The final task before the colour is put on the outside of shell was the trial fitting of the rear bumpers at Hutsons. Unfortunately all three sections of the original bumper were beyond repair due to a minor rear-end shunt, which had left a neat crease down the middle of the centre section and both out sections being bent out of shape.
Time pressures resulted in new bumpers having to be used, which wasn’t ideal. I’d heard these can be thinner than the originals and the chrome less durable. Only time will tell. Anyway, at least the trials and tribulations of trying to get a complete set of original bumpers was over!
I had planned to refit the LHS section which I thought didn’t look to bad. Therefore I set about obtaining the other two sections as bumpers regularly come up on eBay but it has ended up being an expensive series of disasters! First up was a centre section that the seller insists was posted but it never arrived. The blame placed on the Christmas post. Next, and by far the worse, was purchasing of a ‘complete’ Series 2 rear bumpers from a guy who I believe is a regular on the Jaguar spare parts circuit. The bumpers looked undamaged and all the brackets were correct for the Series 2 …. I was pleased with my purchase.
Only when Hutsons came to trail fit these did it transpire that they were in fact butchered Series 1 bumpers. On the Series 1, the rear lights sit just above the bumpers, which have indentations for the lights. However, with the Series 2, the rear lights moved below the bumper so there were no indentations. For some reason, only known to themselves, someone had cut off the original brackets from a set of S1 bumpers and welded in their place (admittedly very neatly) Series 2 brackets.
The galling thing is that I suspect the seller knew this all along, since he was the owner of half a dozen Jaguars and used to be a main dealer. I will be having words when/if our paths cross!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The wiper motor in the S2 is a Lucas Type 15W motor, the output of which drives a connecting rod to the triple wiper rack. From what I can tell the 15W motor essentially works in the same manner as the DL3 wiper motors used in the earlier cars, except that the parking switch is now internal within the 15W. 
The two long yoke retaining bolts were removed which enabled the round bodied section and armature to be carefully withdrawn until the worm drive is free. Unchecked, the action of the worm drive would pull the armature shaft further into the motor gearbox. A threaded stop screw limits the permitted travel of the armature shaft and there’s also flat thrust washer between the armature and motor gearbox.
The armature can then be withdrawn from the yoke. Although a reasonable amount of force is required to overcome the magnetic attraction between the permanent magnets and the armature.
The end of the armature rotates in, what the manual describes as, a bearing housing in the cap of the yoke. However there isn’t a bearing as such. Only a small thrust plate and fibrous washer. I didn’t realise they were there at the time of dismantling so I was lucky not to lose them.
The cover can be pressed back into shape but it immediately pops back, in a similar manner to the lid of an opened jar. I think it’s referred as oil canning and is a result of the centre area of the lid having been stretched.
Somehow the old loom had turned itself into a right old bird’s nest while in storage. It took quite a while to untangle it so that it could be laid out, mimicking how it is routed within the car. Armed with a multi-meter and the wiring diagrams, I set about the simple task of labelling the new looms …
Other issues that, for now, remain unresolved are i) a missing green & brown wire for the reverse light switch and ii) a spare purple & white wire at the centre of the dash. The E-Type forum is very helpful in cases like this as there’s a wealth of knowledge available from the forum members. I was not alone with both the missing and extra wires as one member had decided to use the spare purple & white wire for the reverse light switch. Perhaps I’ll need to do the same.
It’s a well-known phenomenon that as soon as the dreaded ‘E’ word is mentioned the cost of parts rocket skyward, to whatever the vendor and, being of a cynical nature, the vendor community think they can get away with. The fans being a case in point. At the time, an XJS fan cost £15 while the E-Type fan cost over £30 – an eye-watering mark up! So it’s worth finding out if a part was common to other models/marques.
As luck would have it, the base of a garden birdfeeder had exactly the same diameter as the original fan. So this was used to cut out the templates, using the same method above.
The fan could then be rotated until the next blade was under the same section and process repeated until all the blades had been cut to the correct length and profile. The blade ends were then lightly sanded to remove any remaining swarf and were then ready for fitting.
One of the great things I’ve found about the restoration of the various electrical components is that they were designed in an era before our ‘throw away’ society. Therefore overhauling the units is well within the capability of most enthusiasts. As with the fuel pump, the stripping down of the fan motors was very simple.
It became apparent that one of the common problems with this SU pump was the tendency for the points to stick, especially on cars stored over winter. After hearing stories of drivers having to use a hammer to whack the pump back into life, I decided it was probably a good idea to upgrade from points to electronic actuation with a kit supplied by 
The new armature guides supplied in the repair kit were 5 plastic figures of 8, as shown in the first photo above. The original guide was a single piece and the new guides seemed to be a backwards step rather than an improvement. So the original part was refitted and avoided having to hold five guides in place when refitting the armature/diaphragm into the coil housing.
Converting the pump to electronic actuation requires a magnet carrier to be attached to the upper end of the armature spindle. First a plastic guide tube is pushed over the spindle down into the coil housing. This centralises the spindle movement within the coil housing. The magnet carrier is fully screwed onto the spindle before being backed off until it is aligned to be perpendicular to the line passing through the pedestal mounting holes. It is then secured in this position on the spindle by tightening an allen screw.
The bakelite pedestal is replace by a PCB which is mounted on spacers to raise it away from the coil housing. On one of the spacer mountings contains a ‘Hall Effect’ fork. The fork enables the electronic circuit to detect the travel of the magnet carrier and thereby control the energising of the coil.
At some stage one of the cooling fan motors had been replaced with a round-bodied motor which I think must be from a Series 3, shown on the right. So the first task was to acquire a second motor which is correct for the Series 2. One of the vendors at the Jaguar International Spares day suggested that these occasionally came up on the eBay website.
Oddly, at the end of their advert, they mentioned they were looking to get hold of a boot lid. At some point my car had had a slight shunt at the rear which had twisted the frame under the boot lid’s skin, which is just about visible in the photo. The bodyshop suggested that, although it could be repaired, it would probably cost as much as a new one as the skin would have to be removed to repair the frame.
The motors were indeed in need of a complete overhaul and for some reason had the white fans mounted back to front. I’m sure this wouldn’t have helped in the efficiency of the cooling and it certainly didn’t help when I came to remove them! Funnily enough, a few days later, an advert appeared on eBay for a basket case restoration of a red roadster, with my blue boot lid! As I said – buyer beware.