On my '97 XJ6-L I had the driver's door interior handle go 'flop'... it just lost all connection to the latch (on a night out with friends - their maiden voyage in my new Jag! - how embarrassing!)
Anyway, took it in to my mechanic who had charged me a whack for fixing the same door latch spring just two weeks earlier (the day I bought the car). He let me work with his in-the-shop mechanic to diagnose the problem.
It turns out it was the little bushing that guides the cable in the latch housing just prior to the ball-end grabbing the actual latch. Jaguar made that little bushing out of polyethylene (a rather weak choice from a design engineer's persepective, which is mine). The factory replacement part included the interoir door handle, the cable, the sleeve, the little bushing that failed, and a price to balk at.
Being somewhat bold, I asked ifI could take the car 'as is' and finish the job at home. My mechanic let me take the car home with the door all apart and chaged me nothing! I was amazed. He'll get my biz from now on, for sure (as well as my recommendation to all who will listen!) By the way, that's 'The Jag Shop' in Portland, Oregon -> 503-731-9919
Back to the story:
I happened to have some little nylon-6 parts on the shlef at home that I modded by hand to make a small split bushing that would wrap around the cable and hopefully snap into the latch, replacing the worn-out cable-guiding bushing that failed. After making a special J-hook tool to press it into place, I got everything lined up, leaned back against the tool to press the bushing into place and... snick! It popped into place like magic.
It felt so good!
With door reassembly, the project took all of an hour. If I charged myslelf my usual shop rate, I'd ahve lost on the deal, but...
It is amazing how a little fix can make one feel so good - it's what thems psychologicalizing folks call 'self-efficacy'.
: - )
Charles Waugh
Boring, OR
Submitted by zurdo_1@univis… on Fri, 12/08/2006 - 23:17
congratulations, you've been initiated into the believe-it-or-not world of Jaguar oddities. I know exactly how you feel.
I'm not an engineer like you, but for the last 16 years I've had to learn to diagnose, repair, and manufacture with my own two hands and eyes, otherwise I would have had to pay someone to do it! The satisfaction I get by doing-it-myself is, well, 'self-efficacy'. Not to mention I do it better because I do it for me, because it's my car, so I look for the best solution, not the quickest.
The problem nowadays is that most people don't form a bond with their cars as in the 1950's and 1960's, so they don't keep their cars long enough to learn about them. For me, a Jaguar is forever, it's like fine furniture that one keeps for life.