Photo attached is of chassis 80016. A 1940 SS DHC. It is slightly earlier than my own 1940 saloon 80034.
My questions are
Are the horns correct being mounted above the front valance? My car has existing holes in the same position but I have no further evidence this is correct for my car. The SPC and Lucas catalogues are very confusing and I cant be sure that either is correct.
The SPC suggest the '40 SS has the same wiring loom as used again on early post war cars. This is a loom without the flexible steel conduit over various wiring as previously utilised on the '39. Is there anyway of determining, perhaps by holes for route of wiring, that would confirm which is correct? Does the '39 have wiring routed across the car on the engine side of the radiator? as I do have some small holes here.
Very tricky trying to establish when these changes actually occured.
Thanks in advance.
Regards, Graham
That confused me until I found this statement from JDHT.
It has the same horns as my early '38, although they appear to be different pedestals. But people have told me mine are not original.
It is strange that only one type of horns are listed in the SPC.
Those added turn signals and windshield mirror lead me to suggest that we should be cautious about making assumptions with restored cars, and of course with unrestored cars like mine.
I would think the wiring conduits were a good and necessary idea, to protect the wiring from road dirt and mud. What is the source of your information that the conduits were not used? I did not find them at all in the SPC.
Mine has a big wiring bundle running across the top of the chassis behind the radiator, with two cable clips there.
BTW seeing this horn relay mentioned in the Lucas book, I have rigged up a Lucas relay to operate my horns; I didn’t like all that current going through the button on the steering wheel.
Thanks for all the comments and info.
It would seem strange for a PO of my car to go the effort of cutting holes through then mounting horns above the valance which appears to have at one time been the case.
Rob. The wiring looms suggested in the SPC as being correct for my car are ‘Main chassis’ 970442 and ‘Main body’ 990481/B, same as early post war, however this loom runs across the very front of the chassis where the horns mount yet I do have the two holes Rob describes on the chassis behind the radiator as can be seen in this photo of.
Also note the horn brackets.
Unfortunately I dont know the chassis number of this car.
This is getting complicated, so need a bit more time… but with things made/supplied by LUCAS, the Lucas Catalogues are invariably more accurate than the SS and Jaguar publications as they are kept right up to date regrading detail, and indeed they cover far more detail …
But for a 1940MY SS Jaguar the relevant catalogues are the 400C as published immediately post-war, rather than the 400B which was published pre-war and doesn’t cover much into 1939 - exact date of publication is not shown, albeit there are two editions of the 400B the second published post-war (so maybe that extended coverage a little - I havnt checked later edition)
But the 400C with respect to HORNS covers 1939-40 SS Jaguar, as well as 1946 - 1950 Jaguar.
A quick check of the 1939-40 SS Jaguar entry, interestingly notes with respect to Horns and their Brackets that the 1-1/2 & 2-1/2-litre share the same Horns/Brackets, being different from the 3-1/2-litre and SS100.
Grahams car is a 2-1/2-litre 1940MY, thus is shown as having Horns HF1228 (part number 069207) and Brackets 701639. (Whereas the 3-1/2 litre 1940MY has Horns WT29 (069290) and Brackets 690617. Elsewhere in the 400C catalogue both 701639 and 690617 brackets are pictured, and are not shown in the 1939 400B pre-war catalogue, albeit I havnt yet checked the post-war second edition of 400B…
When I have more time, if that helps, rather than further confuses this thread…
Well, at least I’ve figured out what I have, WT28 Hi & Lo, with bracket 690617.
It looks like I have the same Tee bracket as in Graham’s field car photos.
Then there is an L angle bracket on which the 690617 is attached to make the horns horizontal.
How and when they came to be there, maybe we’ll figure it out, maybe we won’t.
I see in the small print in 400B (1939) that horn HF728 was obsolete and replaced by WT22 and WT13.
WT22 and WT29 are the black versions of the horns and were fitted below the front apron on 3.5 litre SS cars and MkIVs and MY1940 cars.
HF728 are chrome and come in two versions the older with Lucas badge central and the later with the badge offset to the bottom. It’s interesting that the cheaper horns were reserved for the more expensive 3.5 litre but there’s nothing strange in that because there’s less metal in the 3.5 litre engine so it should be the cheaper version too although offset by the need for a bigger radiator.
I don’t think that’s something I would rely upon. The SS 1938/39 parts list shown in the previous posting correctly shows what we see in period photos that SS Jaguar 3.5 litre cars have the horns painted black and hidden whereas the 1.5SE and 2.5 litre cars have chrome horns on view. As you can see the 3.5 litre has 600981/2 but if you search Lucas catalogues you find that only the Wolseley 18 hp uses these horns. The Wolseley certainly doesn’t have chrome horns on view so I’ve no reason to doubt that the 600981/2 numbers are correct but in this case I would suggest that the SS Cars information is more accurate than that of Lucas.
Hi Graham, More than couple of things make me doubt that FLU117 is MY40.
The MY40 cars look very much like the MkIVs but this car appears to have the wide chrome waist line trims and it also has the HF728 horns but apart from that the FLU registration is from February 1939 which is really too early for MY40.
Hi Peter.
Thanks the your replies.
That is more than likely correct. It’s interesting in itself that this means some MY39 cars had the P100L headlights with fluted lens.
Regards, Graham
