Distributor drive and gear etc

Trying to assemble late VA 3.8 litre XK150 motor and distribtor wont go down far enough to bolt bracket to top of block.
Brass sleeve looks like this


The Xk120 sleeve seems to be shorter? But cant find any difference in part numbers?


This is the Xk120 drive shaft

There were two different bushings and drive shafts. The two on the left are XK150, Mk9, etc and the set on the right are XK120.

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Looks like to me that if you tried to mix the XK120 shaft with the later XK150 bushing the distributor drive would sit too high? But that would also make the oil pump drive too short, so you probably would not be able to fit the drive gear either.

Is the distributor drive offset clocked correctly? That’s the most common cause. Here’s the same shaft and bushing with a distributor drive inserted. If the drive is out 180 degrees, the offset built into the drive dog won’t allow the distributor to drop down.
(The brass bushing and thrust washer are not installed correctly in the photos below)

With caliper, XK150 drive shaft, drive dog end.

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Also check that the grub screw is correctly engaged in the locating hole in the side of the bush.

Terry,

Further to Mike’s excellent explanation, here are the part numbers.
Drive shaft of the XK 120 and the early XK 140 is Jaguar C.2150; the (shorter) Bush had Jaguar number C.2174…
Later XK 140 and (all?) later XKs used Drive shaft C.8646, combined with (longer) Bush.C.8647.

Bob K.

thanks to all who have provided info and pics so I just need the steel shaft as shown in 2 on left.
Does anyone have spare for sale?
terry tmcgrath@bigpond.com

Terry, post in the classifieds section. I’ll check in the garage tomorrow as I think I might have one, but not sure if there is any difference between distributors?