yes, i did. battery terminals are clean and tightened. i think The battery is connected only to the starter solenoid . i shall look for broken wire. Do you know if the line is hidden through the car body or can be traced from the under carriage ?
william
have you used a multimeter to verify battery voltage, and resistance along starting and earth cables?
William,
Are you sure your starter motor isn’t jammed? You assume an electrical failure but have you tested the starter motor before? Also the drive (Bendix) could be at fault. Just something to check.
Bob K.
Everything including headlights quitting all at once, then later IGN and FP working but quitting when you try starter; it definitely sounds like bad connection at a ground cable.
Battery negative goes through the body here. Then through the sill and coming up by the solenoid.
Battery ground is here.
Body ground to engine ground is here.
Of course you car may have been changed at some point.
And it could also be a bad internal connection inside the battery.
Hi Rob
U r right. After testing and searching according to your instruction finally i found the problem. It was a malfunctioning anti theft cut off switch installed by the previous owner. So i took the cutoff switch completely off. Now the car is fuctioning beautifully. All these years this car has been unreliable because of that. Quite a few times i got stranded when it quit working but then it went okay again so i never got the problem solved.
This car is now almost problem free except for the speedometer not working. Do i have to drain the gear oil before i take out the lower spinning cable attachment to have a look?
William
No, you don’t have to drain it, but its even easier to disconnect at the speedometer and just try to turn the square cable end fitting. It should not turn. If it does, you can pull it out there (with a rag, its usually smeared with messy graphite) and see if the lower end comes with it. It will be just square, no special fitting. If it is broken the lower part will stay inside and then you get it out from the gearbox end.
Hi Rob
While i was fixing the other proflem I did detach the spinning cable from the speedomter end and tried to spin the square end but it would not spin. So now what is the next step? May be the spinning cable is kinked. I traced the cable and it does not look staright. Some part has acute angles. May be it got hit by something as it was hanging pretty low. I trid to pull it higher and straighten it out a little. But the speedometer still not working last time i ran the car. So what is the next thing i shoild do.?
William
Pull the inner cable out a couple of inches and try to spin it. It should spin fairly easily. If it seems like its grabbing, pull it all the way out and lay it on a flat surface to see if it is kinked. You can try to straighten it. Also try to get the kinks out of the outer sheath. Large radius bends only.
To test the speedometer, you can stick a square drive screwdriver bit in there and give it a quick flicking twist in the direction you expect the needle to move. The needle should jump a bit.
I use a 3" bit of copper wire with one end bent over in a “U” and flattened to fit loose in the speedo head. The other end I put in a cordless drill. This allows you to see if the bouncing is in the head unit.
Thanks guys for all your help and expert advice without which i’ll never be able to keep this car in good running condition. Here is a photo of the car you guys helped in maintaining. I shall try to fix the speedometer as advised and get back to you.
William
Hi William:
Good to read that you have surfaced again (I recognized the licence plate frames on your first posted photo). I wonder if the condition you have finally resolved was the one that caused you to be stranded many months ago? At that time you felt that it was a faulty ignition switch as I recall. By the way, did you sell the flat floor E-type?
Regards,
Chris.
Hi chris
I think u r right. I got stranded in 2014 due to the same problem. I tightened the ignition connections and it worked okay again. So i did not solve the real problem. Btw you have helped me all thru these yrs with this car. Did you change your email as i did email you but got email address canceled message. I thought you did not want to be bothered so I ran back here for help.
I still have the 1961 e type ots flat floor.
I did try to sell it as i ran out of garage space. No one wanted it so i moved into a new house with more garage spaces.
Hi William:
Sorry, I forgot about the email change! It is now: cphillipsxk@outlook.com, by the way I like your solution to lack of garage space, get a bigger house with more garage space! Your cars look great and I am glad that removal of the recalcitrant cut-off switch on the XK appears to have finally solved your problem.
Best regards,
Chris.
vVry nice car. I could only hope that mine might look so nice some day.
Following up on this thread. My Xk120 has been on battery tender all winter. Went to start it up and just get a click, nothing else. Went to start it up from starter solenoid and fired right up. Tried to start it up again from key … and nothing. Electrical is my weakness … any thoughts from the group?
Remove the thin wire from the push button to the solenoid at the solenoid and test that wire for the presence of 12V when you push the button, preferably with a test light.
If it does not alight, your problem should be from that wire back to the push button
If it does alight, you may have a faulty solenoid
report your findings
the start system is simple on the 50s Jags, so the problem will probably be, push button, wire/connectors/earth or solenoid