Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

Happy Halloween! Beware, and fear things that go bump in the night!

This is an altered book that my Wife produced at one of the Art classes she attends.

It's all about the fear.

Fortunately or perhaps, unfortunately, most of the bumping is going on under the front end of one of my old Jags. The prospect of compressing and pulling coil springs and stripping out ball joints now fills me with dread. That must be why I've procrastinated on doing the job. My last foray into that area has left me with a dead XJS.

Do old car guys ever suffer from FOMO?  Fear of Missing out?

I'll admit  upfront that I do. Maybe that's why I've collected a rag tag collection of project vehicles.
They are all cars that I really wanted, even though I knew going in, that I couldn't really care for them the way I would like to.

But I've read so many articles about average guys with amazing collections and they all did the same thing. Bought desirable cars of no particular monetary value when they were unwanted and cheap. They held onto them through thick and thin until the values finally started to climb. Then they sold a couple of vehicles to free up some working capital to restore some of their stable. It seems so  simple.

Of course the stories are written Today, when the cars are greatly valued and the owner is pictured as a shrewd, far sighted investor.

The stories skip over the part where the guy is surrounded by a bunch of dead or poorly running vehicles.  Cars that need a lot of work and might be kind of junky looking. The part where his neighbors get tired of looking at all his old junk taking up valuable parking spots in the neighborhood. So they sic the Police on him and he is forced to play a tiring game of musical parking spots.

They definitely skip the part where his long suffering spouse finally issues an ultimatum, "It's the cars or Me!" Many times our hero chooses the cars. If he didn't, there would be any story to be written!

So maybe the story really isn't all that simple!

I'd better be sure to keep my Wife happy!

I was at my favorite car browsing establishment, Wheels and Deals last week. I try to visit them every couple of weeks. I'm always curious to see if I stumble across anything that whets my appetite for unusual cars.

Besides the unusual cars I usually meet some interesting people cruising the sales lot. I've gotten pretty good at striking up conversations with complete strangers. This time I was checking out a very nice 2006 Jaguar XJ8.

A well dressed gentleman came up besides me and advised me that he wasn't that familiar with cars of this type. He was a bit older than me, and I'm well into retirement age. So I launched, tactfully I hope, into the XK8 tutorial mode. I ran down the list: Cam chain tensioner problems, bore wash, "A drum" failures etc. I finished off by telling him that these 2006's were the best developed of the breed. We commiserated about how these later model cars had so many electronic components that could go bad.
He said that he missed the good old days when cars were simpler.

He told me about some of the old muscle cars he had owned. We talked a bit about the automotive scene in the 1960s and 70s. He said that he had owned lots of different cars. He had fixed up and painted quite a few. I told him that I had worked for General Motors in Fremont Ca. and he said that he had also worked there for a time. What was really interesting was when he told me that he had worked at Disneyland, building the exhibits. He said that they had treated him well, and had provided him with lots of training to develop his skill levels. Now that, was really interesting.

Then he told me that he had a late model Camaro. I told him I thought that they were fine cars.

He added that he had just purchased a new Corvette. I asked if it was the new mid mid engine model and he said, "No, not yet."

Then he dropped the bombshell. He said that he had once owned a gull wing Mercedes! I remember reading an article that mentioned that many hot rod builders and painters had owned gull wings back in the early 60's.

Who was this guy? Was he just a champion BS artist? We had engaged in a nice conversation, even talking about our families and kids. I don't think that he was lying about anything. As I was taking my leave, I thanked him and introduced myself. He told me his name was Art.

As I walked to my car and started driving away I was mulling things over in my mind. Had I met an automotive celebrity?

What really stuck in my head was that he had worked at Disneyland, back in the 1960s. Boyd Coddington, a very well known hot rod builder and painter had also worked at Disneyland. His having worked at General Motors also struck a chord. During my time there in the 1970s I knew that there were a couple of chopper builder and custom painters that were working there. Then there was the mention of the gull wing that he had owned years ago. His appearance also reminded me of the older car and chopper guys from the East Bay, especially Hayward. His hair was carefully and neatly combed back, his goatee, neatly trimmed, and he was dressed in slacks, a long sleeve shirt, nice windbreaker, and leather dress shoes. These guys didn't go in for the black shirt, Levis, and engineer boot look even when they were young.

Maybe he was, or maybe he wasn't, and maybe he was just an average guy. Either way, he had quite an automotive history.

