Not sure when the change took place, possibly during the Mark V era.
Sounds like you are missing this beehive spring.
There was also a brass formed washer and a fiber sealing washer.
Peter is correct that the manifold vacuum holds the plunger face closed more or less when you are running with the solenoid power off, although the spring helps.
In fact if you start it with the solenoid off and later switch it on, you have to blip the throttle to decrease manifold vacuum to get the plunger to pull up.
Hey Rob, There were no washers and no spring. Just the plunger by itself, which I thought was odd. The washers are hopefully in the kit Iāve got on order from Burlenā¦which has still not yet shipped. Finding the spring will be more of a challenge. Thanks, George
In Italian it is ācarburatoreā which seems to cover both endings?
Etymology. The word carburetor comes from the French carbure meaning ācarbide.ā āTo carburetā means to combine with carbon. In fuel chemistry, the term specifically means to combine (a gas) with volatile hydrocarbons, to increase available fuel energy.
Karl Benz was the first to file a patent on its design.
I think you could make the spring easy enough.
It is steel wire, 0.020" diameter, pretty stiff like a guitar string, not a paper clip.
A total of 4 wraps or coils. The smallest coil is smaller than the plunger shaft, so it is actually captured at the bottom end of the plunger, wonāt fall off. Each successive coil is larger, the largest being about 7/8" diameter. Free standing length of the spring is about 5/8" tall. Itās a very wimpy spring.
The brass washer is shaped like a cake pan with a dished center and a hole for the plunger, but I think this is only intended to keep the spring centered. It has to fit inside the aperture in the main carb body.
Apparently even when we take a word from French and Latin we canāt seem to agree on spelling.
carburetor (n.)
also carburator, carburettor, device to enhance a gas flame by adding volatile hydrocarbons, 1866, from carburet ācompound of carbon and another substanceā (1795, now displaced by carbide), also used as a verb, āto combine with carbonā (1802); from carb-, combining form of carbon, + -uret, an archaic suffix from Modern Latin -uretum, used in English to parallel French words in -ure. Motor vehicle sense āapparatus for injecting fuel in fine particles into air to prepare it for the cylinderā is from 1896.
The subtleties of the English language, and I am not alluding to Americanisms nor indeed Australianisms re spelling of the devices made by the SU CARBURETTER COMPANY as supplied to, and used by SS Jaguar and post war Jaguars.
The devices made by the SU Carburetter Co, are called CARBURETTERS, so a proper noun as the company chooses to call their devices. Jaguar recognised this, thus in all their technical literature, also referred to these devices as supplied to them by SU as being Carburetters. Thus in the same vein, whenever I refer to specific devices made by SU, I also correctly spell them as being what SU call themā¦
Now if you want to debate the generic spelling of similar devices made by all number of other companies, whether British, American, Italian or whatever, call them whatever you like - use old or current English spelling, or use American spelling, whatever, much the same as many āEnglishā language words have regional spelling variations. But if you are talking about the specific product made by the SU Carburetter Company, as supplied to and used by Jaguar, best to correctly use the companies own name for its product (as Jaguar did) rather than debate the various generic spelling optionsā¦
Fun to see all the variations in use for carbs spelling. The Jaguar Mark V Service Manual has Section C titled āCarburettors and Fuel Systemā and has opening line on page C.6 āTwin S.U. carburettors, incorporating an automatic auxilliary self starting carburettor, are used on both models.ā
True enough, The S.U. Carburetter Co., Ltd. chose to use a different spelling on their products.
My first go-to on english spellings and etymology is the Oxford English Dictionary. The OED entry shows ācarburettor, -etterā which indicates both spellings are in use. A note under that entry also mentions earlier spelling also formerly ācarburatorā.
Websterās Third New International Dictionary lists:
carburator : carburetor
carburetor also carbureter or chiefly Brit carburetter or carburettor
So we may pick among carburator, carbureter, carburetor, carburetter, and carburettor as all common enough to merit authoritative dictionary entries in english usage for the device noun name (different from any Proper Noun nomenclatures).
just a comment, but I can confirm that any issue with sealing the valve against the seat in the ASC may lead to over fuelling
(Have also at least twice found ASC springs or valves deep in the suspension presumably lost by POs)
they drop out when the ASC is taken off, nasty expensive mistake, another ASC costs a bomb and I havent seen the springs advertised alone, but maybe you can get them
not saying the absence off the spring alone would be enough to cause it, I dont know
In my case, the seat had a some scum and a tiny nick,
I replaced the ASC with a used one
On this āPre XKā list, its mostly SUs, and thus all CARBURETTER.
Would need to double check the SSI /SSII possibilities, albeit I note the 1934 optional RAG ALL BRITISH CARBURETTER according to my 1934 Instruction Book insertā¦
Otherwise the 2.4 litre (Mark 1) had a SOLEX CARBURETTOR as introduced in 1955ā¦
And then I guess we then got STOMBERGS initially for USA market only 1968MY E-types (should check the SPC), and later markets V12 E-type and Series 2 XJ6/12, so not sure off hand what spelling/proper-noun they used - getting beyond my period of real interest, albeit I do have all the later Jaguar SPCs/Service Manualsā¦
And of course WEBERs as fitted to C, D and XKSS etc, so some Italian spelling???
Hey Tony, I was thinking the same thing, that gravity and vacuum might not be sufficient to keep the plunger seated. My plunger looked relatively cleanā¦no crud or any other build up on it. I let it soak overnight in the carb cleaner with the rest of the carb bits.
Burlen lists a Thermo Solenoid Assy for 82.46 Pounds, but itās Type II which wouldnāt be compatible with my Type I float bowl. The image only shows the solenoid body, and it doesnāt say whether it comes with the spring or plungerā¦so probably not. They also list a Thermo Spring, but no image, and it doesnāt specify whether its for the plunger or the acelleration needleā¦and theyāre also out of stock. They also list a skid washer for tapered springs, but have no separate listing for the tapered spring. So Iām not exactly sure what they are offering. Guess Iām going to have to call.
Thanks, George
I think the Ebay item Peter has listed is fair value considering what you have already spent (I also checked on Ebay, but didnt find any, used wrong search term)
When driving the vehicle, as opposed to idling, manifold vacuum pressure drops under acceleration, possibly enough to allow the valve to jiggle up & down
A spring from a later unit would also probably work
I have a specialised fastener supplier near to me, a real life saver.
They have a huge range of springs
I found some SS items there that replaced Jet spring, which eventually corrodes at the bottom, causing the Jet to not have the correct adjustment range
unfortunately i doubt they would have one specific to the ASC operation,
it would be interesting to know its exact intended purpose in the minds of the original engineers
Thanks Peter. Mine also has the wrong terminalsā¦but at this point, thatās irrelevant. Function takes precedence. I looked but couldnāt find it on eBay. Could you send me a link or post it and Iāll jump on it? gtcole@peoplepc.com. Thanks again, George
Perhaps eBay is failing to take you there because your settings on the left hand side are showing US only rather than Worldwide. Or possibly you need to sign in to ebay.co.uk rather than ebay.com.
