xj40 was sitting 10 years accumulator was frozen ,no rear brakes but front brakes do work transmission seems to be on car was well kept when running ,but pervious owner just parked it he had several vehicles.
what else can I expect I’m a retired mechanic ,I worked on jags several years ago so nothing really amazes me any more
Hah…be careful with that mentality!
I too have worked on cars for ages. Always had Jaguars fro old to new.
Just for me, not concours restoration nonsense, just daily drivers.
On the older cars I’d agree with you, but on the newer ones sitting can be worse as anything.
I never considered the XJ40 before until recently having (after all these years) seen and sat in one for the first time since I was a kid…
Surprisingly I liked it!
the one I looked at too had een sitting, low miles…and although I got a S1 XJ6 to restore with an engine needing rebuild, otherwise they are almost identical in need.
Must go from front to back, flush everything, replace hoses, hand crank motor while fogging cylinders, lube or replace bearings, seals, shocks, rubber mounts, etc etc…flush gas tank, etc.
And there’s the wiring…
Funny, I watch Jay Leno’s garage and Petrolicious on UTube.
I recall Jay Leno mentioning his old Knucklehead and pulling it out after 30 yrs, did the once over routine and it started right up, however on modern cars today will one be able to say the same?
No way.
The XJ40 however and XJS are really the last true Jaguars imho.
Best of luck
this car was a gift as in free ,like you I love the looks of it and the way it sits and rides love the classic body style .all we did to it was put a battery in it and it started right up I expect smoke and it does ,for now we know accumulator is bad and fluid is junk ,my mind set is fix brakes first then deal with engine basically engine design hasent changed in years . I have a target of 18 months for it to be road worthy ,I’m not trying to restore it just want a safe driver ,yep door handles bad wiring will take time so ill be uiet busy it seems
The smoke is nothing to be really concerned about (if it’s blue, that is!)
Warm oil will drain past the valve seals into the cylinders on engine shutdown - bonus is on startup you have plenty of upper cylinder lubricant after a long hibernation!
If you have the blue Hella relays on the firewall, these are prone to fail as they aren’t sealed.
Jag even advised swapping them out for later sealed ones - but not to worry, lots of aftermarket sealed ones available for a reasonable price. This would be my first electrical r&r step and if other systems seem haywire #1 suspects would be the footwell fuse boxes which suffer cold solder joints (esp on 94’s) - these fuse issues can be fixed by re-flowing the joints, no need to buy replacements as they would probably need reflowing too.
But first, good plan to get the brakes happening!
best of luck, the 94 is the best of the bunch in some ways so you’re on a good foundation!
cheers
Larry
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Was fuel left in the tank? If you need to remove the fuel tank for cleaning for replacement, its a bit of a job, but not impossible. Unfortunately, they do not make tanks for these cars anymore, so you’re stuck with what you’ve got or a used one.
thanks for your answer i was aware about cghanging relays but not about fuse box , yes brakes are a problem wish they could be converted to vacuum why fix it if you cant stop it
so far tank seems to be ok the car started on the old fuel as soon as i get brakes fixed fuel system is nexed lucky for me i have a friend with a hot take i can soak the fuel tank in and remove all rust any rust i can fix with some metal and my welder
I just sold a good 94 tank and pump for $75 …going into a drift car btw …
Anyway, if the brake accumulator is kaput, try googling the part number, GM and Saab cars from that era used them.
Also the parts catalog can be sourced online at jaguar classic parts in the UK - plus the electronic parts catalog can be downloaded and installed on windows machines, for sure on XP and Win 7 as I have it on my win7 machine and I used to have it on the XP box too.
here’s the link to the JCP site
https://www.jaguarclassicparts.com/uk/jaguar-xj6-xj12-canada-usa-parts
good luck
Larry