Jaguar Blog Update November 2022
• Resolution of transmission gears
At the end of my last post I was somewhat in despair. My newly rebuilt transmission was broken and the entire engine and transmission would have to come out of the car, after just putting it all in!
I had resolved to wait until I had new gears to take everything apart again. I had called the SNG Barratt vendor and learned that they may be able to find a NOS gear over in England. I asked him to go ahead and check. He called me back in a few days to say that he had found a cluster gear. I asked him to go ahead and get it!
After about six weeks I had heard nothing from either the gear manufacturer over in England, or the SNG parts man. But about that time I received a bill from SNG asking for payment for the NOS gear. I paid, grateful that it had finally come from England. Eventually it did come to my house and I resolved to take the car apart now and see what was going on with the transmission.
About this time, also, I had about given up hope of hearing from the reverse gear manufacturer in England, and I happened to find the gear I needed in good condition on Ebay for a reasonable price, so I purchased that gear. It came.
My original cluster gear (damaged) and the Ebay reverse idler gear. This reverse gear ended up going into the second tranny rebuild.
• Removing engine and transmission
With the transmission removed from the car (and I removed the engine and transmission together from the car all alone, and without putting even a scratch on the car!)
Lifting the car, engine removed.
I built a wooden test stand so I could run the transmission with an electric drill and listen to the noise with the transmission out of the car. Even turning with a drill it still made a loud bang, synchronized with the turning of the shaft.
Transmission test stand, running the gears with an electric drill.
It did not seem to have anything to do with the reverse idler that had been targeted as the culprit by the blog posts I had read. I went ahead and disassembled the transmission, and found that my original reverse idler gear was in almost new condition, and certainly was not wobbling on its shaft.
At length the NOS gear that I had paid for from SNG arrived. It came dipped in its original wax giving it a protective coating that had lasted already 60 years! But even with the wax coating I could count the teeth on each gear of the cluster, and discovered that the tooth count was not the same as my original gear! This added to my discouragement. I could not use that gear.
I called the SNG man and explained the problem. He was also surprised as he had been sure the gear was for an E-Type. But we both learned that there were different gear-ratio transmissions supplied with the car in different years, I guess? Anyway, he agreed to refund my money if I would send back the gear. So I was only out the two months of waiting time and a fairly high cost of shipping the gear both ways!
But while I was discussing this problem with the SNG man, he had been searching the Internet for another possible gear. He told me over the phone that there was a cluster gear for sale on Ebay right then if I wanted to check it out.
I definitely wanted to, so I immediately got on the Ebay auto parts site and found the gear. In the photos it looked to be in good condition, no spalled teeth, so I called the seller and had him count all the teeth on the cluster, and they matched mine, so I bought it right then.
(No photo of the Ebay gear, but it looks just like my original gear in the photo above.)
It arrived in about three days, and sure enough, it was the correct gear and was in the best condition of any that I had seen. It was going into the transmission.
By the time this gear came I had already ordered all the new gaskets and locking tabs and things I would need to re-assemble the tranny, so I went right to work and did the job. It is a difficult thing to work on, as are all Jaguar assemblies, but it went together eventually and I tested it for noise on the same wooden mounting fixture I had built for the purpose. It was not completely silent, but it made no banging noise like the previous gear had done. I was satisfied that this time, I would have a usable, if not noise-free, transmission.
This is the only photo I took of the second rebuild. I was not anxious to document such a discouraging task!
• Loose lower ball joints
There were a couple of silver linings around the dark cloud of having to disassemble almost the entire car to remove the transmission. To remove the heavy tie plate between the engine and transmission that holds the front torsion bars, I opted to unload the torsion bars completely by removing the spindle uprights from the front suspension. Upon doing this I was surprised to find that I had failed to tighten the lower ball joints when I assembled them the first time. If they had come a little loose they would have wobbled in their tapered holes until the holes would have been ruined and possibly the securing nuts could have worked off. This would have resulted in a front wheel coming loose from the car and a sure crash. With my second assembly I have been meticulous in tightening and re-tightening all critical fasteners.
• Starter motor / ring gear damage
Another fortunate discovery I made upon disassembling the transmission from the engine, was that the new started motor I had purchased three years ago for the car was destroying the ring gear! The pinion gear on this replacement starter engaged the gear from the forward side, and the ring-gear teeth have no bevel on that side as the original starter engages from the back side, where the teeth are beveled to accept the original pinion gear. In just the six or seven times that I had started the engine with this new starter the teeth on my ring gear had been badly cut up. This was a serious problem because the gear teeth, unlike those on many American cars which are shrink-fitted to the flywheel, are cut right into the circumference of the flywheel. To replace the teeth it is necessary to purchase a complete new flywheel! If I had kept using this starter for even a short time It would have soon ruined my flywheel completely and the whole car would have had to come apart anyway! So, just one more small blessing hidden in the sorry job of removing the transmission.
