1986 Jaguar XJ6 4.2 (slammed)

[Foxy]

Well I've been working like a mad person and decided to treat myself.
I was looking at W126s, 7 series BMWs and of course big Jags. With fuel being so cheap at the minute we all need big luxobarges in our lives, no?

So I'm trawling the usual classified sites and stumble across a 1986 Jaguar, apparently owned by the chairman of the Jaguar owners club for many years until his unfortunate demise.
His wife, unable to part with the sentimental cat garaged her for 10 years, until the chap I bought it off liberated it and put it back on the road.
He popped a new battery in her and unsurprisingly for a 4.2 straight six, fired into life with some fresh fuel. He took it to have all the brakes re-done and she passed an mot with no advisaries.
My mouth was watering at this point so I arranged to go have a look.
Bizarrely I was working in Derby and this old girl was in Leicester so I arranged to pop by after work.
"Good job you rang, I've got a guy who's coming at 7, to buy it" says the owner
"I'll be there in 20 minutes" says I.

This is what I was greeted by





Oh I forgot to mention, its got my bloody name on it!!!!

It drives outstandingly, silky smooth box and engine, the bodywork is all square and ship shape, the Interior is amazing but it has the usual grot around the front and rear screens albeit only surface rust and the rear drivers side wheel arch has very light surface rust. Everything else is astonishing.



Slapped a years tax on her this morning and have been rolling about with a massive smile on my hairy face. Until she coughs and splutters and rolls to a halt, dead.






Kicked her over a few times and GRRRRRRR, she springs back into life and was running better than ever before, I think there was a fuel blockage from being sat up for years but now she's running mint.
To say I'm happy is an understatement, a taxed and tested XJ6 for less than a bag of sand that need very little work apart from sorting out the surface rust and a respray.

So plans?...................

I'll say nothing, but I'll just leave this here



Cheers for reading ;D

[Mystery Machine]

YES!

Been following your exploits on FB and was hoping you'd grab it.

What a ride! And so nice of them to put a private plate on just for you too. AND you get an awesome anti-static strip....I'm all for them at the moment. I do hope you manage to get it resembling the one on smoothies, I have every confidence you will.

Oh, and I have a little pressie for you next time I see you. I think you'll like it.

[rmad]

Lovely. I'm thinking of all sorts of exciting wheel choices. Obviously there's all sorts of Jag rims...and then there's Chevy rims. Or how about a set of BMW X5 rims with wobble bolts? Nice.

[Copey]

i knew it was a bad idea to look at this thread...now i want one...damn you!!!

crackin looking car

[richw82]

Nice! I have a soft spot for the S3's and that one looks to be a cracker.

S3's can be a pain, as if they starve the fuel pump often won't reprime the lines in the few seconds the ECU runs for. If she dies again and you need to get around this anti-flood system you have two easy options:

1. Remove the air filter and gently move the flap in the MAF sensor. This fools the ECU and switches on the pump.

2. There's a relay pack on the bulkhead. You're looking for the relay next to the bright red ignition one. White wire with a green trace is fuel pump feed.

Regards

Rich

[Mike D]

You know how much I approve of this purchase ;D

When's it coming round?

[mclellanmac]

Beautiful! Jags really are the best! the S3 is my favourate!

[Mike D]

I have just been blown away, this old girl drives so so well! Proper old money lording it about motor

[AB car pix]

Love these.... hope it turns into something even more awesome.

[smeden]

Always nice to see a big cat in a modifiers hands :-)

[Foxy]

Hopefully I've sorted the cutting out issue. Theres a "current smoother" affair that regulates the voltage to the fuel injection ecu and the rivet that made a connection between the spade connections had come loose.
Thus causing the injection system to loose power and not send fuel to the engine.
Bit of a bodge this til I can order a new one but I popped a self tapper straight through the old rivet to bridge the connection and its working wonderfully.
Now to sort out the brake lights which have decided to stop working.
Wheres my multimeter?

[richw82]

Brake lights are activated off a small lever switch at the top of the brake pedal. Its weird in that its held in the "off" position, and as you depress the brake, an internal spring moves the arm of the switch to "on".

They seize up.

Press the brake pedal down and look at the arm on the switch. If it moves with the pedal, its an electrical issue. If it doesn't, give it a shot of WD40 and move it with your hand. 9 times out of 10, they fix.

[Foxy]

Brakelights sorted with some spray grease, main beam headlight was a loose connection and secondary fuel tank wasnt hooked up at all, fuel curse word all over the boot floor. Found a spare electric window switch in the centre console, swapped it over and all windows work. Everything is now functional for the grand price of £0. Happy days!
Cheers for everyones help.
;D

[Foxy]

Well todays saga is that the fuel change over valve between the two tanks and the fuel pump has decided to give up the ghost.
Luckily there's one on ebay atm.



Basically the fuel return system has been over-filling the un-used tank and curse word out of the petrol cap.
May answer some of my mpg questions and as to why the car stunk of fuel!

[richw82]

I've dropped you a pm... that valve only selects the tank, the return lines have their own valves mounted under the rear arches.

By shutting those off (one or t'other active at any one time) selects which tank the fuel returns to. It should correspond to the selected tank.

If you get one fail it feeds the fuel at rail pressure back into the unused tank. It will overfill it as you describe!

Rich

[Foxy]

cheers for the help Rich

[PHUQ]

Lovely car Sir. Watching with interest (and then stealing your ideas).

[neilclark]

My old one from last year, lovely car but always a job to do.... lol

Where in Derby were you working? i'm in Derby!







And its replacement....

[Foxy]

Lovely old bus that ^^^

I'm an electrical contractor and was on a shut down at the Toyota factory over bank holiday.

[richw82]

Nice to see more XJ6's popping up!

I had one in Sage Green a few years back. I'm rather ashamed to say I scrapped it out of temper when it suffered a snapped spark plug.