1985 Jaguar XJ-6 S-III Vanden Plas
Purchased on May 1st, 2008 with only 55791 miles. Listed as a 1986 model, but was actually a 1985. Cranberry Metallic.
Right off the bat, had to replaced the alternator in the previous owner’s driveway. That was fun!
For those who are fearing this job, don’t. It’s time consuming, but easy if you’re patient. Just remove the sway bar links and rotate the sway bar out of the way. You might break the bolts on the links, but replacements are available at your local autoparts stores. Just find the closest size that matches. If the spacers aren’t the same, use your old spacers. Start to finish: just under an hour if you don’t run into additional headaches like frozen nuts. Remember to disconnect the battery before you start!!!
Headliner sags badly along with the backing board. I’ll have to save some pennies up to get that fixed.
On the way home, I discovered that the steering rack was full of slop, almost 45 degrees on the steering wheel. That’ll have to get fixed too.
1985 Jaguar XJ-6 S-III Vanden Plas - Rear Quarter
After I got the car home, I had to track down a few wiring faults (Yeah Lucas!!!). Most seemed to be corrosion related in the fuse panels. Once I cleaned those up, the car’s electricals came back to full glory. Amazing what a small dremel and a wire brush will do to corroded fuse connections. Polished them right up good as new. Added a little bit of anti-oxidant compound to each fuse end also. That should prevent a too rapid return of the corrosion.
There’s some rust near the passenger corners on the front & rear windows. Those have to get dealt with soon.
- May 08 2008: (Cosmetic) Updated the headlights to my favourite configuration. I prefer having 7″ headlights with fog lights replacing the inboards.
- May 12 2008: Oil change time. 9 quarts of Castrol Syntec 10w30 w/filter. It is noticeable that the engine is running smoother with the synthetic oil.
- May 13 2008: Replaced steering rack bushings. Very happy it wasn’t the rack as I originally thought. Ended up using a poor man’s press to push out the steel sleeves of the old bushings. A 13/16th & a 30MM (1/2 drive) socket combo worked great along with a bolt, 2 washers, and a nut. Just fit together on each end of the bushing & tighten till the contraption pushes the bushing out. Worked pretty easy & fast. The new neoprene bushings were less than 30 bucks new and didn’t need to be pressed in since they didn’t have a steel outer sleeve.
- May 14 2008: New rear tyres (Pirelli P4000 215/70VR15). Discovered that the low pressure valve on the A/C system was bad. Replaced the valve with updated fittings from R-134a conversion kit. A/C now blows cold air (48 degrees!!!).
- May 15 2008: Replaced a few missing bolts on the rear lid lock assembly & removed the driving lights under the bumper.
Never thought I would ever see a Jag in my driveway, much less 2 of them.