Damage to teeth caused by aftermarket starter motor
Upon seeing this damage I resolved to restore my original starter motor and use it, and to try to repair the teeth on the ring gear by filing them carefully with a small, fine file to remove the damaged metal and restore at least a smooth face on each tooth. The filing job, encompassing all 104 teeth, took me most of an afternoon.
Fortunately, with the started rebuilt and the teeth cleaned up the two gears worked pretty well together. Since I bought the replacement starter more than three years ago, I didn’t think it would be returnable. But I will not hesitate to advise other Jag owners of my experience and discourage the purchase of these aftermarket starters!
• New gear-shift lockout mechanism
There was yet another benefit from removing the transmission at this point. I may have mentioned in an earlier post when describing the first transmission rebuild, that when I took it apart there were some unusual things, like two of the three first-gear synchro-pushing blocks hade come out, or had never peen properly assembled. I will never know what happened to one of them as it was not found anywhere inside the transmission. The other one was found stuck to the drain magnet. First and second gears must have been difficult to engage. Besides this unusual problem, the two small ball bearings that prevent the transmission being put into two gears at the same time were missing! They had simply been left out of the transmission the last time it was assembled, which I assume was when it was put into the car back around 1967.
Fortunately the transmission had never been put into two gears at once or it would have been destroyed had it been moving at any speed.
I was able to buy these two 5/16 inch ball bearings, but the small steel cylinder that rides between the balls preventing the movement of both shifting rods in the same direction at the same time, was missing and cannot be purchased. I made the part by cutting off the end of a hardened steel punch of the correct diameter. I tried to calculate the correct length for the rod, but had to adjust the length by trial and error until it would work correctly.
So there were several benefits that probably would have justified the removal of the transmission even if the cluster gear had not been making a terrible noise. I still felt put-out having to redo everything I had just worked so hard to do.
• Reassembly single-handed
With the transmission reassembled and sounding reasonably quiet when spun by my ½ inch electric drill, it was time to put the engine and transmission back in the car. These two items must be installed or removed as an assembly. Even if it were possible to reach and remove the fasteners holding the bell housing to the engine block, there is no room to separate the transmission from the engine when both are in the car.
I also took advantage of having the engine out to bleed the air out of the clutch slave cylinder. This is nearly impossible to do with the cylinder attached to the bell housing as in this orientation the bleed screw is at the bottom of the cylinder and any air will reside at the top of the cylinder where it cannot be pushed out. But with the engine out the slave cylinder can be inverted and the air expelled easily. In any event, this cylinder, with its steel supply pipe and rubber hose attached is very difficult to get in place with the engine installed. The two tasks must be done more-or-less simultaneously to be successful.
Having done this assembly job previously I knew what had to be done and what to look out for to avoid damage to any parts or surfaces that might be in the way of the task. I approach the assembly by hoisting the front of the car high up in the air with an engine hoist and a nylon strap. With the front end high enough I can roll the engine-transmission assembly, on a low dolly, under the car and slowly and carefully lower the car down over the engine. You might think that a helper would be useful when doing this job, but I prefer to work alone. With a helper present part of my attention is diverted to what he or she is doing and I’m not focusing 100% of my attention on the job. I can also take all the time I want when working alone without concern for taking another’s time.
In this instance the process went smoothly and I soon had the engine back in the car. The connecting of the torsion bars back to the tie plate is perhaps the most difficult step, and I must confess that took more time and patience than the entire rest of the engine installation.
• Quieter transmission – driveway video
With the car reassembled basically to everything except the bonnet, I tried the starter and it still worked (I had tested it while the engine was still on the garage floor and it had worked), so it was time to try starting the engine. It started up easily although it idled unevenly. I tested the transmission by backing down my long driveway and then driving back to the garage. This only tested reverse and first gear but they both worked. The air cleaner was still off so I could get to the carburetors to tune them. I was able to improve the idle some but even now cannot get it to really run smoothly.
