unimogjohn

and a few more. Oh, and the Jaguar ran great with it's new electric fuel pump helper. Kinda like a fuel pacemaker, helping the old SU fuel pump. Nice to hear the clicking and whirring.

Joe, it looks like you got your answer from David. A very good explanation it is. Thanks David. It is Sunday, August 4th. Early PM. We all went to Cars and Coffee this morning. Left the farm at 8 AM, filled up with fuel along the way, and were their by 9 AM. Wayne, Steve and I meandered up the freeway. No one had any issues except Steve. His Camaro kept blowing a brake light fuse. So he has some tracking to do. We had a great time talking to folks and all the cars got looked over pretty good. I think that their was over a 100 cars there, of every description, year and type. Chris in his Avanti came too. It was nice to see him and all the work he has done on the car. Folks appreciated seeing an unrestored car. We spent a couple of hours looking at all the other cars and then headed home by all the back roads. All in all, a very good day. Here are some pics.

It is Saturday, August 3rd. Signed up for the last two Jaguar cars shows of the season. One in September and the other in early October. Have not had time for the Avanti yet as it continues to rain a bit. But I did get to spruce up the Jaguar after the work I have been doing to it. We are going to take it to Cars and Coffee tomorrow morning. Wayne is going to drive his new 64 Buick Skylark and Steve his 67 Camaro. Should be a fun morning. Sometimes the old car folks are just so nice. Point being that I found out that I needed four door socket liners for the 23 McLaughlin Buick. So I posted my want over on the Buick pre-war forum that I also frequent. I figured that these little metal door inserts were long gone even in the 1930s. Leif gave me a lot of information on the samples he had drawn up so that really helped in the search. But then Tom Black wrote me and said that he had three from his special stash of Buick parts that he would sell me. I just jumped at the chance to get them. A couple of days later Tom wrote me and said that he found another one. So now I have four NOS door sockets for my 23. I have to just enlarge the holes just a bit to get them to fit. They will finish off my doors for sure. Thank you very much Tom. Here are some pics. I will post some more when I get them installed.

Leif and Tom, thanks again for all the information and help. And Tom, a special thanks for going into your special stash and finding the four sockets for my 23 McLaughlin Buick. I never thought I would be able to find any, let alone, NOS. Thanks again. And for all, here are some pics.

Just wanted to close this out. My friend and Corvette car guy just bought the 64 Skylark. He drove down with my trailer to pick it up yesterday. Last night we got the chance to go look it over. It is a gorgeous survivor. Wayne will leave it stock, but he is already getting ready to do some needed maintenance. He is going to change plugs, ignition system, intake gasket (rear is leaking), rebuild the carb, and put on new springs and shocks in the rear. He is excited at owning his first Buick. Best of all, there is absolutely no rust on the car. Here are the pics I took.

Chris, yes, it is like filling a well. I have to buy those big five qt. containers at Wally Mart. I use good quality, conventional detergent, 30 wt oil. Still Thursday, now late PM. Just got home from visiting Wayne and his new 1964 Buick Skylark. What a find. It is a perfect survivor. And no rust anywhere. Also the paint is excellent for its age. Wayne reports that everything works too. Here are a couple of pics of the Buick and his 1964 Corvette. The Vet is coming along nicely. He has just started work on the interior and has the dash installed and all the gauges hooked up. The wiring harness is in and installed too.

Chris, you do not want to use anything that will leave a residue as it will get into the glass. Goof Off is for removing tar, pitch, paint spatter, etc. It will leave a film on your surfaces that when you go to paint it may lift it off from the underside. I would talk to a paint shop for sure to get the right product.

