Galaxy update...

The galaxy tends to get slightly neglected, we have had it over 8 years and covered just about 50K.

In the last couple of years it's had a few maladies, the water pump failed in 2014, closely followed by the wiper mechanism ( common fault ), then the coolant sensor, when I also uncoverd a collapsed gearbox mount) and then the battery. The wiperes seized again whilst on holiday March 2016, but stripping and lubricating on the camp site restored them to opperation.

The last few years have also been beset with random electrical oddities with the alarm, locking and indicators. At one point the tailgate was failing to open and rear light and demisters were playing up. I checked the tailgate loom and it was shorting and breaking up in places. I replaced it and everything seemed good for a couple of weeks. then the normal indicator alarm issue returned. It was difficult to diagnose, as soon as you moved the car onto the drive to have a look the issue went away.

We got used to this, however whilst on holiday in August 16, I decided to have a poke under the bonnet at the distribution box to see if I could get the issue to present itself. I could not. Next morning, the alarm, indicators and boot release were non functional. We had to tow the trailer home the next day!! ARG!

On the way back to the campsite that day ( sans indicators ) we stopped in Aldi, and had such good fortune that they had Digital Multi Meters on offer!!

Back at the camp-site I quickly diagnosed a lack of power on one of the connectors out of the junction box. I rigged a jumper cable and everything worked again. Not only that It worked as it should.

Satisfied that the in hand issue was fixed I ordered a replacement box while still on holiday. that was quickly swapped on a few days later and we have had no further issues ( except there are some broken wires in the passenger front door that cause an occasional problem)

As I was now satisfied the core issue was solved I felt it was worth spending a bit more time on the old girl.

the Drivers rear door had not worked on the central locking for a few years, I quickly traced this to a dead earth at the motor so just rigged a new earth.

A full new exhaust was fitted at MOT with no other issues.

The only other electrical oddity is the passenger rear window motor that does not work on the switches but does through GLOBAL. both loom and motor were swapped with the door a few years ago so I need to look further.

Number . 3.0 Jaguar S-Type V6 Parts Car.

This car was on EBAY for a few weeks with ever reducing price, mechanically it was not of great use to me as it's a V6 not a V8. but it looked fairly good and had under 83K on the clock. It was only half an hour up the road.

 I thought that I could probably strip it for a few good bits, and flog the rest to make the purchase price back. I got it for £200 in the end, +£40 for insurance to drive it home.

The car looked very good, A colour I had not previously liked but now do. The front hubs  were rough , as was the brakes. But she drove lovely other than that. It seemed a shame to break her, but when totting up the cost which would also require a rear subframe replacement  it was obviously an uneconomical car to repair.



Quite a number of little trim bits were swapped to my V8 car, the headlamp washers have been put to one side to fit to my car.  The heated seats were swapped to my car.  generally made my car better using ~£170 retail on parts.

The rest of the car was quickly stripped although there is still a bit to do and she sits on the drive quite sad :( . But selling bits and bobs netted ~£600 extra profit and a few other spares remain on the shelf.

I would do it again but space and time do become a problem.

 

Between March and May, I hauled out the dead V8, it was a long and drawn out process due to partly to the weather, stuck fastenings and the fact the gearbox bell housing had corroded to the engine making it almost impossible to split the two.

In the end the old lump finally broke free of the gearbox and was hauled out. I cleaned up the engine bay made sure everything was prepared and ready and then on one afternoon went from no engine to having the lump bolted in in ~1hr and the rest of it connected up and ready to run over the next 3 hrs.

The first start up was noisy due to no exhausts. Subsequent ones were quieter but it was a bit smokey. Since I had never seen or heard the donor engine I was a little worried.

However she went for MOT and passed without any issue of note. She stayed off the road till the end of June. But then was put back into service and now in late December has accrued 3800 miles.

The Focus was sold on to a friend, on the proviso that it was retuned for a 50% rebate as the car was fitted with my Wolfrace VooDoo wheels and a reasonable ST interriror. It also has a 1.8 Zetec that may be useful ;)

The  focus was a fun little beast, it did everything asked of it.

The Jaguar is super, it does require a little fetteling due to rattles from the suspension. And a cold misfire. But it's FAB.

Dead Engine, And a focus....

On the way to Keswick one Saturday afternoon in late October we were stuck behind a slow moving tractor on the A66 in the V8 Jag.

At an opportune moment I pulled out and accelerated hard to overtake, then the car started behaving ODD! I let off the throttle but it kept up the revs. I pulled back in, cut the ignition and tried to restart but it would not play ball.

We costed to a layby, and she would not turn over. Not even a little. RAC took 4 Hrs to get to us and another 1.5 to get us recovered.

The engine eventually started at home but sounded dreadful. I am in the process of replacing it.


To keep me mobile I started scouring EBAY/Autotrader. Looking at everything from some horrid euro trash to XJ8's .  Eventual I bought a Panther Black 1.8L Zetec focus 3Dr. The trip to pick it up over in the north east was not fun as the weather was dreadful with torrential rain and flooding.

£300 bought it, and so far 5 months later I am still enjoying it's fun handling ( although it's a bit slow. It needed a window winder £40, cam cover gasket £8, rear bearing £12, and a caliper £15.  I also swapped on my Wolfrace Voodoo wheels and bought an ST170 half leather interior... MOT next month!

This is the beginning of the strip down to replace the engine that sized in October. The grill was swiftly removed. The front bumper was more of a problem due to rusty fittings.