towed home

well took the jag mk2 down to Ekne about an hour south to work on shaggys engine.it was stuttering a bit but it was a windy day I stopped at a mall parking lot and let the engine cool and did a skype meeting.
then when I proceded it was missing one one cylneder and then about a mile from Kjell Ivars house it rolled to a stop


we looked at all the fuel stuff the filters and the carbs, fuel pumps
the spark is good and strong
some of the spark plugs are dry


kjell ivar did a compression test of it its about half what it should be
and there is a rattle from the over head cams
and the distributer needs to be replaced
[FONT=arial, sans-serif]basically the cyclenders are not pulling in enough gas and fuel[/FONT]
[FONT=arial, sans-serif]and the lack of good vacume pressure is having knock on effects throughout the systems[/FONT]
had it towed home
I think its only good for around town ....
options
sell it ---- dont want to
use it around town ---- would like a bigger radius
fix it ----- no funds and old house to work on and just finishing the engine on shaggy
replace the engine with a newer XK6 with fule injection------- had hoped to do that 5 years form now


having a beer (home brew red ale)
steve

If this is the one just out of storage, look at the filters in the fuel pump and drain the tank, there's a filter there too. Did you change oil before running? I wouldn't worry about compression at this time because Jags had various heads for different compressions. Get it running good before making a decision. What Litre is it?

yep just got it out last week. topped up the oil checked the fluids, and the tires, fiddled with the autochoke.
its a 1967, 340 jag so its a base model with the 3.4 engine.
we looked at the compression in the book it should be about 120 and it was about 80 on most.
the lack of compression seems to be messing up the vacume advance.
the tank filter was the only one we didnt look at the carbotor seem to be getting enough gas but the air sucktion is poor.
so we think the cylenders are just not pulling in enough air fuel when the engine is warm.
last year i did about a 5 hour drive with it in the rain. it ran well. the steering was a bit fussy or muddy or non percice out side of that it ran well up the mountains.
yesterday it seem to start hesitating, so I thought maybe the parking brake is grabbing or its just very windy and im not use to it but
then I lost power on the hills. and started missing on one cylender. then it rolled to a stop.

I'm thinking that after setting for a length of time the compression will come down for lack of oil. Topping up still left old oil and if you recheck the ignition and timing, I think if you get it running to re-breakin the engine the compression will come up. Try oiling the cylinders an rechecking the compression, as I have had a few don't want to runs just from sitting for a while. The engine is as reliable as a tractor and are made to run 100K without a tear down. Don't give up on it, it does take time to work it out. Get it started by readjusting everything and let it run for a few minutes with a few small revs once in a while to reseat it and maybe push some valve cleaner thru the carbs to clean and lube the valves. It just may even be dirt on the valves lowering the compression. Do the small less expensive stuff before giving in to the more time and $ things.

Also try replacing the condensor in the distributor, it's rare but I've had a couple over the years that gradually failed. And if you have a space try swapping the coil. Since heat seems to be a possible factor could be the one you got on the car is failing as it heats up.

thanks guys
Ive mainly lived in the spridget pages of this forum.
Ill have an electric ignition ready to go in to the car I guess I will do that in the morning
yes trying the cheep things first is wise but hard to achieve.
I do have a break in the exsahst would improper back pressuer be an issue?
I can slowly sink money into this just not an engine this year. it ran well last year on a five hour drive to mid norway with major hills but it was raining. (basically we get the weather after Ireland and scottland)

missing Boston these days.
steve

ok
well i cleaned the plugs and droped a little oil in to each cylender I did not do the valvues because i dont have spare gaskets.
I also tossed in the "ignightor" electric points the the car fired up quicky so i guess i wired the SW and CB correcty, Pheeewww!
it ran smokey for a few minutes. I ll run it a bit more tomarrow
the bad news is i fiddled with the heater valve and now its leaking sigh
steve

See, there now , money saved!! Valves are repairable and if you have to, there are compatible ones everywhere.

ok can finally start looking at the Kitty (mk2)
I've had to travel for work and then for a funeral.
my buddy says that i need to replace the distributer (the weights arnt spinning)
where on the distributor dose it say which it is?
the engine is a 67 3.4
thanks
steve

The weights in the distributor are under the baseplate that the points/condensor are attached to. They are spring loaded and attach to the shaft by way of a plate with a pin on opposite sides of the shaft. As the shafter spins faster the weights pull against the springs to change the distributor timing. Generally if the weights jam its a simple matter of removing the baseplate, removing the weights and cleaning the mount holes in them and the pins to remove any old lube that might had dried up and jammed them. Be sure to put the springs and weights back onthe same sides if you do this since there can be weight and spring strength variations. Unless the distributor is actually broken this isn't a replace it to fix type item in my opinion.

As MikeP stated , cleanup old distributor by removing base plate, everything can be cleaned, including oiling the lower shaft. No need to replace when an old cleaning will suffice.