Jaguar 1968 E-Type 2+2 Series 1 1/2

Post pics of your car in here
Will01
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Joined: November 26th, 2012, 3:50 pm
Location: Dumfries, Scotland
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Re: Jaguar 1968 E-Type 2+2 Series 1 1/2

Post by Will01 »

So finally got all the fuel lines in the boot sorted out for the new fuel pump. Just done it bit by bit taking my time. It has had quite a few runs now over the weekend and the car is still working well. Going to look at re-checking the ignition timing as a matter of course and maybe move it slightly as we have now started to put Super Unleaded in her and occasionally under full load you can hear some pinking.
I also had a look over the old 'broken' fuel pump that let us down a few weeks/month or so ago. After seeing a video clip on line i opened the pump up to find everything was in really good order. This fuel pump is an electronic digital SU fuel pump so i had a look at the variable speed control after connecting up to 12V. What i did find is that it had lost adjustment and therefore was not operating the pump, a quick re-position and locking in place and the pump is ready to go again. Be good to hold onto it as a spare now.

Next weekend both my father & I are hopefully joining a few friends from the car club and going for a treasure hunt and drive it day. Lets hope the weather holds up like it is at the moment and it will be a great day. Also looking forward to sitting down to a nice meal after all the driving at the local pub with everyone, including my wife & mother.
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Will01
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Joined: November 26th, 2012, 3:50 pm
Location: Dumfries, Scotland
Contact:

Re: Jaguar 1968 E-Type 2+2 Series 1 1/2

Post by Will01 »

Just a quick photo to show what type of fuel pump the E-Type runs. I am sure everyone know but i took some pictures anyway. They really are very simple devices.
Attachments
SU type fuel pump
SU type fuel pump
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Will01
Posts: 590
Joined: November 26th, 2012, 3:50 pm
Location: Dumfries, Scotland
Contact:

Re: Jaguar 1968 E-Type 2+2 Series 1 1/2

Post by Will01 »

So on the weekend we had a car club treasure hunt sort of navigational rally. Both my Dad & I decided to take the E-Type for a good fun drive followed by a nice meal. The weather was really quite good, unfortunately the ignition circuit for some reason decided it had enough and burnt out the spring which pushes the carbon rod down onto the rotor arm from the distributor cap.
I have to be honest here and say i have never seen this happen ever and it did shock me slightly. The problem we found was that after 5 miles into a 60 mile treasure hunt the engine kept missing and backfiring because it was not getting a constant spark. Mainly noticeable at low rpm's, we did find that keeping the revs above 1500rpm the engine was running fine. Unfortunately due to a pheasant running out in front of us we had to stop quickly and the engine cut out and wouldn't restart. It was quite a blow, but not one to be beaten we managed to fix it with a spring from a berol grafted in to replace the non existent one and we had to run a wire from battery directly to the coil as the ignition circuit blew out the fuse. The temporary repair got us home no problem but that was the end of our treasureh unt unfortunately.
I should note that it is quite difficult to change the fuse on the ignition circuit on the E-Type as you have to swing down the centre console panel on the dashboard in order to gain access. This is difficult because you have to remove the radio panel with speakers etc in order to give enough room to prevent damage to the instrument lighting strip.

Anyway the repairs should not take that much time now, i just need to get to the bottom of how the circuit was able to burn the spring out.
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Will01
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Joined: November 26th, 2012, 3:50 pm
Location: Dumfries, Scotland
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Re: Jaguar 1968 E-Type 2+2 Series 1 1/2

Post by Will01 »

So the re-wire was realtively straight forward. I love working on old cars for electrics compared to modern ones, its just soo much simpler.
Anyway i have just re-wired from the iginition key back to the coil with a new accessible fused link. Whilst i was at it, i also decided to re-wire the kenlowe fan aswell. The wiring in the engine bay does now look a bit of a mess, there are a few wires which now lead to nothing, but without removing large parts of the engine i cannot get access to remove entirely. The berol spring we used to fix the car held up well, as soon as i find the spare caps i will change over the spring. I just need to find them in the boxes in the garage.
Re-wiring has deintely made a difference as the car starts soo much quicker now, so there must have been quite a drain before. Also when the fan is switched on, it no longer causes any missfiring as i have kept this on a completely different circuit to the coil.
Car is ready to be driven again
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Will01
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Location: Dumfries, Scotland
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Re: Jaguar 1968 E-Type 2+2 Series 1 1/2

Post by Will01 »

So as i mentioned in another post on another one of our cars, we visited Stoneleigh Park on Sunday for a Jaguar Spares Day.
This really is an annual visit for us as there is always something we need.

This time we picked up some brand new Rear Independant Rear Suspension cage to body mounts. These always wear and never last that long since they are made from bonded rubber and steel. The rubber perishes over time and causes excessive movement in the rear end of the car. It helps make the car feel like steering from the rear literally!
Maybe over the winter at somepoint we will fit these and i am sure they will make a huge improvement. It may also help us prevent the reare wheels from rubbing the inside of the arches under hard cornering with the slightly wider wheels we have fitted off a later E-Type.

We also picked up some new Steering Rack mounts as the ones currently on the car have lots of play in them, which makes the steering feel sloppy. Again these are made up of two pieces of metal with a rubber bonding. Again this rubber perishes over time which starts making the steering more and more vague.
Luckily upgrades in this department are available, i have convinced my father that we should fit the upgraded polybush version of these. Hopefully this will help keep the steering more responsive for longer. The next upgrade to this would be solid aluminium rack mounts, however for a road car this would be too extreme and would upset the road handling and road comfort.

In order to further improve the front end we also purchased some Polybushes for the complete front suspension. This again helps improve the steering and suspension feel. Here though it will also help keep the suspension alignment where it is supposed to be. This again is another highly recommended improvement for any E-Type. We are going to tie this up when replacing the front frames and front end rebuild. So this may be a while before they are fitted.
After speaking to quite a few people, it does seem however that Polybushing the rear suspension is definetely not advised, so for now we are just going to look at replacing the standard bushings. I think this is mainly because in the rear suspension of the Jaguar IRS, alot of movement is required to keep the level of comfort. A prime example being the rear trailing arms which are required to twist with suspension movement.
Polybushes do not tend to work well in this situation as they are mainly meant for movement on the axis they are installed, where a bush is meant to move in more than one plane it cuases the bush to deform and wear worse than a rubber bush. I hope that brief explanation makes sense.

We also got a few other bits and pieces, whilst we are at it we are also going to look at refreshing the front brakes when the suspension is being sorted. So we have some upgraded braided brake hoses and new discs to go on. At somepoint i want to further improve the brakes, currently we have Cooper Craft 4 pot front calipers which work great with a Solid disc, but with the driving the E-Type receives i really would like to space this caliper in order to allow fitment of a Vented front disc to help with dispersing heat. I have warped the discs a few times with the solid disc so i think it is a worthwhile upgrade.

For now that should keep us busy, but i really would like to start tuning and tweaking the engine at somepoint, so some 6 branch manifolds and head work may be on the cards in the future.
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