I have a Jag Mk2 for which I made a home brew rack and pinion conversion back in the 00s My friend managed an old school auto parts store and ordered various racks (Beck/Arnley) until we found one that would work. Unfortunately, I now don’t remember/know the Beck/Arnley product number I installed and need to replace the tie rod ends. I know the rack is for an XJ series and that it has SAE (fine thread) fittings, i.e., it is not metric. Can someone advise in what years Jag used this rack before they went with metric fittings?
My friends store has been replaced by the auto chains and all they know is how to look up something in a computer.
The fine thread tie rods were used on the XJ6/12 and XJS up until around 1982 when they switched to metric. Both will fit on your rack. You will just need to get metric tie rod ends for the later tie rods. The early style are adjustable for free play with shims. The MK2 usually requires the tie rods and/or ends to be shorter to fit. Either style can be cut down.
Just as a footnote…the earliest racks had “tall towers” housing the pinion and the hydraulic lines entered from the rear. Later racks had “short towers” to clear the USA-mandated CATS and their hydraulic lines entered from the front. Not sure which is more suited to the Mark 2 or if it makes any difference. But if the tower is “tall” the tie rods are Imperial.
Also, the metric tie rods had flats on them to accept an end wrench to keep them from rotating whilst tightening the tie rod end nuts. The Imperial tie rods lacked that flat. IMHO.
Thank you all. And Dick, it scared the heck out of me when I first had to cut down those tie rods, kept thinking about some firer crash. But just disassembled the front end and everything was fine. Total cost of the conversion was about $450.00 including a fabricated bracket.
george
common mistake people make when designing a foolproof system is to underestimate the ingenuity of fools
Robert is right, the tall towers racks don’t have flats at the tie rod ends and must be held in place with different means.
Beck Arnley must have bee a supplier of replacement parts though. Original Jaguar XJs came with racks supplied by Adwest (till 1974) and then by Alford and Alder. Over the course of time substitute racks were supplied by ZF. Only after 1994 ZF supplied its own construction racks that were built into the last XJS cars, but seem to drop into XJs and - as such - might also work with MkIIs, if original XJ racks are compatible.