Oh dear!!!!

[Martec]

Whilst researching for the difference between ford and ZF steering racks I thought I'd have a look down the drivers side of the engine to see which rack we have, oh dear!

A fair bit of oil on the exhaust cover, engine mounting, crossmember and rack (its Ford) traced this to the cam cover vent pipe popped out due to being the wrong side of the inlet manifold (rust proofing), it needs lifting a little to pop it back. But then I saw a puddle of orange water on the front of the slicky out bit of the sump!

Looked to be coming from the water pump front joint, but more likely the pump seal and bearing gone, so another pump. But on an internet search it seems the replacement pump comes without the front plate but with a new seal. Ha (I assume with the shaft seal gone the pulley would fling it everywhere).

So my new job (in the cold) is to take the inlet manifold off again, water pipes off and remove the water pump for inspection, and clean up the blown about oil. Fingers crossed and I only need to cut a new joint, otherwise North East Jaguar spares looks a good (instock) price of known quality.

Wish me luck,

Brian

[J44EAG]

Could be worse, Brian

Nice to have a new pump. £67.20 from Jag Spares International in Norfolk.
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j& ... _SjxpBWnLQ

Note two different types. Early and pre=facelift onwards.

Rather more expensive than a V8 pump which currently knocks out for around £35 with updated seal, metal impeller and different gasket.

As regards the two different steering racks on the early cars, one type has push in pipes whilst the other has screw in fittings. Would be good to which has what.

Mike

[Martec]

Oh I do feel daft,

I started by checking the pump bolts or at least as many as I could get at, all tight. Then off with the inlet manifold (somewhat practised at this) and started feeling around the hose ends ABOVE the pump and found several that were wet.

So all the ones that were removed and refitted with jubilee clips when I took the engine out were a little slack and easily pulled up half a turn.

Inlet manifold back on and the camcover vent is now jammed in with a rubber bush, not too tight just enough to hold it steady.

A nice run up the road and stops to check for leakage then home to let it cool down and see if it leaks again. I would like to think that is all it was but don't beleive in fairy stories, did you know they sing and dance...........and chuck muck.

On a more serious note the two rack are easy to see which is which, looking down past the engine on the drivers side you can see the rack and the steering column pinion as it joins the rack. If the 4 pipes have a gland nut on them then its a ford rack, if you can see the pipes are pushed in and held in place with two small plates each held with one screw each then its a ZF. Also the ford rack has a pipe from one rubber boot to the other, apparently the ZF doesn't. Also the ford pump has ford stamped on the pulley.

According to the wiring diagram for 1999.25 and 2001 it is called 'variable assist steering' and the write up (in the technical manual) says that dependant on speed the power assistance progressively is reduced. The problem is there are just one wire connection to the rack and it is just a solenoid (on or off I would have thought) just as it shows in the wiring diagram.

The terminals for the solenoid look to be different, why the change to a ZF rack and why is there no wiring diagram or 'variable assist steering' in the 2003 wiring diagram?

If the solenoid is duff and not unloading the pump pressure (can't see anything else in the system to unload it) would it make that much difference and would there be a fault warning or code in the ECU, the signal comes from the 'General Electronic unit'.

A confused Brian

[J44EAG]

Good questions indeed, Brian and so nicely presented.

For info, and I haven`t been out to have a look to see what is in J44 (Presently believed to be a ZF but will confirm by visual inspection) on Vin No M33066 manufactured October 2001 but originally registered on an 02 plate. Certainly a very different feel to the earlier MT2000 car I owned previously.

I don`t know why the MY52> cars and their racks changed other than to compliment the new revised inverted ball joint type suspension. The rack however is almost certainly a generation three unit hence the listings commonly found for rack replacements start from M45452 as we all very well know ie the first of the pre facelift cars.

It is quite incredible how parts settle down after a rebuild. After I rebuilt that old Perkins recently. a couple of hours running accumulated, John and I found ourselves going around the entire engine and generally tightening many different nuts and bolts. That despite using a torque wrench when we built back up again. Lets hope you have fixed your squirters and that you don`t need to replace the pump.

Mike

[jeff1954]

Re Brian's last post.
I'm the first to praise the great information that we give and get from these forum pages, But wouldn't it be great to have a Haynes manual to get our info from.

Jeff

[J44EAG]

It would indeed be a good idea but....

As we learned at the last Seminar, the car is complicated and the sheer physical size of hard copy volume of info would be restrictive in terms of a Haynes type publication. None more so than particularly electric and electronic info which is massive. So large indeed that it was said that if all the information available from Jaguar Topix, which anyone of us can obtain on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual fee basis and which allows a print off facility, you would need a four foot high stock of A4 paper, a bucket of printer ink and a couple or more new printers by the time you had printed it all off!

The suggestion is that one might sign up for a days access and just print off anything one needs in relation to the job you might be contemplating. Be that as it may, we have a pretty good idea of what on line documents are available and I try to grab anything useful and create a posting for our members to see on our BB. The problem is that we don`t really have those documents well catalogued yet although we might be able to improve that for the future. In the meantime if anyone does have a document query, please just ask and I`ll do my best to remember if I`ve previously posted a link on the subject and where I put it!.

We have been adding links from the internet to various useful pdf type publications for a while now. I think these seem to find themselves in the "General" section of our relevant BB section. I think we need to make such links rather more prominent and define better than we do presently. All part of gradual site evolution and onward up dating. I`ll have a chat with our James about such possibilities. Leave that with me.

Cheers, Jeff.

Mike

[Martec]

Hi Mike, I used an internet link to find one of these free online manuals and all 5 of them failed Jaguar-telko.......... so that option has gone, fortunately I downloaded a copy of each to the harddrive so still have access. I went looking for another link the other night but couldn't find any, usually by page 11 of an internet search something come up!!

At present looking for something definitive about 'Variable-assist' hydraulic power steering, nothing useful yet.

I'll keep looking for the internet links to free manuals.

Brian

[J44EAG]

The Telko.ru material seems to be disappearing. I don`t know why. Much of its copies centred around the Technical Overview type manuals given to Jaguar techies when training. There were as you say Brian, five or so manuals which JH could at one time supply as hard copy. I have two or three of them myself. Derek Boyce used to be our contact for these manuals at JH but I think he has retired firstly from jaguar employment but also from his volunteer work at the JH stands at our shows. Correct me if I`m wrong someone.

Where I have uncovered more internet material that has been copied from the JH material, I have where possible added a link on this Bb via several different postings.

I need to go through what I`ve previously posted, gather those links together and then repost with all links in one posting. This can be added to as more material comes to us via the edit facility.

How right you are about the steering racks. We know three types were used and a few details about pipe fittings and very approximate dates for the introduction of the second ZF type and then of course the introduction of the third type found on pre face lift models onwards. Apart from that we seem to be rather in the dark about rack details in general.

Mike