Still Thursday, I posted to Jaguar engine forum re the blocked off hole in the oil pan. Here is what Mike said. "Hi John, On the early XK120, which holds over 4 gallons of oil, there was an oil level sender which read out on the fuel gauge when you pressed a button on the fascia. Later cars eliminated the sender and installed a blanking plate over the hole. Still later cars retained the raised boss but didn't drill the holes. Mike Eck New Jersey, USA jaguarclock.com '51 XK120 OTS, '62 3.8 MK2 MOD, '72 SIII E-Type 2+2"

Still Thursday, raining all morning, so the Avanti work is postponed for the day. So decided to play with the Jaguar. I thought I would take another look at the front suspension and do some more cleaning. It is clear that most of the rubber pieces on the suspension are toast. The exception being a couple of rubber bushings on the front roll bar. Since I had the car up in the air I decided to grease everything. I was surprised that the lower control bushings have no grease fitting, and no provision for one. But since both of the boots are ripped and open, I used my pin attachment to the grease gun and filled the cavity. I don't think those bushing has seen any grease since the car was new. Sure glad I got some grease in there. I am going to budget some dollars for a full rebuild. When I put the car back on its wheels I hope the grease will be forced into the bearing surfaces. I also was able to clean the front of the aluminum oil pan. She looks pretty good. Oh, and my Coker radial tube tires have a build date of 2004. They still look good and are not checking, but they are getting old. Another big budget item. New tires are about $400 per tire plus installation. There is also a round plate on the side of the oil pan. I do not know what purpose it serves. It is about the size of the bottom of a can of corn and held on by about twelve little screws. Its seems to be seeping a bit of oil. Will watch it and may change it out the next time I do an oil change. And I will have to see if I can find the reason for that hole. Oil pump maintenance? Next I decided to see why the backup light did not work. The switch for the light is on the top of the transmission. I reach up there and found it along with the two wires still attached. To get to it for replacement you have to remove the carpet, seats, console, floors, and transmission tunnel. Sounds like a job. I then returned to the back of the car and found the wire to the light. I used a jumper to power it up and it works. Put the transmission in reverse, turned on the light and tried it to the only open wire from the front of the car. Nothing. So I probably have a bad switch. They are about $40 so will order one in a few days.

Fred, did you notice the CB radio? Now that is a throwback to the 80s for sure. I know that I will see the Skylark in a day or so and will take some better pics. On the readership, I still seem to be getting 150 to 200 reads a day, so folks are still following along after all this time. Glad you are one of them, and hope you still enjoy them.

Mike, I have a 23 and last year I had an issue with the starter/generator. So I had to pull it and see what was up. I must admit I was a bit intimidated by this mass of turning metal, but once you get inside, it is really a simple machine. More than likely your brushes, two different sets, are not seated correctly or are worn out. Getting out the generator is not that difficult. You have to remove the back cover over the tranny to expose the starter gear, disconnect the wiring (make sure you mark where they go); remove the pin on the water pump shaft and slide back the retainer, which is sometimes frozen on the shaft; and then take out the three big bolts holding the S/G to the engine. Once on the bench you can see all the brushes and can start you investigation. With the above said, you can also, after disconnecting the battery, get in and move the the brushes in their retainers to see if some of them are moving and not frozen. You really cannot see much or do much through that little cover. The three smaller brushes of two different sizes for the starter side (I think) are on Ebay from time to time and seem to run about $40. The two larger brushes on the generator side are more difficult to find. I found a set at Hershey last year for $70 and snapped them up. I don't know if any of the usual vendors have them and you may have to call some of the antique electrical repair guys. Precision Power comes to mind, and might be able to get them for you. Precision Power Inc. - Home

It is Thursday morning, August 1st. About 8 PM last night we got a call from Wayne. He bought the 1964 Buick Skylark convertible, loaded it on the trailer, and was heading home. He was one happy guy. He said that it was a great original survivor. He was concerned about rust, but found only one small bubble under the paint on one of the rear fenders. Glad to have another Buick in the neighborhood. Hopefully, we will get over to see it in the next day or so. Here is a link to the for sale ad in the fourm. http://forums.aaca.org/f119/1964-buick-skylark-convertible-355285.html Raining here today, but if it lets up hope to do some minor work on the Avanti. Maybe even take her for a spin.

