So I got a new battery for the Sawzall and was back at the pick-n-pull for half-price day, and the Capri I was there to scrounge some Cortina parts from had been sent to the crusher.

Bah.

So I went off in search of the '77 XJS I'd seen the last time I'd been out there, to try an experiment.

Someone had already been wrenching on one side, the exhaust was gone on that side and one of the cage mounts had been unbolted.

Attempt to unbolt driveshaft, bolts too tight for my poor selection of box wrenches, note it's a one-piece shaft (it was an SBC conversion, not sure if the one-piece shaft is normal on an XJS) and decide to see if I can wrestle the thing off the slip-yoke once the cage is down - 3 min.

Pull the retainer and vertical bolt out of the front of the trailing arms - 1 min per side.
Arms won't come off (naturally) so sawzall the cone off the floorpan - 2 min per side. 
Sawzall the remaining exhaust behind the cage - 2 min.
Unbolt the sway bar from the floorpan - 5 min per side.
Sawzall the remaining cage mounts - 2 min each.

IRS falls to the ground.
Cut brake line and parking brake cable. 

Total time to this point right around 30 minutes.   Much quicker than wrestling with unbolting the cage mounts, trying to break the trailing-arm mounts loose from the floorpan or unbolt them from the LCAs, and the whole thing comes out completely intact.

Note - one of the cage mounts separated while I was sawing it, and I've seen others separated on junkyard cars - try not to put body parts under the cage while working on the car, if you do have to do work under the car e.g. driveshaft leave the trailing-arm bolts (and sway bar, if so equipped) until you're done under the car. 

I was working alone and this was more of an experiment than anything else so when I couldn't budge the thing from under the car by myself I abandoned it.   Looks to be a 3.07, by the books it should be an LSD but I can't confirm as I couldn't get the brakes loose enough to turn the hubs.

Friend building the Falcon doesn't seem too interested in having more parts, and I really don't have a use for an early unit right now (have considered picking up an XJ40/X300 assembly for trial-fitting and general research so if I get time and feel really energetic maybe I'll head to Newark tomorrow...) so someone walking through the yard might get a nice surprise.

If you want it, it's the North San Jose Pick-n-pull, go to picknpull.com to print the half-off coupon...9/16 wrenches to deal with the driveshaft and grab an engine hoist on your way into the yard, you'll need it to haul it out.  Should be about $160 today.

Proved what I wanted to prove - I have a mental threshold of about an hour, maybe 90 minutes, when it comes to junkyard jobs, if I need one I can have one in an hour.  Other lesson learned is I need more Sawzall batteries -my new no-name-Chinese battery petered out just as the last mount came apart.

Last edited by JEM (1/14/2012 2:34 pm)