New Member, New Polara

[Stev]

Made it.

No photos right now, that junk's in the car and I'm going the hell to bed. But i didn't die and Big Blue is home now.



Cue winscreen music.

Car runs and drives great. Gave it a tune up, and she ate up Vancouver island like it was nothin. Car was unbelievably perfect.

And then the sun went down.

Two problems at once. Firstly, the car had a 7 pound rad cap on it. Manual says 14-16 is proper. I put one on and the heater core quietly burst, so i was huffing atomized glycol for ten hours. Still dizzy, probably not good.

secondly, hey guess what the charging system sucks. Having any lights on (including brake lights!) saps the car's power. Having headlights on gets so bad the engine misfires terribly and almost dies. Even running lights are enough to starve the coil on a big hill.

We found this out after getting off the Powell river ferry in the dark, still with about 100 km to go. I thought it was a bad ground and yanked every fuse but the lights, no dice, still bunk.

Drove 100km on rural, twisting, cliff roads trailing the range rover's tail lights on an unknown amount of gas, hypermiling it all the way while wiping coolant condensate from the windshield, flashing the dash with my phone to see the coolant and battery status (because no interior lights either) and all while dizzy from the glycol.

At a few points me and the rover got seperated during very tight turns and i was navigating the road by seeing the lines illuminated by the parking lights alone.

But hey, other than all that, it's done, and the Island drive was spectacular. Couldn't have asked for better conditions.

Time to get it in the shop and get to work i guess, wish me luck.

 

[LocuMob]

Made it.

No photos right now, that junk's in the car and I'm going the hell to bed. But i didn't die and Big Blue is home now.



Cue winscreen music.

Car runs and drives great. Gave it a tune up, and she ate up Vancouver island like it was nothin. Car was unbelievably perfect.

And then the sun went down.

Two problems at once. Firstly, the car had a 7 pound rad cap on it. Manual says 14-16 is proper. I put one on and the heater core quietly burst, so i was huffing atomized glycol for ten hours. Still dizzy, probably not good.

secondly, hey guess what the charging system sucks. Having any lights on (including brake lights!) saps the car's power. Having headlights on gets so bad the engine misfires terribly and almost dies. Even running lights are enough to starve the coil on a big hill.

We found this out after getting off the Powell river ferry in the dark, still with about 100 km to go. I thought it was a bad ground and yanked every fuse but the lights, no dice, still bunk.

Drove 100km on rural, twisting, cliff roads trailing the range rover's tail lights on an unknown amount of gas, hypermiling it all the way while wiping coolant condensate from the windshield, flashing the dash with my phone to see the coolant and battery status (because no interior lights either) and all while dizzy from the glycol.

At a few points me and the rover got seperated during very tight turns and i was navigating the road by seeing the lines illuminated by the parking lights alone.

But hey, other than all that, it's done, and the Island drive was spectacular. Couldn't have asked for better conditions.

Time to get it in the shop and get to work i guess, wish me luck.

Sounds like a fun journey.

 

[Stev]

Sounds like a fun journey.

It was stressful, but in a really satisfying way. I thoroughly enjoyed my suffering this week.

 

[detmatt]

Great news, glad to hear. Sounds like you’ll check everything but make sure that includes the voltage regulator.

 

[bluefury361]

All that sounds familure . Wouldn't be such a memorable adventure if all went to smooth. .
It's just an old car, after a long rest period, revealing his personality to you. You'll both come to terms.. Good thing is, He got ya home.

 

[cbarge]

Glad you made it!!

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

Glad you're home safely!

 

[Big_John]

Two problems at once. Firstly, the car had a 7 pound rad cap on it. Manual says 14-16 is proper. I put one on and the heater core quietly burst, so i was huffing atomized glycol for ten hours. Still dizzy, probably not good.

secondly, hey guess what the charging system sucks. Having any lights on (including brake lights!) saps the car's power. Having headlights on gets so bad the engine misfires terribly and almost dies. Even running lights are enough to starve the coil on a big hill.

Glad to see you made it home in one piece!

Having driven these cars when they were just cheap transportation, I can't help but chuckle just a little. Lot's of "I gotta get to work tomorrow" repairs under my belt... Driven a few with the cap loose to keep the pressure in the leaky radiator down and have looped the heater hose to bypass the heater core more than once.

You've also just discovered the beauty of a simple points ignition... It'll keep running as long as there's enough current to fire the coil. Just don't shut it off.. LOL!

 

[Stev]

Still unloading old Blue. But here she is with the new stablemates and some of my truck's junk.

Lotta work to do, i want to figure out the charging system first. I've not delt with electrics before so this is going to be a learning experience.

 

[Stev]

Oh yes and here's that fabled fender tag, finally.

