What you see here is the stuck rotor, dangling on a boot lace from a cheap, Harbor Freight Slide hammer. In the background is a heat gun, used to warm up the rotor first. It took about 3 whacks and off it popped!
Not seen in the photo is masking tape tape wrapped around the slide hammer tee-bar. This is important. If that tee-bar slips out it will take awhile to find it down in the vee or worse
Ed Sowell
'76 XJ-S
1 Like
Kirbert
(Author of the Book, former owner of an '83 XJ-S H.E.)
2
Sweet! But I’d suggest checking the centrifugal advance springs. If the rotor carrier shaft retainer in the top of the distributor shaft held on, you’re fine – but I wouldn’t expect it to hold up under such duress. With that level of whacking, I’d think the advance springs would be stretched beyond recognition.
Wait, you have a pre-H.E., don’t you? You might have the style distributor where the rotor carrier shaft is held in place with a screw. If so, you’re good to go! I presume you didn’t pop the head off the screw.
Really pleased it worked well! Think you were quite lucky the plastic arms didn’t fracture! They are a pain in the a… to get off though sometimes.
Nigel
I was worried enough about that to order another rotor just in case. Turned out not to be a problem, for two reasons. One is that it doesn’t take tremendous force if applied sharply. The other is snugging the harness (boot lace) as close as possible to the hub reduces the leverage and therefore the stress on the arms. Unlike the photo, when I was doing the whacking it was snug.
I believe you’re talking about the screw down through the center of the post. Yes, it was in place and didn’t break so there was no stress on the lower mechanism.
HE owners do have to be careful, though. This is mentioned in the archives, as I recall.
1 Like
Kirbert
(Author of the Book, former owner of an '83 XJ-S H.E.)
6
That’s one “improvement” I really wish Jaguar hadn’t made. That screw was a much better idea than the plastic clip.
I’m glad to see you were successful.
Jaguar engine recon we used to apply a very thin film of grease on the inside of the cap to help prevent this.
Production workers never had to encounter the dismantling problems we did!
Best Regards
Nigel Boycott