After observing that there were no oil, coolant, or gas leaks I ventured to take the car out and drive it around the block. It did OK. All four forward gears worked, also the clutch and brakes. I even talked my wife into going with me for another trip around the block. She enjoyed the ride, commenting that when sitting on a pillow she can actually see out the windshield as well as in her Toyota Prius.
I thought the car was mechanically all sorted out at this point, with the exception of maybe some more effort on the tuning, but it ran well at higher RPM and I could tell it was going to be fun to drive. I parked it back in the garage and turned my attention to finishing the bumpers and lights on the bonnet.
• Leaking brass float
The next day I discovered another serious problem. I invited a neighbor to come go for a short ride with me and as we backed down to the street I noticed a stream of liquid leaving a trail all the way down the driveway. I stopped the car and turned off the engine and got out to see what was leaking so badly. It was gasoline flowing from the overflow pipe on the third carburetor. The float valve was sticking open for some reason. We didn’t start the engine again for fear of fire but pushed the car back to the garage.
Later that day I removed the top of the float bowl on that carburetor and noticed that the float was sitting rather low in the fuel. When I removed the float I found that it was full of fuel! It is of soldered brass construction and had evidently formed a slow leak that took about two days to fill up with fuel. There is no easy repair for a soldered float so I went to my computer and ordered three new floats, thinking that if one was leaking the other two might be not far behind, and also thinking that the three floats should be identical so they would hold the fuel levels in the three bowls all the same.
The new floats arrived in just a few days and I replaced all three, resetting the float levels in all three at the same time, and checking that the throttle butterflies were all shutting properly and the needles on the pistons were all carefully centered. Everything looked good when I put it back together.
The engine started fine, but I could not get it to idle smoothly. I think there may be some leaks in the old carburetor bodies, as they were badly pitted on the inside when I cleaned them up. But new carbs are very expensive so I will keep working on these. It is drivable even with a rough idle.
• Front bumper assembly
It was time now to finish assembling the front bumpers, horns and lights. I had already done some work on the bumpers, grinding them so they would match the contours of the front of the bonnet, including the entry area of the mouth. I discovered that it was going to be difficult to assemble the Jaguar feature bar across the mouth, mounting it between the two bumpers. In my particular case it was impossible to get a wrench on the screws that attach the feature piece. My solution was to put studs in the threaded holes in the bumpers and bend them slightly outwards so a small socket could be fitted up over locking nuts on the studs. This worked, although I still had to loosely assembly the feature piece between the two bumpers off the bonnet and then offer up the three pieces together all at the same time to their respective places on the bonnet.
I also had previously glued the rubber seals that go around the top edges of the bumpers so they would stay in place when the bumpers were mounted. There was a lot of trial and error involved in this task. If I ever have to do it again I think it will go much better.
• Horns and wiring
With the bumpers on the rest of the internal parts can be assembled to the bonnet, namely the wiring, the horns, marker lights, headlight scoops and headlights. This is no small job, and, having never done it before, I made many mistakes and had to re-do much of it.
I had tested both the horns on my bench before mounting them in the bonnet, but when I had them in and wired I tested them again and neither one would work! The wiring was all good, so I removed the horns and tried to diagnose the problem. I was able to remove the back cover of each horn and discovered that they were full of dust form my bead blaster. They had been rusty and I had cleaned them by bead blasting, trying to mask off all the openings to prevent glass beads getting inside the horns. But the dust can penetrate through very small cracks and had got inside and dirtied the electrical contact points that vibrate to produce the noise in the horn. I was able to clean these points and the inside of the horns and put them back together and they worked perfectly, so back they went into the bonnet.
The marker lights went in next. Actually I had set the chrome bases for these lights in place before installing the bumpers so the bumper seals would ride up over the light seals as the two seals have to occupy the same space in the final assembly, and the new seals are a little thick and heavy and tend to push each other out of the space! So I now put in new lamps (not LED lamps, sadly) and connected the wires with new connectors and they all worked OK. I tested the old headlight lamps and they both worked so I decided to use them.
• Sugar scoops, headlights
Once again, not knowing the correct sequence for these things, I completely installed the headlight buckets, and lamps and securing rings and then realized that I could not install the sugar scoops with the headlights in. So out they came and I proceeded to put in the scoops. They are almost impossible to assemble in any orientation. The small mounting ears require loose spacers to be placed underneath to set the scoops at the best angles in their openings. I can’t imagine how they did this at the factory. Maybe they mounted the scoops to the bonnet bulkheads when the bonnet was being assembled? It is almost impossible to do with all the sheet metal in place. Somehow I managed using ice pick tools to line up the spacers and washers where fingers cannot go. I probably did not get the angles of the scoops quite right but once the screws were in there was no going back. It’s pretty hard to tell once the bonnet is on the car and the glass covers are installed. The headlights were not hard to install once the sugar scoops were in place, especially after going through the process so recently.
