Working On Our Interceptor

Classic car technician John has been spending quite a bit of time with our 1970 Jensen Interceptor lately. He has been investigating and resolving several issues with the car.

The first port of cool was a coolant leak. A small overflow hose was found to be loose so, once this was tightened, the leak was resolved. The reverse lights were not working so John spent some time investigating what could be causing this issue. He found a poor connection to the lights so cleaned and tightened the components forming the loose connection which sorted out the reverse lights issue.

The owner of the car had reported that the fuel flap light is always on even if the flap is properly closed. John found that the sensor for the flap was broken so, after replacing this with a new one, the light is now off.

John moved onto the brakes of our Interceptor to find out why the offside rear was binding. After stripping the brakes, John found that the large piston in the caliper had rusted and seized. The caliper was removed and the piston was freed. However, corrosion had badly eaten into the piston chrome making it unrepairable. A refurbishment or replacement will be needed.

While John was looking at the brakes, he was satisfied that the rear brakes were ok and the handbrake pads, although they are worn, they are still working as they need to at the moment.

Another issue that the owner of the car reported was that the vehicle keeps overheating and the fans keep blowing fuses. This was identical to the issues John had recently resolved on our 1971 Jensen FF MKII which is a very similar car to our Interceptor. As John knew what caused this on the FF, he was quickly able to diagnose that the fans needed replacing along with the wiring loom. These were ordered and John was confident that this would resolve the issues as it did on the FF. While waiting for the new fans and wiring loom to arrive, John cut out the old wiring and taped up the ends before securing them onto the main loom.

Our 1970 Jensen Interceptor went through a full service too. New spark plugs were fitted and the oil was drained. The filter housing was cleaned out. John found sludge in the bottom of the housing so this was removed.

The engine of our Interceptor was timed to top dead centre on cylinder 1 and the distributor was removed to fit new points and condenser before the distributor was refitted in the car.

Once the new fans had arrived, John started work on fitting them. He noticed that the setup was slightly different to the FF he had previously worked on but he was able to align the new fans and remount the housing. The wiring was secured and connected in the fuse box and the relays were mounted next to the fuse box (just as John did on the FF previously).

John’s work on our 1970 Jensen Interceptor wasn’t quite finished yet though as he fit new front wheel bearings and seals. While removing the old bearings, he noticed that there weren’t any seals fitted previously and the seal clamp was fitted the wrong way.

The ballast resistor was rewired next, as the old wires had gone hard with bare wire exposed.

John will continue his work on this beautiful classic car until he is completely satisfied that it is working as it should and is ready to be returned to its owner.