Other than the heat riser tube, you have a plugged metering jet or jets. It does not take much. You need to run a appropriately sized wire through both the short and long metering jets. Pull them out of the body and try to blow into them. You will soon find which one is plugged. Compressed air may not dislodge the the blockage. I also use carb cleaner spray to finally get all the gunk out of them. Here are pics of my carb. You can see the debris in my bowl. It does not take much to muck up the carb. You can then see both metering rods. Make sure they still both have their red fiber washers. You can see the debris on the top of both metering rods. I had just cleaned the carb three months prior. Debris will find it way into the carb even if you have a sediment filter.

John, good to hear from you. Glad you are still following along. The Jaguar is negative ground, 12 volts. Originally, it used two 6 volt batteries in series. Now I have a single 12 volt for a Mazda Miata. Works great. The single battery avoids the two battery problem of one going flat and leaving you with dead in the water with a very slow or non working starter as you are producing certainly less than 12 volts..

Now a little bit later. The rain stopped for a bit. Not much just a little drizzle. More coming this afternoon. So I took the opportunity to head out to the Jag and see if she starts and runs. I turned on the key and heard the very familiar tick, tick, of the SU pump. It was faster than normal as fuel filled up the line, but it soon settled down after about three seconds. I turned on the choke and hit the starter button. She roared to life with no hesitation. Now this certainly was not normal. Usually I have to run the starter for a few seconds before she would cough to life. I checked the lines for any leaking fuel. There was none, everything was nice and dry. I checked the little plastic filter. Another not normal issue. Usually the filter is only about half full, now it is totally full. Well, nothing leaking, not raining, time to get it on the road. Down the driveway and on to the country lane. OMG, are you frigging kidding me! This thing runs like a scaled cat. I am not kidding you, it feels like I have double the power. In third and fourth gear I get pushed back into the seat. The front end almost lifts off. What a feeling. Could it be that I was not getting enough fuel to the engine with my SU pump. Anyway I don't care. She really goes. After about ten miles I headed home, and put the car back into the garage. At idle I can hear the tick ...... tick ........ tick, and now also a very faint hum. I guess you might say I just got a pacemaker for the Jaguar. Oh, I also bought new rubber boots for the two upper ball joints, total cost, $28. A full kit with all the boots and bushing is about $200. Sounds like a winter project to me.

It is Wednesday, July 31st, early PM. I went out at 8:30 this morning to work on the Jag's new fuel pump setup. Done at 12:30 PM to include some cleaning of the underside of the car, putting in another fuel filter, and then putting in about ten gallons of fuel back into the tank. The installation was pretty straight forward. I was able to reuse a couple of fuel line clips so the line is nice and tight against the frame. Made a little wiring harness for the hot leads of the pumps so they come off of one main line. I made sure that everything is nice and tight and fully insulated. Now the only thing left do is start the car. But Alice says I am a hog so I have to clean up before I attempt to start and run the car. Here are a few pics of the installed pump, dirty and clean (sort of) bell housing, and the new plastic fuel filter before the carbs.

Chris, On my 63 Avanti, all the emblems were silver and they came from the factory that way. Good thing, I do not like the gold. I did replace my little chrome and S emblems on the sails without removing the interior panel. I had the shop drill through the emblem where the two posts are. This enabled them just to remove it and pop the tails back into the interior. Then I had them use clear epoxy and glue the new emblems in. So far so good. So if your emblems are junk (the chrome bracket and the interior plastic) just drill them out.

