And I missed the chance to see the Jeff healey band before he passed but it would have been great! I on the other hand am not so talented!
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Would it be a wise choice to just replace all relays or is that a feasible option? As far as the connections would you just clean contacts and add a dab of dielectric? Any other spots in particular to check?
Welcome Jeff!
Yes - it is great to have a specific goal you can visualize as you work thru the various issues.
We visited GNP in 2017 as part of the Oil Leak that year.
The group’s plan to stay in Waterton was thwarted by fires north of the border so we ended up in a great little motel in East Glacier Park Village.
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I would not make it a priority to proactively change all the relays. They aren’t particularly prone to failure and are easy enough to diagnose if they do go bad. If you do decide to change them, get good ones as recent threads here have shown some of the reproduction relays are of very poor quality. (or repair your old relays.)
If I saw corrosion on some of the electrical connectors (particularly the ones leading to external lights and devices) I’d clean and protect them.
On my car, many electrical devices didn’t work reliably. So it was just a process of tackling each failed item one by one and track down any problems. Now everything electrical works except for my clock which has to be sent out for repair (and I suppose the cigar lighter, though the outlet works now.)
If I can get this kind of stuff working dependably, you’ll do it too, no doubt.
Dave
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Hi Jeff, welcome to J-L.
I, unfortunately, do not have an E Type, but I had an XK8, that I took over that glorious road several times. I have been over that road since I was a kid. I remember years (decades) ago when the traffic volumes were a lot lower. When I was last over the pass in 2019, the lot at the top was full and the bumper to bumper traffic moved at a snails pace. It has been that way for a few years now. The Canadian parks are getting the same way; trail head parking is overflowing onto the roads.
If you haven’t discovered the Pub yet, come on over and share some of your adventures.
Grahame
As to electrics, I think it’s something like 80 or more percent of troubles are from bad grounds and those are easiest to check.
I would just keep everything simple.
Don’t fix what is not broken. But by cleaning all the contacts, it will just allow the electric current to get to wherever it has to go with the least resistance as possible. The relays just get old and probably are worse for it if the car is not run or used .
For the longest time , my car would run great until it got to operating temperature and at that point it would start hesitating under acceleration and sometimes just stop until it cooled off, what I thought was a fuel issue or a ignition issue ended up being the alternator relay that’s located on the inner fender , it was working intermitently.
This caused the alternator not doing its job, intermitently , which caused the cars electrics to run off solely off the battery, which in turn caused the ignition coil to work harder and get super hot , etc etc
What I learned from all this is that , because it was intermittent , it was electrical issue. ( same thing happened to my horn relay, my electric fan relay)
so far the new relays are working flawlessly . I too don’t trust many of the new replacement parts that are out there.
Regards
Ditto
Perfectly said
George,
Great pictures
I count 5 e types in that picture. Just curious to hear if any issues were encountered with any during the trip?
I feel that all classic cars need to be run as much as possible, it is not healthy for them to sit around untouched. Creates gremlins
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Jeff,
I’m a little late welcoming you to this forum but I along with several others have taken my car completely apart and restored it to like new condition. One of the things I enjoyed about that journey was retaining original parts and rebuilding or repairing them as they needed. I have a YouTube Channel where I have many videos of my 1963 FHC restoration (JohnCarey1963Jag) - check this out and you may find some help in them. Ask here and you will always get great advice - I certainly found that to be the case.
Have fun…
There were actually more - at least 11 as witnessed by this photo from the following day:
“issues encountered with the cars?” - yes, of course, but not a lot.
M advice would be to replace the fuel pump with an electronic version. No problems with the points that way
Well after a slight setback and a loss of a quart or 2 trying to get the oil filter canister seated correctly I got it all back together and took a quick spin around the block! Wow I forgot how much I love this car. So smooth and so fun to drive even at a snails pace. The tires are way way past their serviceable life and just a handbrake to slow her down kept me in check. Ordering tires today as it needs to be driven! Feels better than it ever has already though everything is so smooth! Thanks for the encouragement from all of you to get this car back to its original glory I can’t wait to get back to work on it!
That does lead me to my next question. Currently the car has the Michelin x 6.4-15 but I am pretty sure I can’t get those anymore. I am a big fan of Michelin’s on everything as I worked for them for a few years and love the tires. Anybody have a suggestion as to what I could get to replace these?
Jeff,
Search the archives for “tires” and you will get so many hits you’ll end up punch drunk! You can limit the number of results to more recent posts for more current information. Lots of great advice, and just a little not so great…(ducking for cover)… 
-David
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