I managed to get new 5/16 nuts on top of the old captives. It was a reeeeeal fiddle. When the plate comes off again ( it will 'cos the hot oil from the many engine leaks trashes the spring and spigot rubber bushes) I’ll maybe drill and tap for 3/8.
Maybe.
Hey… wotevah works!
Just put studs in and mig spot the top to hold it or lock it up with your nuts or Helicoil
You’ll probably never do it again anyway
What crappy day…… refitted the reaction plate today 4 1/2 hours….agh
I thought I’d been clever by using pins and one bolt on each ear of the torsion bars and had them all under tension before I fitted the engine ….all I needed to do was remove the pins and replace with bolts and bingo………the biggest issue was getting the pins out ……couldn’t get them to move at all under tension…. I gave up and released the front suspension ……lessons learned ….don’t take short cuts or try to be ahead of the game
Managed to get a new center bolt into the gearbox cross member mount. It was accessible just front of the heat shield, managed to sqeeze a 3/8 socket & drive between the 2 silencers.
Also (not today but over the last few weeks) stripped & repainted the bulkead & sill area & parts of the frame affected by brake fluid damage. Repaired the clutch reservoir outlet spout with JB Weld which cracked while removing the pipe, and fitted new imported epdm rubber pipes. All seems leak free now. Also fitted the locking wire to the radius arm mounting bolts, which I hadn’t done before because I mislaid the bolts with holes through for the wires.
Whilst rebuilding the rear axle, I reused the inner fulcrum bearings, Torrington, and the inner fulcrum bushes as the car has only done about 1000 miles of mainly A class and motorway plus some dyno use which might have placed shock loads on the bearings when going up and down the gears.
On one of the bushes I noticed brinnelling or perhaps false brinnelling, which leaves the bush with small indentations of the needle rollers embedded in the surface of the bush despite copious amounts of grease.
Given the very low mileage of the car I was surprised.
Anyone got a suggestion to prevent reoccurrence.
There have been discussions here on the forum on this topic before. As I recall, the conclusion was that the bearing tubes that the needle bearings bear on that are available from the usual suppliers are not properly hardened to take the loads. Here is one of teh threads that gives details of the required hardness and measurements taken of the available replacement parts:
Some vendor(s) offer bronze(?) bushing replacements for the needle bearings, which some here have used - another “upgraded” part, that may or may not be an improvement…
I have seen discussion on phosphor bronze bushes, but given the false brinnelling on what is some form of hardened steel I can’t believe phosphor bronze would stand up to the task anywhere near as well.
It seems that the bushings are no longer available anyway - I couldn’t find them at all on the SNGB, Welsh or Moss web sites, and found this on Terry’s:
What did I do to my E-Type today? Fixed my wipers that had never worked as long as I have owned the car, which is a long time. Bad video I know but it’s only for documentation 
Brought home my “Holy Grail” of Jaguar parts.
LoL! You have a pair of those @Wiggles ?
I love the 3.07 in my OTS- let us know how the 2.88 works for you once installed!
@Jeff_Schroeder – didn’t you tell me you have a stockpile of XJS pumpkins?
Do you have 2.88:1’s or 3.07’s??
Whilst waiting for muscles to arrive to help me get the back axle off the workbench I started the fia conversion on the front right hand suspension and brakes, note the old school spanner extension….
Tom
I guarantee that you won’t regret the change …… I have 2.88 in my 64 coupe ……loverly especially on along trip….long legs ….around town …just as good
My car came with the3.54 and I quickly changed it to the 3.07. Much better and I’ve often wished I’d changed it to the 2.88, plenty of torque to handle that ratio. And my car is a 2+2 so no GP stuff required.
Les I’m really sorry I sold my first 2+2 ….a gentleman’s driver ….ironic really given the +2 aspect! …I have secreted away a gearbox with O/D ……that maybe one day will end up in a 2+2 ……
T’would be only E Type I’d buy, were I so inclined.
An old school mechanic taught me that 
I changed mine from 3.54 to 2.88 and it makes a big difference - 70 mph is now c. 2700 rpm - good for long distance cruising and gives a ( theoretical ) top speed of around 140-145 mph which is about right ( not that I expect to be doing that sort of speed ). I also get 28 mpg 
The only downside is you have to give it a few more revs and slip the clutch a bit , especially if starting on a hill .
