My Life with the XK-E - Part 2
by George Anderson, ESEP
Figure 1. Removing the engine and transmission
[If you haven’t done so, you can read Part 1 here]
Working on the XKE was for me a great adventure and later led to unanticipated changes in my career. The accumulated technical knowledge was subtly influential. In the late 1980’s I was laid off from my job as a Defense contractor and was hired as an aircraft powerplant engineer by United Airlines, Inc. in San Francisco. After 4 years managing jet engine overhauls, I was offered a position as an aircraft accident investigator at the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington, DC. There I participated in many major aircraft accidents focusing on powerplant failures. This career change would have been difficult without recommendations from a circle of acquaintances in the aviation industry who knew of my work with engines that had begun with the XK-E.
As time went on, I became aware of other owners of Jaguar automobiles who were doing their own major maintenance. Today there are blogs that bring owners together online to share maintenance and logistics information. Also, there are independent shops who specialize in the XK-E. Ironically, these shops benefit from the cumulative experience of this early group of independent owners. They are now capable of competently troubleshooting and repairing a vehicle that is now over 50 years old. I will describe the major repairs that I performed, and some logistics challenges otherwise known as chasing down rare parts.
Figure 2. Engine, clutch and transmission sitting on wheeled dolly
Figure 3. Rear view of engine on dolly.
Maintenance- Were maintenance processes followed according to manufacturer’s instructions and were results satisfactory?
Figure 4. The knob is pulled and released to start the clock and then turned to set the time. Screw shaft on right used for adjusting time fast or slow.
The car had only three on-road failures-all of which permitted me to limp home. The worst was a failure of the clutch pressure plate. In the XK-E, clutch replacement required removing the entire engine and transmission assembly from the car. The work to do this was extensive and I performed this repair in my garage with the help of a high school student who lived next door. I like to think that the experience helped him find a satisfying career or hobby in engine work.
Labor to have this done in a garage would have probably exceeded half of the car’s original sales price of $6000.00.
The clutch pressure plate had failed due to mechanical fatigue. This was quickly fixed and the engine valve clearances, main and cam bearings were measured for wear before reinstalling back into the car. None required replacement but the valve tappet clearances were measured, and new tappets installed where needed.
During an inspection of the transmission, a unique deficiency was found. The manual transmission had always been stiff when shifting into reverse. The reverse detent was held in place by spring tension and now that I had access, I began adjusting the spring tension to see if the detent would become easier to displace. This did not work but a ball bearing at the base of the spring assembly was damaged with a large burr of metal on its normally hardened and polished surface. When an industrial bearing of the same diameter was installed, the shifter worked perfectly. If not for the teardown, this discrepancy would probably never have been found.
Figure 5. Air Conditioner under dashboard
The second failure was a small backfire that caused the chain sprocket on one of the two camshafts to jump out of time. Splines mating two sections of the sprocket stripped relative to each other. To repair, the camshaft chain area had to be exposed and a new sprocket assembly and a camshaft position gage bought. Additionally, a special tool called the timing chain adjustment tool had to be made as none were for sale. By asking around I located a retired machinist and begged him to consider building the tool. It was not a simple task, but he was seemingly motivated by its complexity and finished the job in three hours. I only used the tool once to complete this repair but it was loaned out to other Jaguar owners many times.
Figure 6. An example of an XK-E rear suspension removed for service. Note inboard disc brakes. A Jaguar Innovation
The third on-road failure was minor. It occurred while I was driving along the Yolo causeway outside of Sacramento, CA. The engine stopped suddenly indicating a possible fuel pump failure. I knew that the pump was easily reached through a small hatch and that the first step was to check the electrical points for corrosion. Sure enough, a few scrapes with my pocketknife and the pump began to work. As I was ready to drive off, a weather-beaten old Volkswagen pulled off in front of me. A man ran back and handed me a new set of Jaguar fuel pump points. He said that he had been keeping them for a moment like this and then hurriedly rushed off. This was California in the 1970’s!
Other maintenance items were less critical however several problems required extended troubleshooting to solve.
The speedometer needle after a year or two would begin to flutter. This was very irritating at idle. The earlier fix was to send the instrument out for rebuild but I grew suspicious and took it apart one day and noticed that there was excess oil inside the mechanism. The needle or pointer was suspended between two jeweled pivots that when worn or dirty would cause the flutter. A cleaning with a Q tip and solvent was successful and allowed me to avoid sending the speedometer away for “overhaul”.
