No. It could have been a stuck exhaust valve that snapped or it could have been the cylinder wall in cyl. nr 4 collapsing into a water channel.
The block had been seriously overbored in the US, original piston size was 82mm. When I got the car it had XK (83mm) high compression +0.040 oversize pistons.
Now it has new XK (83mm) STD pistons together with top hat Mahle steel liners.
As forensic evidence I did find what appears to be a seriously deformed valve dish inside the water channel of the block.
Cheers!
PS. There is a looooong thread about that engine rebuild, this thread is about the steering.
That snap ring on the steering wheel is also used on XK120.
Iâm following this thread with great interest. Curious to know how it is getting the steering column out of the car.
Sorry all of you who are waiting, I have the box loose, but not out of the car, just yet!
As the factory ROM says, the steering (on LHD) has to be turned all the way right to be able to clear the body and the arm can not be removed with the box in the car, I mean I tried!
My biggest problem are the non-original wiring which is very much in the way.
The upper wishbone bolt holding the box came out ok, has original red paint treatment. Did you, Rob have a good substitute for that stuff? (Might as well touch up things a bit while Iâm there.)
But also as the ROM says, the driverâs seat has to be removed, so maybe Iâll do that tomorrow.
We are of the opinion that it was a marker to indicate ANF threads, so they wouldnât get mixed with BSF, as they were just coming into the factory in late 1948 and first used on IFS and other chassis and XK engine fasteners. Black BSF fasteners continued for awhile on the pushrod engine, XK and saloon bodies, gearboxes and rear axles.
Not so much mention on pre-xk as the only model to have them is Mark V.
It is a very thinned out paint, almost a wash. Itâs even down in the roots of the threads.
I chose to spray mine with red enamel in aerosol cans from Home Depot, just the heads and outside of the nuts. I stuff a bit of tissue inside the nuts to keep the paint out.
The bad I sorta knew already, once taken apart I could see that bits of the broken upper bearing race and some balls had been loose inside the bottom of the steering box for many YEARS.
The good is that the worm and those balls and all important parts are fine. So just clean and do a normal rebuild.
Ps. And for future reference, this would be much easier for RHD. The worst would be an early LHD car with the early heater. On mine I still had to take the carbs and generator and driverâs seat out. But not the bonnet (although ROM suggested that) loosening the LH side radiator support bar gave enough clearance to allow lifting the steering box with steering column out of the car.
Great info: thanks. In Voorschoten, near The Hague, there is this ship that only does Moss boxes and Burman steerings. Thry say its the most frequent failure. Any idea how to test the state of our bearings without dismantling?
Well done. Iâm curious to know where those balls and other bits came from.
Was it pieces off the main nut and recirculating balls in the main nut or the bearings on the shaft ends?
Apparently the rear (upper) bearing outer race had split and slowly broken to pieces. Looks like it may have been this way for 20-30 years, Iâve owned the car for over 21 years now.
Cheers!
PS. I should be able to separate these, right? This is the front bearing mounting plate and the inner tube for the manette wiring.
If part G stator tube clip is off, the stator tube should pull out. There is an o-ring seal in there (not shown on the drawing) which may be holding it.
So ball race T broke apart? Then the balls would drop out.
That face looks pretty chewed up. But it should clean up with a file. No balls should touch it when you are done.
A failure like this can be caused by an overtightened bearing. Overtightening on a double ball race set up like this cannot easily be detected in operation as the rolling balls donât present much extra resistance. Iâd suggest replacing both irrespective of the condition of the other. The items titled âwasherâ are the other half of the race and are a case-hardened ring and should also be replaced. I expect replacements come as a complete assembly.
Right, then there are the packing rings, letters J and U in the above drawing, and also a number of metal adjustment shims, letter I. Itâs been a long time since I did this job, but I think the shims were steel, like maybe .005" thick? And of course paper gaskets, and a lip seal on the bottom shaft. All these should be the same as for XK120.
I used grease to hold the balls in place while I assembled the thing.
I have the end play shims I, I think two of them, but the bearing packing shims / rings J & T were either missing or broken into pieces. Once I have cleaned the box I will try to figure out what âs missing and whatâ broken. I ordered a complete rebuild kit from the usuals, it will take aboit two weeks to get one.
Next Sunday I will be in Malvern for the Int. Jaguar Spares Day.
Well the service/repair kit arrived, it looks fine, also appears I was lucky and avoided any damage to the worm and ball cage etc. The races and balls seem to be the correct size.
Lets see how this goes if I can get it all back together.
Not done yet, I want to tidy up the column and box a bit, but all the mechanucal moving bits are back and it seems to operate fine.
BUT donât do as I did, do as I say:
Check the orientation, as apparently it is possible to put it back together 180 degrees the wrong way! So I had a long Thursday evening doing it all twice!
Cheers!
In this 1st pic itâs working fine, but the arm is on the wrong side!
Not yet, I will have to get the box out of the car and take it apart on a bench. I will get back once I am that far.
So I had a long Thursday evening doing it all twice!
