Armed with new-found knowledge of how to do some diagnostics as well
as some maintenance (a concept I know from network troubleshooting is
that you can’t diagnose the abnormal until you know what “normal”
looks like!) I finally got some garage-time yesterday. The goal was
to do some routine maintenance on the Jetta and also the E-type.
Afterwards I would spend some time tracing the knock that my engine
develops when fully warm.
The weather around here has been unseasonably dry (meaning, 3 days
without rain, at 6 day intervals. =) so my time has been consumed by
deck repairs. That finally completed (mostly… enough to satisfy
the wife that is) I earned time with the cars. My son Chris & I have
been invited to the Poppy Rally (JCNA sanctioned) in British Columbia
next weekend and I was hoping to get the E-type back on the road for
it. We won last year, so we should go back to defend our title…
especially now that my speedometer actually works!
Working through some maintenance steps in the Bentley manual I
arrived at the part where it said: run engine to normal operating
temperature."
It took a few tries to get the cold XK fired up but as soon as it
went a vertiable hail of gunfire sounds greeted my ears. It was as if
the Huns had gone “over the top” and the Jaguar was defending the
British line with a small calibre machine gun. I was familiar with
the sound… I had heard it on and off for months. My Lucas
alternator has made an annoying rattle at certain RPMs now since
mid-summer. I figured I landed on a sweet spot RPM-wise with the
choke. I moved the choke lever a bit and the rattle didn’t stop. I
shut it all down.
I hopped out and had a look. Like always nothing was loose or
striking anything else, at least not obvious to the eye. Firing up
the engine again the rattle resumed, and this time I had a look at
the alternator and other than the rattle, which now appeared at any
RPM, it looked ok. I shut it down (engine was nowhere near normal
operating temp yet) and pulled the Lucas off the car.
When I was down in California last month I had a few folks listen to
it, and a couple seemed to think the rattle wasn’t coming from the
alternator. One of these was Ray, who poked and prodded at my engine
with a stick in his ear. Of course a few minutes later he confessed
to some significant hearing loss(!)… to which I responded
“What?”… Jerry of course started grinning like the Cheshire Cat,
and Ray just repeated the statement. It wasn’t until I said “what?”
again and both Jerry and I started laughing at Ray’s expense did Ray
roll his eyes and limp away muttering. =) But I digress…
I have always been pretty sure that it was coming from the
alternator, so I figured it was time to test that theory. After it
was sitting on the workbench and the v-belt was hung on a hook, I
climbed in and briefly fired up the engine. What greeting my ears was
that wonderful purr of the XK-engine, minus that harsh metallic
rattle present with the Alternator installed. Satisfied, I set to
work on installing the Hitachi I’ve been carrying around for months.
It is a good thing the Lucas decided to fail safely parked in my
barn, because the Hitachi fitting was a bit off. The mounting bracket
required some grinding (about 1mm) to clear the fan at a comfortable
distance, and after mouting it on the car I discovered that the
pulley was lined up perfectly, but the grooved V-belt was now way too
long. As dinnertime approached I gave up on the Jaguar work, and
finished up the fuel filter change on the Jetta TDi (#%@*!! hose
clamps… I swear they were invented by sadists!)
This morning I ventured down to my local Napa to find a pair of
thinner, shorter belts. The original grooved belt is 44" long, and
even laid over onto the frame rail this is too loose on my Hitachi. I
next shorter belt is 43 5/8ths which I suspect is too long as well. I
bought a 42 3/4" belt and hope that will do. We’ll see tonight.
Has anyone else who has done the Hitachi conversion to a 4.2L had
this same issue? All the write ups I have read seem to indicate the
regular belt works just fine.
I guess I could find a welder to fabricate a different mounting
bracket that would lift the Hitachi up a bit, but that seems an odd
route to go.–
–chuck goolsbee
65ots, 1E10715
arlington, wa, usa
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