 

[Big_John]

Lotta work to do, i want to figure out the charging system first. Because it died while i was on the ferry and was perfectly fine before that. I've not really delt with electics much before but that seems very strange.

Easy to diagnose. First check all the connections to the battery, grounds to the engine, connection to the starter etc.

This assumes it has the OE charging system.

Basically, two items can breakdown. First, take a voltage reading at the battery for reference. Engine off.

Start the car, check battery voltage at idle and then about 1000-1200 RPM. Should be ~14 volts at 1000 RPM

If it's not, you need to disconnect the field connection to the alternator. That would be the spade connected wire. Make a jumper wire and connect it from the field connection on the alternator to the "battery" connection on the alternator (threaded terminal). All the other wiring stays in place. Turn the headlights on and start the car. Check the voltage at the battery and it should be at least 15 volts. Don't run the car long in this manner.

So... what you have done is bypassed the voltage regulator. If the voltage is 15+ volts at the battery, the culprit is the voltage regulator. If the voltage stays the same, it's the alternator.

 

[Polara_500]

View attachment 362306

Still unloading old Blue. But here she is with the new stablemates and some of my truck's junk.

Lotta work to do, i want to figure out the charging system first. I've not delt with electrics before so this is going to be a learning experience.

Interesting view in your garage. And good luck with the blue beastie.

 

[Stev]

Easy to diagnose. First check all the connections to the battery, grounds to the engine, connection to the starter etc...

I'll give that a try tomorrow. I dread that it's a bad ground however, but i'm unsure.

There was some sort of vapor coming from the dash on the trip, but i'm unsure if it was steam/vapor from the blown heater core, the leaking power steering fluid burning off the headeres or a bad ground. If it was Lucas gas it sure didn't smell like it, but the car's got such a musk who knows, it may have been masked. I pulled every single fuse but the marker lights and unplugged every terminal from the radio, blower motor etc. So unless it's somehow grounding on the alternator gauge or otherwise upstream from the fusebox i'm not sure what else it could be.

I can tell the fun is only beginning here.

Interesting view in your garage. And good luck with the blue beastie.

Well I thought Blue could use some good company after all these years on her own.

 

[78Brougham]

Interesting view in your garage. And good luck with the blue beastie.

Yeah..... What else are you hiding in there besides the Jag?

John nailed it for diagnosing your charging system.

 

[Stev]

Yeah..... What else are you hiding in there besides the Jag?

1979 Jag XJ is mine. 79 Silver Shadow II, '55 thunderbird and X type is dad's. I do the work on everything.

X type was going anyway to make room for a blown XKR but then the black plague hit. So old blue's going to be safe and warm for the first time in it's life. The lift is going to help in mending it too. As soon as the electrics are sorted i'm going to at least patch the rear end up with some gussets and replacing what i can with my limited fab tools.

Down the line i will have to replace the whole subframe and the tortion bar crossmember though. Can you get complete subframes or is that going to have to all be fabricated new?

Also not seen is my 49 Ford F3 named Sketchy Bob, which i was in the middle of swapping the rear end on before all this. In that photo you can see the OG Timken two pice, which has an extremely rare 4.11 "highway" gear (compared to the usual 4.83), and the 3.55 LSD 8.8" behind it that's going in the truck.

The timken is a massive differential. It makes the 8.8 ford look like an economy car unit. I can lift the 8.8 by hand, i can't even tilt the timken on my own. Crazy thing.

If the gears were in better shape i'd feel confident in leaving it in there. The truck's going to be a weekend warrior drag/daily thing. I'm sure it'd be strong enough to survive launching on cheater slicks. However there's about a third of a rotation of slop in the pinion, and it's one tire fire only so that won't do. I'll keep it around though, i love old odd overbuilt stuff like that.

Gonna get some sheet metal practice on old Sketchy before I try it on Blue. I can't make Sketchy look bad but I can certainly mess up the Polara. The rolls also needs some new panels fabbed underneath.

It's kind of amusing, come to think. Sketchy looks rough as hell on the outside but mechanically I've refreshed it completely, and the frame is solid as bedrock. Meanwhile Big Blue looks outwardly solid but is structurally suffering.

 

[detmatt]

1979 Jag XJ is mine. 79 Silver Shadow II, '55 thunderbird and X type is dad's. I do the work on everything.

X type was going anyway to make room for a blown XKR but then the black plague hit. So old blue's going to be safe and warm for the first time in it's life. The lift is going to help in mending it too. As soon as the electrics are sorted i'm going to at least patch the rear end up with some gussets and replacing what i can with my limited fab tools.

Down the line i will have to replace the whole subframe and the tortion bar crossmember though. Can you get complete subframes or is that going to have to all be fabricated new?

