Time is my enemy right now, but once I have time to work on the car. I am going to pull the distributor (service it again ) and reset the timing. I am also going to check all the ignition wiring and potentially replace most of it. While looking, I noticed a broken wire for the âstupid gaugeâ that tells you when you have no oil. I have a new fuel pump relay and plug wires on the way. After all of that, we will see what happens.
I found an image that better helped me locate the Coaxial cable. It should be the one from amplifier to ECU. Right? It looks identical to the wire from Amplifier to TACH.
To exclude the ignition leads as a source of troubles it may help to run the engine with open bonnet in darkness. Should they be damaged you will clearly see that. Good luck and fingers crossed
Just looking at the 61 posts, (briefly) I still believe you should go back to the basics, (as said earlier ) fuel supply, check, air supply , check ,and ignition (spark).
Without reading 61 posts and in order to ascertain when and what caused your backfiring and engine cutting out issues, what was going on before this and did you have the car at the shop for any tuneup issues. I still believe that These conditions sound like your your car is running lean which could transpire into damage to your pistons.
You found a broken wire which should not happen at this stage , if youâve changed, replaced, checked your firing order on your distributor and connections to your spark plugs and ignition system.
I donât want to sound insensitive but as this is a step by step procedure, maybe post a hit list of all the work youâve done in this area and the smarter brain trust than me can weigh in.
I feel your frustration when the car doesnât run correctly but something is not making sense here.
Have you serviced your distributor, and rechecked all your plug connections. Have you checked all your vacuum hoses for air leaks? Have you replaced your injectors , wiring harness and properly checked their flow rates.
Itâs tedious but form a list and start checking off what youâve serviced, replaced and what action youâve taken.
My two cents, ask me how I know? LOL
Iâm curious to see how this goes for you. My car is having a similar problem. It will idle and run for a good while. But in reverse or drive itâs like zero power.
How much up and down? Some play would be normal.
Did you dismantle everything from inside?
Itâs a long time since Iâve been in there so I donât remember all the details.
Kirbyâs book has an extensive chapter on how to recondition the distributor.
I took it apart down to the weights. The shaft moves enough that the inside piece (located by the weights) goes higher than the out weights. Sorry I do not know terminology. I will send a picture later tonight to help explain
Mine does the same and I think thatâs just the way they are. Your pic illustrates perfectly why yanking upward to remove the ignition rotor can cause problems
Yes, there is supposed to be a retaining clip holding the outer carrier in place. You may have to improvise- read P.144 in the Book.
Kirbert
(Author of the Book, former owner of an '83 XJ-S H.E.)
75
That heavy spring is pretty badly bent. That long end is supposed to form a slot that the post can slide back and forth in. Youâll need to straighten it before reassembly.
Update: I went to a jaguar dinner tonight and was given a free distributor and some parts. I found what was missing on mine: a little screw that goes under the rotor. Tomorrow I will put everything together and see how it goes
Kirbert
(Author of the Book, former owner of an '83 XJ-S H.E.)
77
Unfortunately for you, the screw only fits pre-H.E. engines.
Since evidently you didnât pick up on the earlier advice, Iâll spell it out for you: The rotor carrier shaft is originally held secure by a plastic clip. Apparently the only way to get the rotor carrier shaft off for service is to break the plastic clip. And nobody makes a replacement plastic clip. Whoever was in that distributor before you â and since it wasnât totally seized, itâs a certainty that someone was in there before you â just put it back together with nuthinâ holding it together.
If youâd like to do better: Find a tiny steel washer with an ID that fits around the top stub on the distributor shaft and an OD that fits down into the top of the rotor carrier shaft. And find a tiny O-ring that can be snapped onto the top stub of the distributor shaft. When you assemble the distributor for good, with nothing but graphite in there, drop the washer in the top and then push the O-ring in behind it until you get it snapped in place. If you do that right, the rotor carrier shaft will ride up and down a little bit but not too much. You still cannot just yank to get the rotor off; youâll rip the tiny O-ring to pieces and stretch the centrifugal advance springs out of shape â again.
Sorry I didnât put enough information in. The free distributor I was given was off a HE engine and has the screw in the top. Either someone modified it with a pre HE distributor or youâre wrong about it only being on pre HEs. I was going to use the new distributors shaft so I can use the screw instead of a clip
I got the distributor all put together nicely. Tonight I will be doing some wire repairs. I found some torn up injector wires. After everything is fixed up then I will start it and report back
I got everything back together. No changes. I realized the old and new relay serial numbers are off by one number so Iâm going to buy a new one. As a refresher,
We ruled out:
The ECU
Injector Wires
Plugs, Plug wires
The Distributor
I am going to do a fuel pressure test and go from there. Anything else I should check?
The pressure test went well. The pressure is perfect at 36 psi but once the engine warms up to operating temp, the pressure with drop, come back up, drop, and eventually fall to about 10psi where the engine dies out.
Fuel pump and relay are the main suspects now. Any other ideas?
Kirbert
(Author of the Book, former owner of an '83 XJ-S H.E.)
82
) and reset the timing. I am also going to check all the ignition wiring and potentially replace most of it. While looking, I noticed a broken wire for the âstupid gaugeâ that tells you when you have no oil. I have a new fuel pump relay and plug wires on the way. After all of that, we will see what happens.