I don't think that my story will ever equal his and I might be a tad bit jealous, wondering if I had made the right choices. Either way, good for him. I'll do what I can with what I have. I can't forget that I've been luckier than some other guys, and I should count my blessings.

But I'm still afraid.

That's why I haven't tried to start up my XJS. I don't want to have it wheezing and smoking, stinking up the neighborhood.

So I decided to avoid the subject and spent a couple of my free days looking for something, anything,  else to do.

I finally painted my Wife's second shed.

Painting always gives me. a real sense of accomplishment.

I even went to look at a car I found for sale on Craig's List. I was seriously thinking of just getting rid of my XJS.  What did I go to see? Another XJS, but a slightly newer one with a six. As usual, low priced used cars can be a bit disappointment. This one was no different. I'd bet that any prospective buyer of my XJS would also go away disappointed!

I couldn't keep avoiding the subject. Coaches always advise their players to face their fears. It's the only way to overcome them. Today was my Day to clean up and rearrange my garage and my cars. So I thought that I would just get it over with. Fire it up, choke on the smoke, choke on my disappointment, then just shove it back into the garage for a later day.

I had to overcome my fear of failure. So I finally decided to bite the bullet, grab the bull by the horns, and other cliches that might come to mind. I pushed the car backwards until the rear end was clear of the garage opening. Hopefully most of the smoke would be directed outside of the garage.

I turned the key and the engine started right up and settled into a high idle close to 1,000 rpm. But it was running smoothly and there was only a little smoke. My plan was to let the motor run until it heated up and burned off all the excess fuel that had collected in the system.  It was running well and I could tell that it seemed to be hitting on all cylinders. ( I hoped!)

Things seemed to be going according to plan until I decided to rev the engine up. As soon as I opened the throttle it died. And it wouldn't restart.

Drat!

Well at least it started up and had been running pretty good. That was something, actually quite a lot. The engine had warmed up quite a bit. Maybe it had something to do with the cold starting system transitioning to a warm running state. I decided to let it cool down and see if it would start again.

I started running through Grant's list in my mind. One thing that had always concerned me was that I'd never heard that "injector click" when fully opening the throttle with the key on, and the engine off. Maybe the throttle position sensor was bad. But I had recorded some varying voltage readings when I checked it before. I sure hoped that it hadn't gone bad.

Although I'd never checked for adequate fuel flow, I knew that there was fuel, how else could it run for so long?

The full throttle enriching switches shouldn't have any effect on low speed running, should they? Even so, they were both disconnected at this time. And the engine had run pretty well anyway.

I didn't want to run through that ECM terminal plug check. What else could it be?

I remember reading about the CTS (coolant temperature sensor) and how a malfunctioning sensor could prevent the engine from running at all. But it did run, at least until it warmed up. Maybe it was working when it was cold but quit when it was warm, killing the motor. Grant said to disconnect the plug and jump the two terminals with a paper clip. Certainly worth a try.

There's the connector. I could reach it with my fingers.

Those two pins were a little dirty so I cleaned with contact cleaner.

Instead of a paper clip I used a bit of wire.

After cleaning the contacts I wrapped the plug in tape to secure and protect the jumper wire.

Did it work? Yes it did! The motor fired right up, running even smoother than it had earlier. This time I did not try to rev it up, I just let it run. And it did. There wasn't any noticeable smoke and it sounded very smooth and strong. The contacts in the CTS plug must have been dirty also as wiggling the jumper wire would cause the engine to falter. Later I also cleaned those. I let the motor warm up completely, then I let it idle it's way into the garage. Once inside I opened the throttle a bit. I figured that even if it died, at least I wouldn't have to push it anywhere! Instead it just revved up to 3,000 to 4,000 rpm. So I backed it out of the garage again to let it warm up enough to reach "normal" on the temp gauge. I was checking for leaks and found that a vacuum line had been disconnected from the fuel pressure regulator. I connected it and the engine smoothed out a bit more. I ran it forward and reverse up my driveway until the engine had been running for half an hour. Then I turned it off and it restarted immediately. Finally! Progress.

I'm going to order a new CTS then I'll work on the full throttle enriching system. I'll install the new throttle micro switch, I ordered a couple of weeks back, sort out the wiring and test the vacuum solenoid.

Looks like me and this car might still have a future together.

FDR was right when he assured us that there was nothing to fear, but fear itself.