Also not seen is my 49 Ford F3 named Sketchy Bob, which i was in the middle of swapping the rear end on before all this. In that photo you can see the OG Timken two pice, which has an extremely rare 4.11 "highway" gear (compared to the usual 4.83), and the 3.55 LSD 8.8" behind it that's going in the truck.

View attachment 362558 View attachment 362560 View attachment 362561

The timken is a massive differential. It makes the 8.8 ford look like an economy car unit. I can lift the 8.8 by hand, i can't even tilt the timken on my own. Crazy thing.

If the gears were in better shape i'd feel confident in leaving it in there. The truck's going to be a weekend warrior drag/daily thing. I'm sure it'd be strong enough to survive launching on cheater slicks. However there's about a third of a rotation of slop in the pinion, and it's one tire fire only so that won't do. I'll keep it around though, i love old odd overbuilt stuff like that.

Gonna get some sheet metal practice on old Sketchy before I try it on Blue. I can't make Sketchy look bad but I can certainly mess up the Polara. The rolls also needs some new panels fabbed underneath.

It's kind of amusing, come to think. Sketchy looks rough as hell on the outside but mechanically I've refreshed it completely, and the frame is solid as bedrock. Meanwhile Big Blue looks outwardly solid but is structurally suffering.

Stub-frames or front stubs do come up for sale on the forum occasionally but mostly fuselage era. Being on the west coast puts you too far away from Murray Park but there is at least 2 guys that I know of that do a lot of dismantling and maybe they can help you locate one.
@SGT FURY @pomonamissel

 

[3175375]

1979 Jag XJ is mine. 79 Silver Shadow II, '55 thunderbird and X type is dad's. I do the work on everything.

X type was going anyway to make room for a blown XKR but then the black plague hit. So old blue's going to be safe and warm for the first time in it's life. The lift is going to help in mending it too. As soon as the electrics are sorted i'm going to at least patch the rear end up with some gussets and replacing what i can with my limited fab tools.

Down the line i will have to replace the whole subframe and the tortion bar crossmember though. Can you get complete subframes or is that going to have to all be fabricated new?

Also not seen is my 49 Ford F3 named Sketchy Bob, which i was in the middle of swapping the rear end on before all this. In that photo you can see the OG Timken two pice, which has an extremely rare 4.11 "highway" gear (compared to the usual 4.83), and the 3.55 LSD 8.8" behind it that's going in the truck.

View attachment 362558 View attachment 362560 View attachment 362561

The timken is a massive differential. It makes the 8.8 ford look like an economy car unit. I can lift the 8.8 by hand, i can't even tilt the timken on my own. Crazy thing.

If the gears were in better shape i'd feel confident in leaving it in there. The truck's going to be a weekend warrior drag/daily thing. I'm sure it'd be strong enough to survive launching on cheater slicks. However there's about a third of a rotation of slop in the pinion, and it's one tire fire only so that won't do. I'll keep it around though, i love old odd overbuilt stuff like that.

Gonna get some sheet metal practice on old Sketchy before I try it on Blue. I can't make Sketchy look bad but I can certainly mess up the Polara. The rolls also needs some new panels fabbed underneath.

It's kind of amusing, come to think. Sketchy looks rough as hell on the outside but mechanically I've refreshed it completely, and the frame is solid as bedrock. Meanwhile Big Blue looks outwardly solid but is structurally suffering.

That truck needs a Ford 9” in it. (can I see that here?). Find a forum that specializes in that period vehicle.

Nice collection!

 

[Stev]

Stub-frames or front stubs do come up for sale on the forum occasionally but mostly fuselage era. Being on the west coast puts you too far away from Murray Park but there is at least 2 guys that I know of that do a lot of dismantling and maybe they can help you locate one.
@SGT FURY @pomonamissel

Ok, cool. This is going to be a while down the line though, Sketchy's eating all my money right now and this whole plague thing's kind of putting a damper on that too. Just gonna patch it together to make it safe until i can afford to do such extensive work on Blue.

That truck needs a Ford 9” in it. (can I see that here?). Find a forum that specializes in that period vehicle.

Nice collection!

The 8.8" rear ends are just as strong as 9" actually, and a substantial amount of people claim that they're stronger. The consensus is that a good one can take roughly 750 horse at the crank on an automatic from the junkyard.

The motor i have in there is a junkyard 302 Windsor with the magic 500 horsepower ceiling before it splits in half, so i will not be troubling the 8 inch.

I'm aiming for about 400 at the crank, which is plenty of hustle for a solid axle farm truck with a 70 year old drag link steering box.

I already put the new spring seats on for the narrower frame, plus it's a pozzie, it's got 3.55's and I got it for free, so there's no reason not to use it.

 

[LocuMob]

I got it for free

Not had at twice the price! I have a couple extra stubs from parts cars, too bad your not closer.

 

[mr. fix it]

From one Polara owner to another, Welcome!