Feb 022012
 

Series 3 fan motor?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.

I’d vaguely heard of eBay at the time and thought it was mainly used by people peddling tat and dodgy items. However needs must, so I logged on and started monitoring new Jaguar/E-Type ‘listings’. It took a while to get used to the ins and outs of their auction process. I’d soon lost count of the number of times I’d placed a bid days before the auction ended, only to find all the bidding happened within the last few seconds. I didn’t have time for that!

I must admit that subsequently I’ve been surprised how useful eBay has been, although I still think there’s a lot of tat on there – so buyer beware! Someone from the E-Type forum pointed me to an ‘auction sniper’ website which automatically makes bids for you, seconds before the auction ends, and so takes all the hassle away. Sure enough, someone listed two square bodied motors for sale but in need of complete overhaul.

Buckled boot lid frameOddly, 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.

As luck would have it, I had already sourced a replacement and so had the other one spare. I mentioned its condition to the eBay seller and that it might not be economical to repair but they seemed keen on cutting a deal – so a straight swap was agreed, with the transaction taking place late at night in a layby just outside of Brockenhurst!

Sourced motors with fan mounted back-to-front!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.

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