XJ40 maintenance, dumb questions

Wayne, I will send you a Word Doc that has instructions for the CD. It is a pain, but once you get use to it -- it is fine. Keep in mind that the '88 and '89 XJ40 is a VERY different vehicle than the '90-'94 XJ40. So you will only be using the last 5 volumes on the CD.

There is a screw on the back of the rotor that holds it on. Undo it and the rotor will come off easily. Keep in mind with these cars -- IF you are having a hard time getting something off -- you are missing something!!

Go to

They have the best wires for the price and they were running a special on Jag wires. I use them on all three of my Jags and my Nissan 300ZX.

Changing the plugs on this car is no different than any car. The plugs are at the end of a long rubber boot with a cap. Take out the old plugs, make sure the new are gapped and tighten them until they are snug. I stay away from platinum's and really prefer the basic old RC9YC Champions for this car. The gap is 0.035

Webserve

Thanks, I'll have a look at the word document. Meantime I re-executed the setup.exe file on the CD and I finally did access the CD files, albeit in the usual clunky way of paging through it one page at a time and having to reload it frequently.

I'll look closer, didn't see a screw on the installed rotor. The new rotor has no screw.

No Jaguar specials at the Magnecor website, just an old note saying they expected to renew the Jaguar special sometime "in 2005".

I did look for Magnecore wires on the net the other day, and the only discount sources I came up with for 8mm (blue) wires was "ultrarev.com" at $117 a set, or lbcarco.com for the red 8.5mm wires at $180.00. Ultrarev.com was the ONLY site that even mentioned the 8mm blue wires. Do those prices sound about right?

Which Magnecor do you recommend for normal driving in my aging 135K mile XJ40, red (8.5mm) or blue (8mm)?

Other sites list wires of unknown manufacture in the $50 to $110 range, although Northeastbritishparts.com says their $55 set is a "genuine Rists ignition wire set" ("Rists" is printed on my old wires)... is Magnecor worth twice the price?

OK, good. I was concerned that plug threads might need to be coated with something before install.

Thanks for the useful reply, Wayne

Wayne, I will re-check the rotor on the XJ40 and get back to you on that. Contact Magnecor by telephone. They have more sets than that. Mine are Black and ran me $40 a few years ago.

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Their pdf product catalog shows 8mm (blue) & 8.5mm (red) wires for an XJ40, no 7mm (black) wires. They only offer the 7mm wires for up through series 3 sedans and XJS prior to HE models.

Spark plugs in aluminum really should have some sort of an anti-seize put on them. It's a cheap $3.00 tube which will last the rest of your life and keep your plugs and head happy. Cheap insurance.

Dave

WayneC wrote:

Thanks Dave. I do have a can of anti-seize I've used sporadically for about 25 years... but can I assume it won't affect the grounding of the spark plug?

Wayne, My mistake!! I went out this morning, popped the bonnet on the XJ40, unsnapped the dizzy cap and the rotor slid right off the shaft. I thought about it for a moment and realized the rotor with the screw in the back was the one on the Nissan -- which I had changed about the same time as the Jag.

Magnecor may have changed their product line since I bought mine 4 years ago. It would not surprise me.

Webserve.

Darn, that leaves me right where I started.

I could opt for the $116 Magnecor wire set, I suppose, but then I hate to spend that much and I'd be concerned that these high performance wires might cause radio interference... anyone else know why my old rotor would be firmly "stuck" in place, or have a recommendation on what spark plug wire set to use and where to obtain it?

here are some places you can try. It is Jag part number DAC7811. All these guys are trustworthy.

$69.00www.northeastbritishparts.com $54.00www.xksunlimited.com $57.20 Webserve

Apparently it was just that: very firmly "stuck" in place, aided by some light surface rusting of the shaft. After calling my local Jag repair shop to make sure there was no trick to it, and that I wouldn't be likely to destroy anything at the other end of the distributor shaft, I sprayed the upper shaft with penetrating oil, let it sit a few minutes, and used a puller tool with a slider to tap/pull the old rotor off the shaft.

I hate to buy parts (like ignition wires) when I don't even know what brand they are, so I haven't bought a set as yet. I also haven't located Champion RC9YC spark plugs locally, but I'll do a more thorough search tomorrow.

Found the spark plugs at Autozone, and ordered ignition wires from Northeast British Parts after they answered my email to say that their wires are Rists cable.

Thanks for the help.