The battery is holding up very well. I've checked it every day and the car
starts right up. I'm going to try putting the #2 fuse back in to see if
that was really draining the battery, or if it was truly the alternator
that was the problem.
I've selected the new shifter for the car:
http://www.bmracing.com/PRODUCTS/Performance-Automatic-Shifters/Hammer-Shifter
I measured everything out and this seems to be the one that will fit the
best. It's about 1 inch taller then the handle in there now. I'm not
overly happy with the big T-Handle. It seems massive for the delicate
steering wheel/Jaguar interior. But because the handle/shaft can be
removed from the shifting unit, I may be able to "modify" the Jaguar handle
to fit! That would look really cool! But that is low on the priority list
at this point. I just want to make sure that the tranny is being shifted
correctly, at the right time, and that the car does not come out of drive
when I'm driving. That is really not a good thing to happen when you are
tromping on the throttle. A quick shift into neutral at full throttle is a
guarantee for doing serious and expensive engine damage (e.g. spun bearing,
thrown pistons, bent rods, etc.)!
I've also decided to refinish the steering wheel, so I ordered some
lacquers used for guitars from the Stewart MacDonald last night. I ordered
an amber colored clear as well as high gloss clear. I'm thinking of
putting one coat of the amber on the wheel, then stenciling "JAGUAR" across
the top of the wheel in green, then applying several coats of gloss clear.
That will look way cool.
This weekends work items:
- Pull the left gas tank to get the sender working.
- Find out what is leaking in the right tank
- Replace the glass filter in the trunk
- Figure out the Speedo issue
- Check the gauge/dash lights to figure out why most of them are not coming
on.
The car is almost to the point were I am going to start driving it more,
maybe daily. I want to get some miles on the car so that I can break in
the engine and transmission.
