Major jobs done

Gearbox exchanged, later gearbox reconditioned.

A while ago:
A good jaguar is pretty bullitproof. But a good jaguar will be maintained properly. If not it can be costly and/or a high maintainance car. Mine was not very good. I bought the car on the brink of collapse. The head bolts where nearly rusted trough, eventualy resulting in a major Engine overhaul. The gearbox was worn resulting in malfunctioning brakebands and clutchplates. They slipped because of disappeared lining. And yes..that resulted in the reconditioning of the gearbox.
One lesson I learned from joop craane is….don’t replace anything if it is not broken or you will be drained.

I have a hard time living by this rule…simply beacuse I want to prevent trouble. This results indeed in maintainance being somewhat costly.

 

Lpg conversion (2003)

A tax exempt car driving on LPG is cheap motoring, so the first thing I did after buying the car is having HPO in Oostelbeers install an LPG installation. They really did a fine job. Everything was installed very neatly, it only  gave me trouble once but they mailed me a new switch without charge.

The car runs exactly 1 litre on 6 km that equals running cost of a car that does 1 litre of patrol on 15km and that is cheap considdering that the car weighs 1650 kg.

Cost 1000 euro

 

Engine overhaul (2003)

doing 190 km/hr one of the head bolts snapped, resulting in a major engineoverhaul. (Jagparts&cars did the job) Estimate started at 700 euro (he never saw an XK block having trouble getting a broken stud out) so no problem: bring it here. Well my block was the first in history that did have a problem so I needed a new (used) block. And that meant that the used block had to be reconditioned. The head too…. etc etc. The car had accident damage so it needed a new (used) subframe….that meant new front wheelbearings…etc etc.

I was obligated to have checkups and adjustments after they finisched the job with bills of over 200 euros each. I was fed up and never returned. I still have days that I am pissed about the whole thing and wish they will be out of business soon.  .#$%$% .Praying on new unsuspection classic jag drivers.

 

Cost 11.750 euro incl used subframe. Standard valve seats (not good when running on LPG even stupid)

Auto gearbox reconditioning (2005 and exchange box 2007)
Cost 0 but value parts 125 euro

-Gearbox adjusting (done!)
spare gearbox waiting
maybe even fitting the spare one I have. The upshift is not right. shifts to late or too soon when full throttle and seems to slip even after tightening the front brake band. Maybe I should check the ..oil pressure? on the other hand I noticed a lot of lateral play in the output shaft. In the “new” gearbox there is no play. De present box has a clonk when downshifting and when shifted from n to d. The new one has the reverselight switch(missing on mine). So maybe after checking the bands and plates I should just fit the new one

Auto gearbox reconditioning #2

I fitted the spare gearbox. It needed a recondition. I found that out after 3 month driving. done that for 850 including tax

Diff cage drop and overhaul final drive (2005)

Cost few hundred euros for bearings, bushes, brakedisks, pads

Front suspension overhaul (2003)
Cost bearings, bushes, brake disks and pads

Fixing leaking fueltanks
Take them out, clean them and air them out and weld the largest holes shut and seal it with soldering tin.
Takes a lot of trail and error for everytime the tank has to be filled with some fuel and when it’s still leaking it has to be aired out again before soldering. It finaly worked and about four years later the tanks are still OK
Cost: nothing much…but time!

Small jobs done

Full Stainless steel exhaustsystem (2005)
System from S&G and s/s downpipe frem ebay.de
cost 650 euro

New headliner (2005)
Cost 65 euro material at “Brittish car and lifestyle” in Rosmalen

New vent hoses headlight-footwell (2003)
Cost?

New bonnet dampers (2006) New used doorhinges
Cost:

Lots of other little things:

from adjusting valve clearance a few times, installing a trailer hitch, things that don’t work especially the electric window mechanism. swichover valves. some welding etc

My car also seems to “eat” universal joints..I change them in under an hour by now..routine