

"That's All Folks"

Cheers,

Lynn

8 hrs

She's running again!

Evening Folks,

It's great to hear her running again,  there really wasn't any reason she shouldn't but still....

I've had to order a new 'otter' switch (temperature switch for the fans) as the old one wasn't working but thus far that's the only hiccup, it seemed to be running cool with the new thermostat and fans but will need some road time to tell for sure.

Installing the splash pan seal

The old seal on the 'snorkle' box is a bit crispy

Fresh new seal for airbox

New seal on splash pan

After all the rivets are installed

Well, that's it for today,  need to bleed the brakes, and check to see if the clutch will work-a bit worried about that as the lever has used up almost ALL it's travel.  Will know soon though, tomorrow is Grandkids day so won't be back at it till Thursday.  Wish me luck on the clutch!

Cheers,

Lynn

4 hrs

This and that, radiator, cooling fans, clutch, hoses

Evening Ya'll

Hope you had a great weekend,  back to work today after a 3 day weekend.  Installed the radiator, hoses, bled and adjusted the clutch hydraulics.  I'm neatly done with "Phase 1" of "JJ" oops, I mean "CD" ;-)  Thus far I've refurbished the interior, the front suspension, the cooling system, the front brakes, the steering rack and a few other things. 

After installing the radiator even though it's all OEM it seemed wise to make sure there was adequate clearance between the bonnet and the radiator.  I used little clay pillars to check and indeed there was enough.

The clutch mechanism just didn't seem right so I made a new rod for the clutch slave cylinder.  I suspect that the clutch and throw out bearing are nearing the ends of their life.

Ready for coolant.

Hoses and wiring hooked up.

Tomorrow will bleed the brakes, test the radiator/hoses and fill if able with coolant.

"That's All Folks"

Cheers,

Lynn

5hrs

Assembly is the reverse of disassembly.... or so says the Operating and Repair Manual.

Evening Y'all,

Today was fun, working with clean painted parts is so much more enjoyable than working with dirty, greasy stuff.  I have a couple of pictures for Drew at the end to show how this relatively unmolested car is assembled.

Started the morning with doing the safety wire on the caliper bolts.  The wire is triple redundant which is a good thing because I look at this picture and feel like it needs to be redone, looks just a bit sloppy.  Even so, the bolts have lock washers and have been treated with Locktite. 

Then on to installing the splash guards and relays

Put the front end down on the suspension, you never want to tighten the rubber bushings at the extreme of their travel, i.e. all the way down or all the way up.  If you do the rubber bushings will fail prematurely

Battery tray installed along with the battery cut off.  I think a battery cut off is mandatory.  If nothing else it's an anti-theft device but most importantly it reduces the rick of fire with an old electrical system.

Then on to the passenger side, installed the splash guards then the air filter 'box'.

Such a pretty clean air filter I had to take a picture of it.

Air filter box, plenum and new rubber gasket that will seal out the crap-the one on the car was in tatters.

There has been a little debate on Jag Lovers about how the air intake was installed, painted washers and so forth.

Since i think that this car has not been tampered with here I believe the car/bonnet was painted then the air intake was installed.  You can see the body colored washers and in the bottom picture you can see an unpainted area under the housing where the washer was when the bonnet was painted.

Well, that's it for today!

Cheers,

Lynn

7 hrs

Doubled Jennifer's car's value* today

Evening Y'all,

CD/JJ is officially a roller (a car that can be rolled out of the garage) today, got the new bearings yesterday and installed the hubs on the stub axles and the new tie rod ends link the front suspension to the steering wheel....

Bearing end-float set to .005 on the drivers side and 0.00 on the passengers side- later Jag recommendation was zero end float (looseness) and that's pretty close.

Caliper installed, bolts held with Locktite and lock washers,  I'll add safety wire even though it's probably over kill.

Passenger side, tie rod connected, sway bar hooked up, hub installed and caliper on. 

Thing are moving faster now but will be slowed down for family activities over the fourth.  It's nice to be working with clean or new parts!

"That's All Folks"


*increased value is that of a car that can be moved now :-)