With all the lights and horns installed I tested the wiring again, this time from the 8-pin plug that supplies the power from the car’s front wire harness, and everything worked. I could now place the bonnet on the car.
• Bonnet install
Installing the bonnet, for me, is a task that requires six people; two on each side to hold it up and position it, and one on each hinge to place the hinge screws in and tighten them up. Then all must be careful to not let the bonnet fall forward or it will hit the ground and cause damage. So I had two of the helpers hold it in place while I installed the spring mechanisms on each side. With the springs in place it could be let go of and could not fall. The first thing we noticed after getting the bonnet attached, was that it would not close.
• Closing problems
o Latch -- The first problem was the safety latch at the rear edge of the bonnet. It was hitting the inside of the bonnet well before the thing was down all the way. To eliminate it from the closing problem I simply removed the striker, planning to deal with it later, which I did. The solution was to remove the striker and bend it slightly until the bonnet would go down without hitting it. This took several tries, and I will never know how the striker become bent out of its original shape in the first place, because there was no interference when I took the car apart. Funny how things move without any visible explanation!
But even with the latch removed the bonnet still would not close. Together with my helpers we determined that it was hitting in two more places, at the mud guard in the right front wheel well, and where the heater elbow mates with the heater fan box on the left-hand side. These were not so easy to deal with, so I thanked my friends for their help and sent them home, planning to look at the interferences myself the next day.
Bonnet latch attached to underside of the bonnet. Its position is not adjustable.
Bonnet latch striker. This piece is adjustable by bending, which is what I did to get rid of the interference.
o Heater elbow -- To diagnose the heater elbow problem I removed it as I had the center latch. That cured the interference, of course, but did not solve the problem. I determined that the heater box itself was not moveable, it was bolted to the firewall in several places and could not be moved without some major modification. But the elbow itself could be raised a little. I filed the mounting holes in the elbow a little oblong allowing it to be raised about ¼ inch, but this was not enough. So I made up a thicker gasket to place along the lower edge of the elbow causing it to tilt up slightly.
This moved it enough to allow the bonnet to go down on the left side. I will need to replace the soft, thicker gasket with a solid spacer, because I can’t tighten the mounting screws sufficiently to keep them in place without compressing the gasket so much that it ceases to hold the elbow sufficiently up to give the necessary clearance.
Heater elbow which mates with the heater box mounted on the firewall. If this elbow is too low the bonnet will not close. By installing a thicker gasket across the bottom edge I could move the opening up and eliminate the interference. The soft gasket is supposed to allow for some unevenness in the closure between elbow and heater box inlet.
These are both interesting interference problems seeing that all of the parts involved are the original parts and did not have any interference before I took the car apart. It makes me wonder how they ever got these cars to fit together at the factory?
o Wheel-well fit-up -- The third interference was the right-side mud flap hitting the bonnet bulkhead that is supposed to close right next to it, making a seal with a thick rubber flap attached to the mud guard. Instead of closing right next to the mud guard, the bonnet piece was crossing over the top of the mudguard, holding the bonnet up.
Mud guard in wheel well that seals against a bulkhead in the bonnet initially causing interference. This is the one where I drilled out all the spot welds to move back the upper edge of the mud guard, then riveted the joint back together in the new position.
There was no way to bend the mud guard back out of the way as it is cut at several angles and spot welded together making it completely stiff and unbendable. I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to cut the spot welds and move the joint back, then reweld the seam in the new position. I proceeded to remove the guard and drill out all the spot welds, then bend the upper part of the guard towards the rear so the bonnet would not hit. Even with the spot welds cut it was difficult to make these two panels close together without crossing, but I moved the lower piece as far as I could then, instead of welding the joint back together I chose to use 3/16 in. pop rivets to make the seam. This worked OK. I touched up the paint and installed the guard back in its place. I am a little disappointed that the joint still closes too tight and it is difficult to get the bonnet down, but maybe it will loosen up a bit as the rubber flap becomes seasoned into its better position. I’m certainly not going to cut it all apart again!
Bonnet bulkhead making seal with mud guard in wheel well. This piece is not movable!
