Jeff , the Jaguar dimension dia states the wheel base as 107 3/8".
Another check is the dimension front face of the front body cross -member to the rear axle center line at 129 7/8".
Peter B.
Anyone experiment or discovery anything new on this? I’ve finally replaced the wheels and tires on my car, and the spats no longer fit. I like the open wheel look, but the rear end needs to come down an inch or so. There’s much space visually, but also when sitting in the car it feels raked. I think it’ll be perfect once it’s a little more level. The rear is new stock leafs and shocks, all superflex poly bushes, and a harvey bailey sway bar.
Nothing new on my side, Theo. When I get to the point of reinstalling the springs I plan on shaving down the poly pad mount that sits on top of the spring as well as adding some spacers to the front mount (to pivot rear of spring up). Could be a while before I get to this point…but that’s my plan.
I like the color of your car and the black wheels look great. I plan on doing the same. Did you paint them or have them powder coated? I’ve been leaning towards latter.
Where did you get your HBE sway bar? I plan on doing this too.
Tom
i advise patience- my car settled more than i expected after a season of driving. i used poly but refurbed old springs.
Thanks Tom.
The wheels came silver painted and I sprayed a single stage black on them with a HVLP gun. It came out really nicely but it was hard to get to some of the awkward places like behind the spokes, leaving some lighter spots where the paint isn’t 100% covered. Powder coating might be better at getting a completely even cover even in the hard to get areas? And the sway bar I bought direct from HBE. I originally bought their front bar but it hit my rack and pinion, returned it and got the rear one instead.
Do you see a handling improvement with the rear bar? So far I’m thinking of leaving rest of suspension stock save for some lowering action. Might replace front springs…but figured I’d start with rear bar and go from there. Curious of your experience. Shocks will be upgraded of course.
Yes, big improvement. I have a thicker front bar from an S type in place of the original skinny Mk2 bar, plus the rear bar. Dramatically improved on body roll, with otherwise stock coils and leafs.
The Mk2 had two sizes of front bars…i believe mine is the thicker of the two at just under an inch. Is the S front bar even thicker than this? Mine is an early '62.
Not sure the specific years. My car is a 65 and the S-type bar that I sourced was noticeably thicker, just under an inch. The HBE bar is 1 inch but the bend on it was not quite right to clear my rack and pinion.
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I think I am right in saying the 240 and the 340 had the thicker ARB on the front !
Theo – I came across your 2016 post on your front end rebuild. Curious if you ended up flipping over the top wishbones? I’ve seen that recommendation as well but not sure what that gains in reality.
On my front end I welded up the subframe mounts so those are solid but replaceable if I ever want to go back to stock. Because of this mid I’ve decided to run stock rubber bushings. I figured the solid subframe mounts would be enough of an improvement.
Tom
I should clarify – flipping the wishbone mounts…not the wishbones themselves
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I didn’t flip the upper mounts. At rest the upper arms are pretty level and I didn’t want to mess with something that isn’t broken. On my old 65 mustang I lowered the upper arm but that one at rest was noticeably tilted downward. How do you like the ride with welded subframes? I love the ride on my car but when I go over bumps the whole subframe sort of rattles and I hate that it makes so much noise.
I’ll let you know when I can actually drive it :-). I purchased the car about 2 1/2 years ago and, while it was running, was not road worthy. I guess I’m giving it a sympathetic restoration at this point. I intend for it to be a driver…so some patina will be retained to make it look purposeful.
My general assessment of the front end design is that the stock subframe mounts introduce too much rubber and flex. This can’t be good for control and responsiveness. I ended up taking the original v-mounts and welded in some 5/8" bar stock instead of the rubber. That was pretty easy. The front mounts are a bit more complicated because I don’t believe the stock tabs for the sandwich mounts can take that kind of load (one of mine was already cracked). I ended up welding up a spacer of sorts that sits on top of and around the front of the subframe. This puts the load directly to the frame/unibody and not through the sandwich mount tabs. I still will use sandwich mounts, but they’ll be purely cosmetic. If I ever decide to go back to stock rubber isolation it’s completely reversible.
Sort of off topic but one of the next things I need to tackle - where do you buy shims? I want to spent a weekend trying to get my caster and camber right. Is there a kit you can buy with different sized shims? I’ve looked at the usual sellers and haven’t found one.
SNG has camber shims. I can’t recall if those are same as caster shims which I didn’t see.