Closely related to this problem was keeping the oil out of the speedometer. The drive was a flex shaft that was connected to a port on the transmission. Grease from this shaft moved up into the speedometer case with nothing to stop it. Fabricating felt washers and installing them in the speedometer case worked to block the grease and increase the cleaning intervals.
Understanding the clock. The clock operated if you routinely replaced the small mercury battery that powered it. It was not quartz but an electric wound mechanical movement. [1] It worked fine, and I had to replace mine only once after about ten years. It failed from corroded battery contacts. The procedure for accessing the clock was an excellent example of how simple the dashboard electrics were serviced. The central panel was opened by removing only two pinch screws. The panel hinged downward revealing all the wiring and fuses for the dashboard instruments and switches. It also offered access to the rear connections on the speedometer and tachometer.
Gas Leak. In 1972, I noticed a gas leak under the fuel tank. Getting under the car I noticed for the first time a small cylindrical object protruding from under where the fuel tank was installed. The service manual identified this as the fuel tank sump, and it was leaking. The sump was threaded into a boss in the bottom of the fuel tank and was easily removed. After a new sump was obtained and the fuel tank drained, replacement took five minutes. The genius of this design deserves mention.
The failure was due to pitting corrosion which is caused by particles of sediment attaching to the sump wall. Had the sump been inside the tank, the sediment would have been distributed uniformly across the bottom of the fuel tank. It is likely that the sump was partially designed to be a sacrificial component to save the more expensive fuel tank. It also guaranteed that there was no unusable fuel in the main tank.
The air conditioner was a British design and was a rare installation for a Jaguar in 1968. It used a York brand piston type compressor and the blower and evaporator unit peered out from under the dashboard. It was about three inches deep and reduced the passenger leg room. It worked very well and was appreciated in hot and humid conditions. Several years after purchase the system lost its Freon charge. A recharge restored the unit but every spring it would need recharging. I finally went to the service manual and noted that the oil level in the compressor sump should be checked every year. A long overdue check of the oil level found it to be low. Adding oil and running the A/C several times during the winter months was the final solution to the problem. I also learned from an air conditioner textbook that the forward shaft seal requires an oil coating to keep the refrigerant from leaking out. {2}
Learning about the British Whitworth threads in my fuel lines. If the car had one irritating design flaw it would be the fuel fitting that supplied both carburetors. This was a “T” shaped arrangement that used rigid plastic lines terminated with three threaded brass fittings. The plastic would crack after a few years and leak fuel onto the intake manifold. This was a hazard[3].
It happened several times before I decided to have an emergency spare made from flexible fuel hose and US standard threaded hose fittings. I went to a local auto parts shop for the fittings and a young clerk told me that I could not use these fittings on this car as most British fuel fittings used Whitworth threads. I questioned this because the threads engaged properly, and left determined to have my own way. Later, an aircraft engineer set me straight. Indeed, there is a subtle but important difference. U.S. threads are formed using a 60-degree angle while the Whitworth system uses 55 degrees.[4] Since they do not make proper contact, they cannot be tightened properly and will leak. With this knowledge I went back to the parts clerk to apologize and thank him for setting me on the right path. The Americans and British had normalized their thread systems just after WWII but the British carburetor designers were slow to adapt.
A special technique to check your spark plugs. Removing and checking spark plugs is easy but time consuming, especially if you seldom find a bad one. I borrowed the idea of hooking the plugs up to an oscilloscope and observing the firing pulses [5]. As a plug begins to foul, the voltage that the coil generates will raise significantly on the initial discharge. One connection from the oscilloscope to the distributer allowed me to see all six plugs firing. This procedure saved a lot of time looking for uncommon problems.
