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© 2000 Brian F. Schreurs
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With some patience, the project isn't too bad. We took apart the vee on the Paradise Garage 1985 Jaguar XJ-S H.E. to change the spark plugs. Here is how we did it.

The first piece to go is the cruise control bellows. It's sitting right on top, looking like, well, a bellows. It bolts to the back of the air conditioner compressor. Unplug the white electrical connector near the front of the bellows.

Two of the bellows bolts and the electrical connection.

The bellows is held to the compressor with three 7/16" bolts. Two hold the bellows bracket and the third holds the bellows itself. With these removed, the bellows assembly can be moved around quite a bit -- the cable has plenty of flexibility. Note that there is a vacuum line coming off the bottom of the bellows. Make your life easier: unplug it.

Next out is the air conditioning compressor. Guess what -- it's not necessary to discharge the system! The compressor is held in place by four bolts. The two front ones are 1/2". Watch for the ground wire on the left side. The two rear bolts are 17mm. They are not visible with the cruise control bellows in place, but with the bellows removed they are relatively obvious.

With the bolts removed, the compressor can be moved around thanks to the flexible tubing. It sits tightly between its two brackets so it must be wiggled up enough to clear them. The trick is of course the belt on the nose of the thing -- wiggle it so that it tilts forward a bit, and eventually you will be able to pry the belt off.

Once it doesn't have a belt holding it down, the compressor will move quite far forward with no ill effects. We pulled ours so that it was leaning against the radiator support on the front and against the front bracket on the rear. Totally out of the work area.

Now the front half of the vee is fairly accessible.

It's intimidating but it's not black magic... mostly.

The stuff clears out nicely. Note especially the compressor.

The only obstacle in the rear is the throttle pedestal. That's the funny-looking thing with the two rods connecting to it and the ignition coil on the front. It is held to the vee with four bolts, but we're not ready to tackle them just yet.

We're told it's possible to do this operation without removing the coil but frankly we don't think it's worth trying. The coil is easy to remove: unplug the lead from the distributor; unbolt the three wires from the positive side (nearest the pedestal); unbolt the two wires from the negative side (nearest the distributor). The nuts holding the connectors in place are 5/16". Don't lose the washers.

The bracket holding the coil to the pedestal is attached with two 7/16" bolts. Remove these and the whole coil/bracket assembly easily comes out.

To prepare the throttle pedestal for removal, start by disconnecting the throttle rods. They thread into the top of the pedestal and a 7/16" wrench will take them out. Alternatively, they're held to these posts with clips and can be simply unclipped. The point is to keep the relationship of the rods to the bellcrank unchanged -- realigning them is rather fiddly. Use whichever method you feel will best accomplish this. Then unplug a bunch of wires: two on the back right corner; two on the back left corner; and one multi-terminal plug on the back center. Keep track of which wires go where.

Now the pedestal is ready to come out. It is held in place by four 7/16" bolts. Do you own a set of crow's feet? If not, or you don't even know what we're talking about, stop right here and go get some. Just in case the red-shirted apes at your local Craftsman outlet haven't heard of them either, they look like the head of an open-ended wrench with the rest of the wrench whacked off and a bung for a socket wrench put in its place. Once you own a bag of 'em you'll find they have all kinds of crazy uses. While you're there, if you don't have several different lengths of extension bars, get them too.

The front two bolts are also used to hold down wire looms for the fuel injection harness. It doesn't cause a problem; just be aware of it. Also, each of these bolts has a corresponding washer. Don't lose them.

The front-left bolt is easy. A socket on a long extension will get it right out. The front-right one is a bit trickier because the vacuum advance gets in the way. Enter the crow's foot on a long extension. If this is your first time using a crow's foot, it'll take a few tries to get the hang of it.

By the way, the only way those bolts are getting out of the vee is with a magnet. Craftsman makes a really nice telescoping magnet-on-a-stick, much better than the usual flexi-rod setup. You want it. If you think you don't want it now, you'll want it by the time you're done with this job.

The rear two bolts are a little harder. No matter how we tried, we could not get a clear shot at the bolts. What's needed is a sort of dogleg-type bar for a socket wrench, allowing any socket wrench to be used like a distributor wrench. Sadly, we've never seen such an animal.

To get at the rear-right bolt, we started with a 7/16" socket. Then we put a cap on it -- a little black thing that pushes into the drive side of the socket, allowing the socket to be turned with a conventional wrench. Craftsman sells a set of them. We used the telescoping magnet to drop the socket/cap onto the bolt (this kind of precision work is the reason the flexi-rod magnets suck). Then, as it happens, the cap is 9/16" -- the same size as a GM distributor wrench! We used the distributor wrench on the cap and the bolt was free.

