1973 Jaguar XJ6 S1 (1988 3.6 AJ6/manual 'box transplant)

Hello pixieporsche!!

Thank you very much.. glad you liked it.

Right... more work done on the beastie. I'm going to take the camera out to it tonight as there's a distinct lack of photo's on this here build thread of mine!

I was feeling ill over the weekend, so decided to get the tools out for some therapy.

First up was get the flywheel in, so armed with loctite, a couple of big bars it was soon in. next up was the clutch, and being rather optimistic I lined it up by eye... a daring move given that the engine is already in the car and the box isn't.

I spent the next hour wrestling a Getrag 265 and bellhousing under the car. After several times where I cracked my head on the jack, the dust blowing, the pet cat getting in the way, and gear oil, I looked like Mad Max reject - but the box was on the trolley jack and ready to lift.

The Getrag is going to be a nicer box to use than the old Jag 4 speed and overdrive. While the old box was nice with a good change it had several faults-

1. Low oil drops the overdrive out
2. Knackered lock out switches drop the overdrive out
3. The heat fries the wiring and drops the overdrive out

See where I'm going with this? Also the new box has a proper spigot bearing, and release bearing. The old one is graphite and looks like a hybrid of an instrument of torture and an artists tool.

Careful use of the trolley jack got the box in position, and I cheated to line the bellhousing up with the engine by using some long bolts I had lying about.

I then surprised myself by giving it a quick tap with a mallet and the damn thing mated first try! ;D

Feeling happy with my progress I got it bolted up and then turned to the starter motor and electrics. Fairly easy to wire in the main positive feed for the electrics is on the passenger side, fed across to the drivers side (where the solenoid is) on the original engine.

By taking the main feed off the solenoid, you can run a cable to the new starter which is about 8" away from the positive feed instead of all the way across the car.

Find the red and white wire from the starter relay, and wire up to the new starter..

Add battery, turn key..

And we have an engine that turns over on demand! Now I just have to get fuel up to it and the electronic brains in place.

16 days to go.

Regards

Rich

The new one is the Getrag 265 5 speed as found in the manual XJS 3.6. The old box is Jaguar's own 4 speed plus overdrive.

The ratios for overdrive 4th, and 5th on the Getrag are pretty similar, so the Getrag has become popular as a replacement behind the XK engine in a lot of Jaguars lately. Adaptor plates are available off the shelf.

No idea!

The clutch in this is a new one anyway, so it's got the best chance possible. As for the 265 box... I've driven a couple of manual XJS and a manual XJ40 and they didn't seem as bad for it as their reputation suggested. Similarly I know a few guys who are giving this model of gearbox a hard time behind V12's (for racing) who prefer them over the slightly higher rated Getrag 290.

The only way to find out for sure is to suck it and see. If I blow it up, I'll replace it with a 290 and try again.

Regards,

Rich

That is fit.

Update time... now that the rain has stopped I can play out!



First job today was to get finished underneath so I can drop the car down onto its wheels again, rather than being on ramps. This means lots of crawling around under here:



I had two main things to get done, one was fitting the gearbox mount, the other being to figure out what the hell to do about the speedo drive.

The speedo drive turned out to be relatively easy, as the tranducer screws into a normal output:




So all I have to do is find an XJ40's angle drive to go on there. I did try the one off the old gearbox but one is metric and the other is imperial. Once thats done, a load of calculations and sending my speedometer to get regeared will see everything working nicely.

The mount turned out to be fairly simple too. The original XJ6 item is on the left, the XJS item on the right.



I used the XJS item, including its crossmember, it required drilling two holes into the car. Total modifications to the shell now stand at 5 small holes.

With all that done, I stopped to grab a bag of crisps, then the postman pulled up outside with a load of exhaust bits. It would have been silly not to fit the downpipe with the car up on ramps so that got done too. Last I saw the cat had pinchedmy crisps so I kept working...

I dropped the car gently off the ramps and got stuck in under the bonnet again. New power steering reservoir in place and first of the new hoses. I have to have some new high pressure lines made to clear the exhausts.



While I was under the bonnet I ripped out the old heater vacuum system.



It's a big annoyance of mine having to chase vacuum issues, when all you want is heat! The last winter season was driven with cable ties holding everything that makes hot air wide open, and it proved that Jag heaters are more than capable. I intend to replace the vacuum lines with cables, though that's for a little later.

Last job of the day was to start putting the wiring in, preparation for rigging it up in some crazy Lucas/Frankenstein inspired style. I'm seeing XJR6 wiring diagrams when I close my eyes now having been studying the damn things for a couple of days. There are a good few wires in there that it can live without!





That's all for now folks... a little more to come before I head off to Le Mans, but I think I'm going to be pushed to have it alive by then.

Regards

Rich

The bet with Phil is hanging in the balance! It depends on whether the guy doing the ECu gets back to me... to be honest I don't think I have enough time, but I'll be close. The wiring is simple but there's a lot of it and the diagrams are hard to read.

This stage of things is making sure it all fits and works, which is why progress has been fairly swift. It'll all come out again while I get the bodywork done.

We're taking the Series 3 to Le Mans this time, setting off next Wednesday.

Cheers mate! I'm not stopping* until its done.

Rich


*not including brief time outs for sleeping, playing with the aeroplane, work, cups of tea, keeping Worcester Sauce crisps away from the thieving cat, and possibly the odd beer.

Cooling system struggles...

The XJR engine has a hose on it that is the stuff of nightmares. Mention the XJR-6 "Octopus hose" to a Jaguar technician and you'll find him three weeks later hiding in a dark cupboard, rocking and staring into the distance while muttering about coolant leaks.

I was having none of it... it was far too complex, and too long for my needs. Searching around my parts I realised my 3.6 AJ6 door stop had a radiator hose and water pump setup on it that was much simpler. It also had a take off for the heater, rather than using a separate take off and electric pump.

Armed with my socket set I set to removing the water pump off the XJR-6 engine. To do this, the supercharger, supercharger mount, and both idler pulleys have to be removed. You then have to fight with bolts for the water pump that are hidden out of sight between the crank pulley and the pump. The AJ6 yielded it's pump a lot sooner. Two easily found bolts and a couple of hose clips and it was off.

The "octopus hose" and any other bits I didn't like got distance tested up the garden onto my scrap pile. The new water pump housing was fitted up to the car, and sure enough the 3.6 radiator hoses matched up a charm.

The only problem was the supercharger mount. Its massively over engineered, and looks like something that should be propping up one end of the Forth Bridge. After modifying it slightly (cutting the offending piece off) it now fits quite happily.

On the induction side I've now just got to refit the throttle body (having got rid of all the cruise control curse word off it) refit the supercharger then get the MAF sensor and filter on.

In other bits... I've got to try and resite the gear lever as it sits too far back to come out through the original hole. Thankfully theres a large cover plate which gives me room for any mods without cutting the shell.

The wiring is sorted now I know what goes where, and the ECU end is in the car. I have a dummy ECU in for fit purposes, as the proper one was far too expensive and rare to bash about. The engine wiring loom is much simpler when you get rid of all the air con, headlights, and washer/wiper stuff that shares it's sheathing.


Stuff to do ('til it runs):

Intercooler piping
Throttle body
MAF sensor and filter
Fuel line
Fuel tanks
Throttle cable
Propshaft
Power feed to ECU and relay pack


The list grows shorter. ;D

Rich