None of the above maintenance procedures and troubleshooting could have been possible without the early versions of the Jaguar XK-E service manual. I found that it was a model of good organization and clarity and I was never at a loss to understand the car’s maintenance and repair processes. As the car aged, new processes were constantly added including corrosion protection steps that had not been anticipated initially. My brief rating of the manual compared to other cars I have owned since is provided below in Table 1.
|
1 |
GM |
Best- very detailed and good references to other repair publications |
|
2 |
Jaguar |
Well organized and fit for purpose. British writing style and terms |
|
3 |
Volvo |
Well organized and fit for purpose. Excellent explanation and testing sections |
|
4 |
Volkswagen |
Limited distribution. Aftermarket manuals published in USA are good replacements and easy to follow. |
|
5 |
Mercedes |
Somewhat disorganized but detailed. A manual that requires study before use |
Selected Logistics topics
When the Jaguar XK-E was in early production, spare parts were difficult to obtain and no aftermarket parts were available. Ten years after its introduction the parts logistics improved greatly. Today, there are still plenty of original equipment parts available with the occasional shortage made up from recyclers.
Not all parts came from Jaguar. Many after-market items were better, cheaper, and lasted longer. Exhaust system components were an example. The chrome plated resonators were an example. They required a thick chrome plating to survive the high temperatures. When I replaced the originals, the replacements came from a South African company that offered the thickest chrome coating. They outlasted the originals by a wide margin.
The chrome wire wheels eventually became loose and needed service. A company in Dayton, Ohio who specialized in wire wheels rebuilt them for me with new stainless-steel spokes and permanently solved the problem[6]. Nothing gets your attention like the ping of a spoke breaking while driving on the freeway.
Lessons learned about balancing my tires. As I stated earlier, my front tires were usually balanced semiannually. That is until I met the Indianapolis tire man. This older gentleman balanced racing tires every year for the Indianapolis 500 and told me more about balancing tires than I could have imagined. He showed me how to operate the best equipment and explained the theory of static and dynamic balancing and how to tell a failing tire from its performance on the balancing machine. I think of him every time I see a tire balancer in use or misuse.
Figure 7. Operational Check -Removing a cat from under the bonnet (hood)
All cars have life limited parts. I always maintained a rebuilt spare starter and alternator on the shelf for rapid turnaround should either fail. This practice is consistent with other cars I have owned and eliminates the time wasted searching for a replacement. Some spares travel with the car. Coolant hoses and fan belts take up little room in the trunk when on a trip and save a lost day or two waiting for replacements. Several crates of spares went with the car when it was sold.
Disposal- Selecting a new owner.
The time to part with my XK-E came when I began commuting in the San Francisco Bay area and needed a more fuel-efficient car. Finding a buyer was slow going but finally a local person expressed interest and made an offer. I knew that the car would be needing some major mechanical overhaul[7] in several years and hoped that the new owner would be able to handle these himself and keep the car operational. (Figure 6)
I think that the car worked out well for him, but I later heard that the carburetor gas line cracked while the car was in a hotel indoor parking garage. The parts folks kept me informed.
[1] This movement was used on most American cars of the period as well. It is called a remontoire type clock: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remontoire. Like the fuel pump, it uses electric points that are easily renewed but for some reason were seldom repaired.
[2] In California in the 1970’s it was common for some mechanics to tell an owner that their A/C compressor forward shaft seal was bad and recommend installing a new compressor. I believe that a lot of unnecessary compressors were replaced because of incomplete troubleshooting.
[3] On this car and many other vehicles with electric fuel pumps, one learns to listen to the fuel pump start and then stop several seconds after turning on the ignition. If it does not stop, fuel is flowing to dangerous places. Common causes are fuel line leaks and stuck carburetor float valves. Many modern cars have silenced the fuel pump so you cannot perform this check. This makes it doubly important to carry a fire extinguisher to put out a fuel fire that you may encounter down the road.
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Standard_Whitworth The first screw standard and a significant contribution to the 1855 Crimean War. 90 gunboat steam engines were produced in 90 days using this standard to distribute the work among separate shops.
[5] The idea comes from 1950’s era aircraft with reciprocating engines. When you have up to 28 spark plugs on each engine and 124 per airplane, you use an analyzer that resembles an oscilloscope to diagnose rather than pull plugs for inspection. My oscilloscope was a $15 army surplus purchase.
[6] According to the shop who had been rebuilding wire wheels since 1905, the problem was that the original spokes were of mild steel that had a low yield point and simply loosened up with the normal road loading.
[7] The entire rear suspension had to be removed from the car to replace the rear brake discs and the springs and shock absorbers. Somewhat daunting but not worse than replacing the clutch.