Dave, I don't know your engine size or year so this is just a stab in the dark. Rather than rebuilding your old, tired unit, I would go with one of these. Developed and built for extreme towing. Hopefully, it will be the last tranny you will have to buy. I would also get a new, heavy duty converter, and a big trans oil cooler with a gauge. I know it will be expensive, but it will be done. I would expect that you will have to shell out about $5K, which would include the removal and replacement of the tranny. Sorry for your loss, and good luck. Let us know what you decide to do. Good seeing you in South Bend. http://www.summitracing.com/search/part-type/automatic-transmission-packages?keyword=towing%20transmission

Still Tuesday, but PM. Done for the day. Wayne dropped by and picked up the open car trailer. He is off tomorrow afternoon on his great Buick adventure. Hope that he comes to an agreement with the seller and gets to trailer the car home. He as one thing in his favor, he has cash in hand. This afternoon, after all the farm chores were done, I put the Jaguar up on jack stands, all four corners. Nice and steady, and I can easily get under it. With all the wheels off the ground, the first thing I noticed was that one wheel was loose. So I grabbed the lead hammer and tried to tighten the knock off. That was a no go. It felt tight, but still movement in the wheel. So I grabbed my steel mallet and a 2x4, and smacked the ear on the knock off. That did the trick. A few wacks and it is tight. I checked all the other wheels and all were tight. Boy, I hope I never have to pull these off on the side of the road. I am going to take my steel mallet and a stick of wood with the car from now on. I then did a general inspection of the undercarriage. Everything looked pretty good. Some oil scattered about, but will take some time tomorrow to clean it up. Nothing major, and all British cars bleed a little oil. If there isn't oil on the under side of the car something is wrong. However, I did notice that the boots over the upper and lower ball joints are shot. Looks like a winter project. I will have to order some to have them on hand. Here are some pics of that area. The front and rear shocks are original to the car and are not leaking. Just going to leave them. There is really no reason to replace them at this point. I then figured out where the new fuel pump is going to go. A nice spot alongside the frame. Here are a couple of pics. I then drained the gas tank. Got about five gallons of fuel out of her. I was surprised to find about a teaspoon of water in the bottom gallon of the tank, and some of those little black specks of sand like material. So now, smelling like fuel, I am done for today. Tomorrow I will cut the fuel line, make new electrical connections, and install the new fuel pump. It will be installed in the same electrical circuit as the old pump, so it will turn on and off with the ignition. So I will have two pumps pushing fuel into the engine. While I am playing around will change the little plastic filter I put in last year. I have one on hand and easy to do. Now there will be two fuel filters on the line.

Roger, does the wooden model form the "buck" to shape the various panels? Or is it just for reference for panel fit? What material will you use to make the body panels? Trying to imagine how you are going to make this all happen. Still happily following along.

It is Tuesday, July 30th. Hope to find some time today to work on the fuel pump for the Jaguar. Have lots of farm stuff to do so we will see. But I got a call from Wayne (remember he has the 64 Corvette that he is restoring) and he wants to borrow my open car trailer. Why, I ask. Well, he is looking at buying a 1964 Buick Skylark. What!!!!!! He is a two seater guy. He wants to be able to take the grandkids out and he has three of them. He is heading out this afternoon with the trailer to take a final look and may bring the car home. It is about three hours away from us. It looks to be an honest survivor, which is what he wants. Been in the same family since new. Stay tuned.

Leif, they are for my 1923 McLaughlin Buick, model 45, touring car.

Leif, just got my drill set out and fitted various drill shanks into the hole, 7/16" fit the best. Do you have any idea where these might be available?

It is still Monday, early PM. Well, took a dip stick to see if I had fuel in the Jag's tank. Sure enough, 1/4 full. So, decided to try to start it one more time before I ripped everything apart. Flipped the toggle switch for the choke carb, hit the starter button, and of course, she fired right up. Tried it four more times and she jumped to start every time. Going to check the operation of the solenoid of the starter carb. Maybe it is binding.

Mark, could not find them in the catalog. Leif, I did a quick measurement and it looks like the opening is 7/16". From the ones I have seen on other cars it looks like the 15/32 " I will get out the rod and see what the measurement is. Do those things have a name in the book? Thank you both for looking/researching for me.