• Second fan switch
With the bonnet now closing, albeit still too tight, I wanted to install a second temperature switch to ensure that the engine-cooling fan would come on when the coolant got hot. I had not heard the fan come on yet even when the engine was hot, and I had put in a new “Otter” switch, which is the factory switch. I had another 180-degree thermal switch that came with the aftermarket electric fan. I mounted it to the underside of the thermostat housing where it would get hot early and hopefully help the fan to come on sooner. In at least one recent test run the fan did come on so one of the switches is working.
• As I test-drove the car around my neighborhood a few times I noticed that the brakes were beginning to stick on. This puzzled me at first but the problem became continually worse and worse until the car would barely move and only in first gear. The brakes were getting hot and even smoking as I managed to get the car back to my garage. I left it in the garage to cool down, hoping I had not destroyed the seals in the pistons or the lip seals in the wheel hubs. Fortunately, when the brakes cooled off (next day) everything seemed to work OK but I suspect the seals in both pistons and hubs are not like new anymore!
Pedal box on firewall with vacuum bellows mounted on top. If the pedal-actuated valve is not working this bellows will push the brake master cylinders in when vacuum is applied
As I pondered the problem I remembered that the brake booster is actuated by manifold vacuum. I had cleaned up and reassembled the little needle valve in the booster mechanism the best I could when I rebuilt the pedal box, but the parts were old and could easily have been leaking or not even working at all. If the valve was failed that could allow manifold vacuum to be constantly applied to the booster bellows, effectively applying the brakes all the time that the engine was running. The simple diagnosis was to disconnect the vacuum line from the engine and see if the problem went away. I did this but the problem did not go away.
There was an added benefit to this diagnostic test. With the vacuum line to the brake booster blocked off, I was able to tune the carburetors a little better. Apparently the vacuum system was leaking and allowing excess air into the manifolds making it impossible to properly tune the carburetors.
Here was the solution to the brake problem. An interesting thing I noticed was that with the engine off and the brake pedal released the brake lights were staying on! This could only be caused by residual fluid pressure in the brake line as the switch is pressure actuated, certainly not caused by residual vacuum in the bellows. This caused me to go to the “Jag Lovers Blog” and search the archives for examples of brake problems. I found plenty, including the vacuum issue I just described. But another problem that was reported was that of having too little free play in the brake master cylinders. If the pistons in the cylinders cannot retract far enough when the pedal comes up they may not release pressure in the line, thus causing the brakes to remain on and the brake light switch to remain closed.
I checked my pedal linkage and found the free play to be almost zero, but the problem was not related to an adjustment, it was caused by one of the new plunger rods coming out of the new master cylinder that was too long. This problem was also mentioned in one of the blog posts. Some vehicle years had longer plunger rods than others.
Notice the difference in length in the first two plunger rods. These are both old parts from different cars, but they show how different years had different lengths. The one I replaced was the one on the right. The one in the picture is my original which I put back in the car. The one I had installed on the car, that came with the new cylinder, was 1/2 inch longer!
I located my original cylinders in a box and removed the original rods. Sure enough, my original was 1/2 inch shorter than the new one I had installed. I removed the long rod and replaced it with the original shorter rod and the problem of brakes locking on went away. There is still a problem with the vacuum booster but that is an unrelated issue. I will work on that. I may have assembled the small control valve incorrectly.
- Here are some photos of the finished car in the driveway. The driving video will follow, if I can ever get it made.
• Driving video
I regret that it has not been possible to produce the promised video for this post. I have been waiting for weeks for everything to be working on the car and then the weather turned bad and the streets have not been dry and clear for many weeks, and I won't take the car out on wet roads.
I have been able to find and deal with several bugs which had to be resolved before the car could be driven, bugs like a leaking radiator hose, a fuse blowing, clutch pedal adjustment, front brakes sticking on, carburetor float sinking, the steering wheel incorrectly mounted, oil leaks, and a few others. And there are still probably more bugs to be found, but that is a normal part of the process with a complete vehicle restoration like this one.
The car may never be dependable transportation, but it is certainly fun to drive on those rare occasions when most systems are working. I will still try to make the driving video as soon as the roads are clear and dry, and I will post it as a separate post to this blog.
I thank all of you who have followed this project with interest. Your unspoken support has been encouraging to me when things were looking bleak. It has been good to share this work.
Epic!
ReplyDeleteDear Perry,
DeleteThank you once again for sharing your excellent work with all of us! You have done a superb job. No doubt, however, a Jag of this vintage is a Jag and there is always something to do keep it running in top shape. Thank you for your example of patience and perseverance!
Sincerely,
Bob