54 years of Mark V ownership, and I have to confess my ignorance on a point.
I consulted the Spare Parts Catalogue, the Service Manual, and even the lowly and oft overlooked Operating & Maintenance Handbook. None of those worthy publications address these questions.
Perhaps Pekka and Slawek can help me out.
Does the DHC have outside key lockable handles on BOTH sides?
Can you lock the doors from the inside?
Hi,
Unlike the earlier MKIV and SS Jaguar dropheads the MKV drophead does have a lock barrel on both sides and the lock is not lockable nor openable from the inside at all. The lock barrel pushes a rectangular metal piece into a slot inside the chrome trim piece on the outside of each door, thus making it impossible to turn the door handle in any direction without first unlocking the lock inside the door handle.
Cheers!
Ps. I can send pics later, if you like?
My Mark 4 doc has key locking for both doors, and you can’t lock either from the inside. I have no proof that this is original.
Thanks Mike, Pekka, and Dennis. That answers my question.
Dennis, I think yours is original.
It is thus similar to the XK120 FHC, as I had a feeling some of the internal latching parts were the same. Though the outside handles on my FHC are a different shape, they both lock on the outside with a key, but not the inside.
Mike, I have a LHD saloon like yours, 627933, and you have also addressed a peculiarity about mine. The outside lock was on the right front, which I always thought was inconvenient for a LHD car. It has the inside locking latch on the LF. I had previously assumed it was an error on the assembly line.
So if yours is the same, that likely means they hadn’t thought far enough in advance about making LHD cars, and maybe hadn’t ordered any LF locking handles and RF internal locking latches from their supplier Wilmot Breeden. I wonder if and when they got in some LHD parts? Yours is a very early car, where mine is body G6468, about halfway down the production run.
There are numerous additions on the door lock topic in the 1958 revised Spare Parts Catalogue which are not present in the 1949 edition. The 1958 revision shows the drophead coupe with door locks on both doors. See pages 107 and 108 describing the locking elements for right and left doors, e.g. BD.1834 Barrel for Handle (“FNR” Series Keys)(WB.H.397B) No. per Unit 2.
The 1958 revised Spare Parts Catalogue shows the Mark V saloon front doors on lock elements on page 65B where it indicates without saying right hand or left hand but rather:
BD.2224 Handle, Outside (Non-Locking) (Passenger’s side) No. per Unit 1
BD.2225 Handle, Outside (Locking) (Driver’s side) No. per Unit 1
Page 66 shows which lock to order for LHD or RHD, for example:
BD.4611 LOCK FOR L.H. FRONT DOOR (L.H. DRIVE CARS ONLY) No. per Unit 1
My LHD saloon 628166 has the door lock on the left hand side (driver’s side).
Thanks Roger.
I have the '58 SPC, and the '49 SPC has the same.
Left and right handles would have been correct, and made more sense, as they are certainly different and can’t be used on the other side of the car.
But it would seem that the SPC writer was not clued in that there were now LHD cars, and that the driver’s side was sometimes on the left.
Notice it calls out B2851 push button (2), and the same B2851 for the rear doors.
No mention of a button for a lock barrel.
The way I interpret the SPCs is that if you ordered a passenger’s or driver’s handle, you would get just the handle, not the push button.
There should be a button for the B3038 locking barrel, but it seems to be missing.
Mark VII has outside handles BD4865 locking and BD4866 non-locking, but does not mention left and right or driver/passenger. Maybe they are interchangeable? It has locking and non-locking outside thumb buttons BD6201 & 6238.
Hi Denis,
Perhaps it was always a DHC thing?
Peter
Hi Peter, yes I do think that all Mark 4 dropheads have key locking for both doors, but I don’t know if pre-war dhcs are the same.
From the SPC, it looks like they are the same.
BD7 handle with key is for offside front on the saloon, but 2 required on the DHC.
Looking at this I just realized the other 3 handles BD8,9,&10 on my '38 saloon are not the same.
I sent them off for chrome plating, hope I can figure out which is which when they come back.
For the saloons, the '58 SPC also has additions, page 66, not found in the '49 which indicate for LHD cars:
BD.4613 Handle, Outside (Locking) for L.H. Door No. per Unit 1
BD.4614 Handle, Outside (Non-Locking) for R.H. Door No. per Unit 1
Perhaps the BD.4613 contains the button which appears otherwise missing as you point out from the '49 SPC.
Are you considering adding the lock to the left side?
Have already done so. Moving the outside button was easy. The trick was finding the internally lockable parts for the RF. A forum member provided.
Thanks Roger, I guess the SPC writer finally caught it, although it supposedly started with 627901 and mine is 627933.
You have to wonder about whoever it was, with inserted pages 65A & 65B. But then they didn’t have Word Processors, it was all typesetting.
Hi all,
So if I have understood this correctly there is a difference, as earlier SS Jaguar and MKIV DHC’s only had the locking barrel on the RH side door handle, I have a. MKIV DHC door handle without any hole for the lock.
BUT AFAIK on all MKV DHC’s both door handles had a lock barrel. Now I am not sure if this was just due to the change in design of the doors with the new NDV’s (Non-Draft Ventilators) for the MKV version of the DHC or just the idea that the lock really shoul lock the door so it can not be opened without a key.
Anyways here are a few pics of the locks of the doors on my 1950 DHC #647194.
Cheers!
The locks themselves do not have ANY method of locking, the locking occurs by the small rectangular piece inside the door handle entering a slot in the outer chrome trim on each door. Once it is locked by turning the lock barrel in the door handle, that handle and door lock can not be turned in any direction before the locking barrel is again turned 180 degrees with the key.
I think that your handle without hole is for a Mark IV or SS saloon, not DHC.
Hi,
Perfectly possible, did the MKIV / SS Jaguar DHC have a different handle then?
I know that my engine #SL2199 is from a LHD MKIV Saloon. Most likely from #630029 or there about, mid 1947.
I used that handle, as you can see in the pics during the assembly and testing of the new door frames.
Cheers!
My understanding, and as always subject to correction by anyone more knowledgeable here, is that all DHCs had two like this.
where all saloons had one lockable like that above, and three like these.
Hi,
Ok, but so, do you know how the locking in the SS / MKIV DHC works? I haven’t seen one apart so I can’t tell, I know the MKV DHC chrome strip is wider and bigger than the MKIV DHC chrome strip, but it would be logical it has the same cumbersome setup. 
Cheers"
An interesting question. I don’t have a DHC lock mechanism, but here is one out of my 120FHC, and I think its the same, which is where this thread started.
There are two linkages, upper operated from the outside, and lower operated from the inside. They both simply work the latching dog in and out, they don’t do anything else. The security locking feature is done inside the locking outer handle, by a dog inside it that slides out, acting against an outer chrome fixed part, preventing the handle from turning.
With the 120FHC the outer fixed part is a flange with 2 screws.
With the MkV DHC the outer fixed part is the chrome molding strip.
I imagine it is the same with the Mark IV DHC.
Same with the SS saloon RF door, the locking outside handle has the sliding dog which catches the chrome molding.
The mechanism inside the saloon RF door has a stop pin to prevent it being locked from the inside.
The other 3 doors have a rotating catch that locks them from the inside when you turn the handle the other way.