The rear-left bolt looks like it should come out the same way but alas, the bolt is too close to the pedestal - - the distributor wrench can't fit around the cap. Also, this irritating bracket that serves no apparent purpose gets in the way. Instead, put a 9/16" crow's foot on a long extension bar. It won't be able to snap right on to the cap but it'll reach at an angle; enough to get a grip and loosen the thing. It's time consuming, but with patience even this bolt will come out.

With all four bolts removed, the pedestal lifts right out. The throttle cable is flexible enough to allow for a fair amount of movement.

This is as good as it gets. Whatever business brought you to the vee of the V12, get to it. We'll wait till you're done.

Hmm hm hm la de daaaa la de deee she'll be comin round the mountain when she comes hmmm hm hm la de daa-- oh, ready? Okay. That was quick. Ah, dropped a quarter. I see.

This bracket has to go.

First out, first in. Our friend the throttle pedestal has to go back. But before it goes back in, a quick mod is in order. On the back of the throttle pedestal is a bracket held in place with two bolts. Heaven only knows what it was originally for, but it does nothing now (at least on our car). The only thing it does is get in the way of the left-rear pedestal bolt. Luckily it comes off easily enough by removing the two 5/16" bolts holding it to the pedestal. Problem solved.

The front two bolts are easier to reach so they should go in first. Roll the head of the front-left bolt in some grease and stick it in the socket. It should hold there even when the socket is inverted, at least for a few seconds. Use this opportunity to quickly plunk the bolt into its hole, and tighten. That was the easy one.

For the right-front bolt, use the same grease trick to get the bolt into its hole. Odds are, though, that the vacuum advance will prevent you from tightening it with a conventional socket. Use a crow's foot on an extension bar to tighten that bugger down.

The rear two bolts are some kind of fun. But with the bracket removed, they're not as bad as they could be.

Both of the rear bolts work the same way. Grease them up so they'll stick inside a socket. Put the cap on the socket, and lower the bolt/socket/cap into a bolt hole with the telescoping magnet. Use a 9/16" crow's foot with an extension on the cap until you're confident it's threaded. Then retrieve the socket/cap with the magnet, and switch to a 7/16" crow's foot to tighten the bolt directly.

No, we're not making this up so all your friends will laugh at you. It works. And once you have a little practice, it works well.

Reconnect the throttle rods.

Reconnect all the wires going to and from the throttle pedestal. ...oh, you didn't write them down? Silly rabbit. Luckily, we did -- so all you have to do is hope your car is the same as ours.

The large white connector is a no-brainer. On the right-rear corner of the pedestal, there's two wires. The black wire connects on the righthand side; the white wire connects on the rear. On the left-rear corner of the pedestal there's two more wires. The green wire connects to the rear plug and the green/yellow wire connects to the front.

Reattach the coil and reconnect the coil wires. ...again? Okay... The three-wire connector attaches to the rear (positive) side of the coil. The two single-wire connectors attach to the front (negative) side of the coil. The huge fat black wire goes to the distributor.

Next, the A/C compressor has to go back in. Ahhh, the A/C compressor. This, friend, is the single worst part of the entire job. If you can get through this with a smile on your face, then you are truly a blessed person. Here's the problem: the compressor bracket is a near-perfect fit. Of course it is; it has to keep the belt lined up right. But while Jaguar made the brackets machine- perfect, they neglected to install a cradle to ensure that the compressor would be forced into position. Therefore we are left with the unenviable job of trying to line up a heavy, awkward compressor which fits so tightly that it basically doesn't want to move. It helps a lot to have a second person here. One to thread bolts, one to maneuver the compressor and hold a light.

Start by moving the compressor back between its brackets and looping the belt around its pulley. If the belt won't reach, check that it's still in the grooves of the other two pulleys it passes around. Ours had slipped off the crank, making it quite impossible to line up without first fixing that problem.

With the belt on and the compressor in its approximate location, it simply becomes an exercise of getting the compressor to line up with the brackets well enough for a bolt to thread. We used a couple of punches to get one side's holes nearly lined up while working on the other side. This helped some, but basically it's a lot of work no matter what. Don't forget the ground wire on the left-front bolt.

Eventually, you'll get it. And when you do, the cruise control bellows is waiting. Reattach the vacuum line; bolt it to the back of the compressor; plug in the white plug. A nice easy project after the horrid compressor project.

And that's it. The engine is reassembled. Celebrate your victory with a drive.

Pretty complicated work, isn't it? And to think you didn't really accomplish anything -- this is only what's necessary to get at everything else. Some fun huh? But hey. It's a good challenge, it makes you look really skilled in front of your friends, and it's not so bad once you've done it. If you had wanted a boring car, you wouldn't have bought a Jaguar, would you?