587
“But the OEM fusebox has five fuses.” Well, you can use one of these 4-fuse blocks and add a separate inline fuse. A
better idea, though, is to install two blocks and use the extra fuse locations as places to hold spare fuses -- or replace
some of the inline fuses in the car such as the one to the radio or the one to the A/C compressor.
When done, be sure to use your computer to slap together a chart of your new fuse locations, print it out so it looks
professional, and install it adjacent to the new fuse block for future reference.
ADDING INLINE FUSES: In the author’s ’83, the inline fuses consist of a little tubular plastic container with a wire
in each end; when the two halves are twisted apart they reveal a glass tube fuse within, with a spring providing contact.
These work OK -- but there’s certainly no reason to use inline fuse holders of that type any more. Some modern
Japanese cars use a type of plastic fuse called a JCAS fuse. A JCAS fuse is a little plastic box with a clear window on
the top for viewing the condition of the fusible link and a pair of 1/4” female spade terminals in the bottom. So all you
need to do is attach 1/4” male spade terminals to the ends of your wires, plug them into one of these fuses, and you
have an excellent inline fuse arrangement.
JCAS fuses are available in 20A, 30A, 40A, 50A, and 60A ratings. They don’t seem to be available in anything
smaller than a 20A, but that usually isn’t a problem; any serious short will blow a 20A before toasting any wiring, even
fairly small wiring.
Instrument Panel
The illumination of the instrument panel is discussed on page 634.
VERTICAL VS. ROUND GAUGES: Earlier XJ-S dashboards have four small gauges that are rectangular and the
needle moves vertically. When the bodywork was revamped in 1991, however, Jaguar went with a revised dash with
all round gauges. According to Alan Akeister, “There is a company in the UK, however, who can convert older models
to dials. They are called Autostyle Ltd.” See page 711.
Unless stated otherwise, most of the tips that follow refer to the earlier style instrument cluster with four small vertical
gauges.
INSTRUMENT PANEL REMOVAL: Section 88.20.01 of the ROM and Chapter 10, Section 69 of the Haynes manual
describe how to get the instrument panel out. Note that both say you need to remove the underscuttle casing on the
driver’s side, but this really isn’t necessary unless you drop something. Both manuals also mention having to
disconnect the speedometer cable from the right angle drive, but they must be talking about early cars -- the ’83 has an
electronic speedometer, there is no cable.
INSTRUMENT CLUSTER SNAP-ON COVERS: At each end of the row of warning lights is a snap-on cover that
hides the screws that hold the warning light lens assembly as well as the screws holding the entire instrument cluster in
place. On this author’s ’83, these covers had distorted with age and lost their snappage, so they loosely rattled around
in the openings. Shipping crates are often banded shut with 1/2” wide straps made of really hard steel, almost like
spring steel; I cut a piece of that strapping about 2” long, bent it up 90º at each end, trimmed it a little to fit and inserted
it between the retention prongs on the snap-on cover. The metal thus provided a backing spring pressing the plastic
prongs back out to their original positions, restoring the snappage. Since I cut the ends just short enough that they
didn’t quite reach the end of the plastic prongs, the sharp edge of the steel dug into the plastic a little so the tension held
the metal piece itself in place -- although it wouldn’t be hard to add some double-sided foam tape between the center