Renewing the suspension and other foibles

[DrSebWilkes]

I sort of picture myself saying it like this ... https://youtu.be/sSNJRQPlE60?t=1m15s

But yeah, the suspension crossmember has arrived at the garage, as have stuff like shock absorbers! Everything else is ready and packed up to go. Tickets booked for the train - 5:20 am ... with the taxi to get there for 4:45 am ...

The transport guy has been confirmed too. So ... all I can do now is wait for Monday!!

[poprivet]

I may have misunderstood, but you are going by train and taxi to pick up the suspension member and other parts?

You do realise how large and heavy it will all be

[DrSebWilkes]

I may have misunderstood, but you are going by train and taxi to pick up the suspension member and other parts?

You do realise how large and heavy it will all be

Hahaha no I merely travelled to the car to accompany it as it travelled to the Jag specialist.

https://www.facebook.com/awjaguar/photo ... 473582335/ <-- there I am there!

So the awful awful old subframe is out and the new has been bolted in and is nearly done. Unfortunately, the engine has developed a few issues: The thermostat is stuck open, the engine revs too highly at idle and there is a misfire.

Anyway here are some pics

Old subframe:


New one:

[davidr]

Well done Seb - it looks like it's coming together. Keep us posted!

[DrSebWilkes]

UPDATE FOLKS! (and thanks David )

Got an email from the garage, here it is:

As I believe you have heard on the phone the engine is running (I did yes!) and with no misfire at present. Ticks over nicely but we haven't ran the engine up to temperature again yet. We will do that tomorrow. We do have a little problem with the brakes and we suspect it may be either the Master Cylinder or the Brake Servo. That is the reason your brakes do not work. The pedal won't press down so will also investigate that tomorrow for you and let you know the faulty component. Suspension is nearly all finished last few nuts to torque up etc and final checks once it has settle in a little. The Brake Shield need a little realigning etc but all else is looking good.

"looking good" doesn't quite cover it

[DrSebWilkes]

Hello everybody! Update time ....

The car starts fine without a misfire after cleaning the spark-plugs and letting the car as a whole dry out a bit - PHEW!

The suspension is 95% done and they aren't far from attempting to fix the faulty thermostat.

But there is some sad news ... while they were moving the car, bearing in mind they were going slowly, the mechanic said he had to apply a hell of a lot of force on the brake pedal, which he said was "rock solid after a certain point", and he thinks the master cylinder has malfunctioned. So, he says he'll take it out and have a look to see what the issue is and go from there.

[ptjs1]

Hi Seb,

I would strongly suggest that you DON'T let the mechanic take out what he is referring to as the "Master Cylinder"!

Your car doesn't have a "Brake Servo" and it doesn't have a conventional "Master Cylinder". The fact that the mechanic is referring by these names makes me think that he really doesn't understand the Teves ABS system that is on your car. Instead it uses a very complex Actuation Unit coupled with an Accumulator and Pump. There are a couple of reasons why the brake pedal can start to lock but I've never heard of it being a problem inside the actuation unit and you REALLY don't want him trying to take it apart. He would be much better off examining the free movement of the calipers, the integrity of the flexi-hoses and then bleeding the brakes properly. BUT, bleeding the brakes on this car is not like bleeding them on most cars. So. don't let them bleed them until they tell you exactly how they're going to do it, whence you can report that back her for our review.

Good luck

Paul

[DrSebWilkes]

I don't really know what he was saying to be fair, but the master cylinder works fine now, and they are working on older Jags than mine so I trust them to do it. And they had some XJ6 Series 3 which has Teeves III so I'm not too worried. They are a Jag specialist I suppose.

Anyway I went to visit them on Saturday and I got picked up in a Jag XK8 (okay, it might be the enemy car but it's still a GT Jag!!) which was pretty fun

And onto the car, took plenty of pictures. Annoyingly, I think one of the PAS hoses wasn't connected properly, hence the blood-like stain on the floor.

But we're getting pretty close, so it's exciting stuff.











Oh and my Grandma bought me this!