Stranded while touring.

[George Harris]

Just a little story some of you might enjoy. Last weekend a friend and
his wife visited us from the states in his '86 XJ6 Jag. He offered to
drive when we went to the local farmers' market, and I didn't argue
since we hadn't done any mileage in his Jag recently.

About half an hour into the trip he switched from the 1/4 full left tank
to the completely full right tank (2 tanks in the Series III Jag with
common fuel pump and solenoid switch to control flow.) About 1/2 an hour
of driving later after a number of stops for shopping, the car starts to
hesitate at highway speeds. Friend pulls over, saying 'It does this once
in a while, but clears up if we sit for a few minutes.'

So we sit. He tries it. It starts, stumbles and stops. I suggest
switching the tank back to the 1/4 full one to see if maybe there is a
difference in gas. No good. Switch appears to be broken. OK. It's now
AAA time. Call my dad to pick up one couple since there is only room for
2 in the tow truck, and then wait for the tow truck to arrive. Tow truck
driver loads the Jag up on a flatbed, and carries it the 30 miles to
home. We put it in the garage and start work in the morning. First thing
check the plugs. They are .035 when they should be .025 so we regap and
reinstall. No start. They are getting a strong spark though. Take off
one injector and find a very weak spit of fuel. OK, that's obvious,
either fuel pump or filter. Probably filter since this problem has been
developing for a time and maybe it sucked up dirt from the second tank.
Disconnect fuel line from pump to check pressure at the pump, and...no
fuel. Pump must be bad. But wait,... when he turns on the key, the pump
develops air pressure!!!

Right, I'll bet you figured it out. The solenoid didn't switch the fuel
delivery, just the gauge and we had drained the left tank completely
dry. Three hours of diagnostics and us mechanical geniuses figured out
we ran out of gas :-(

Reminds me of the old computer diagnostics motto: Check to see if it
plugged in first!

Cheers gang.