That’s not ironic, it’s British.
One of my club members worked as a design engineer for British Leyland. He’s told some interesting stories.
Discussed lately. Seems bells some do have the hole. Mine looks like it was dug out with a spoon.
TOB through to hole. Obviously metal to metal:
David
Yea, I did study that page. My gap should be .75".I should get the new cylinder today, my though was to put the cylinder in unconnected and do the adjustment not sure I should do it when all is connected and bled.
Benny
Just checked I also have that 2nd hole.Great when I get a chance I’ll check the TOB
Just reach under with your phone and click away, you’ll eventually get a good one. Film’s cheap these days.
Perhaps John Twist? And I agree completely with your comments about his videos!
Cheers,
LLynn
Mitchell;
I think the gentleman you refer to as ‘John Swift’ is actually ‘John Twist’.
He owned ‘University Motors’ for years and offered seminars for owners to rebuild their transmissions and carbs under his guidance. These were well received and I attended twice to first rebuild a 4 speed and then a second time to rebuild a 4 speed with OD.
Keep up the rebuilding.
Regards, Joel.
Yes, Twist of course.
Hello Mitch,
The second hole further back, near the Gearbox, was not put there by Jaguar; hence the reason for some looking like they were created using a a trained beaver. This hole is to aid insertion and positioning of the pivot shaft in the yoke. If you get a drift, insert it through the hole and have it’s end contact the centre of the pivot shaft end, you will see that you have reasonably straight line alignment with the axis of the pivot shaft.
A drift through this hole can’t be used to drive the shaft out, as the shaft will interfere with the inside of the Bell Housing before it clears the bore of the yoke.
Regards,
Bill
Pedantry Alert:
I would be surprised if any of these modified parts used roller bearings. Even the clapped-out one John Twist showed wasn’t a roller bearing.
All the ones I’ve seen, including all Jag OEM manuals from 1979 (i.e. LT77 and Getrag 5-speed boxes) use deep groove ball bearings. Very different animal. My 1999 Triumph motorbike uses a dinky little radial roller bearing designed for axial thrust, and from memory my Moto Guzzi did too, but car release bearings? Ball bearings, not roller.
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In USA speak, “chatter”. Older ford V8’s were famous for it. Worse in reverse!!!
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A fly wheel should be ground, not turned…
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And, no grease at all anywhere near the friction surfaces.
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Those carbon throw out bearings have always amused me.
My 2 bits…
Carl
i have a bell housing with GTJ’s roller bearing and collar. I bought it years ago and it worked fine, the collar kept the bearing centered and the fork was modified to allow movement. As I recall, it wasn’t cheap and needed have the housing modified a bit. I switched over to a 5spd which came with its own bell housing and set up.
Just last night I pulled mine out with my fingers. I cannot imagine all of the in the 70’s and 80’s mechanics individually drilling a hole the same size in the the same spot. The one’s that we’ve seen are all too nearly identical. You could make a 3/8" hole for a 1/4" drift, but not one did that (yet). These hole are way too big just to be for a drift, and the pin doesn’t need to exit through this hole.
Couldn’t it be such a minor change that it just didn’t get documented?
Thanks for the correction. Balls not rollers. Got it.
I’ve had all year models of S1 and S2 cars through my shop and some very late cars didn’t have the extra hole as did some early cars. I can’t see Jaguar introducing such a hole and then dropping it. If the purpose was for the aid of inserting the pin, would it not be logical that the hole be in relatively the same position in all cases? As for the holes being nearly identical, identical as “like it was dug out with a spoon”? I’ve worked on many Gearboxes where the holes have been present and many where they have not. With those with holes, the holes could hardly be described as being anywhere near identical.
I didn’t suggest that the pin needs to exit through this hole, only that it seems to be an aid to inserting and positioning the pin. If not for that purpose, what then?
Regards,
Bill
I’m thinking the supplier of the bells didn’t make the holes, someone at the assembly plant did, and if so likely on the bench with a series of drills.
Dug out with a spoon - to indicate that it looks hand drilled rather than nicely machined with the kind of edges and surfaces you’d find if it had been made at the same time as the machined hole for the seal, bearing, bolts etc.
It isn’t even round.
Sounds like a challenge…
I too can be pedantic. I agree with you that ball bearings seem more appropriate for this application, but the XKs Unlimited product (NLA) that I referred to does indeed call them roller bearings. Balls roll, don’t they…? 
The same catalogue lists a 2-plate 7 1/2" “Competition” clutch (also NLA) that requires the use of this throw-out conversion, so maybe that was the driving force behind it, rather than using it with the stock clutch.
The bell housing of my '68 also features two holes:
The car had less than 40K miles on it when I bought it almost 37 years ago. I changed out the clutch as a matter of routine when I dropped the engine during my first, rolling restoration and believe it was original. Seems to me that extra hole was put in at the factory.
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Ditto…(20 char)
As did my January 69 build date 2+2 and my February 69 build date FHC.