What is the correct ignition wire set

for a june 1963 build, what is the correct spark plug lead wire set design?
-champion bow tie or round spark plug boot?
-red or black fiberboard conduit. they mount on different studs.
sng barratt offers both styles.
tia
ed

Ed

Up until September 1961 - Champion WC548 ‘Dot’ caps

Up until June 1964 - Champion WC548 ‘Oval’ caps

June 1964 onwards - Champion WCX600 ‘Bow-tie’ caps (suppressed)

All cars were eventually fitted with the WCX suppressed plug caps (bow tie design by then) as witnessed by the Nov 1965 J37 parts catalogue.

Reproductions of the WC548 are available from Steadyfast Cycles: https://steadfastcycles.com/collections/spark-plug-and-wire and they provide a prompt service. Ignore the photo of the cap suggesting it is half gold, it is all black.

Conduit #C2451 (the red one) was carried over from the XK150S and fitted to all E-Type’s up until April 1964. Page B26 of the Service Manual illustrates it. It attached to studs 3 and 6.
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The conduit was again changed in August 1964 to allow the fitting of the engine lifting hoops from engine no. RA 7324 onwards. The conduit was made of Vulcanised Fibre and was usually brick red or black in colour depending on what was available. It seems Jaguar painted the red ones black but the material is not porous so the paint literally fell off over time leaving them red. When we asked SNGB to produce the early conduit we decided to go with red and that gave owners the opportunity to paint them black if they wanted. Personally I like the red and that is the way it is on my concours grade FHC.

So for your car oval caps, and the ‘red’ C2451 conduit.

You can find everything we know on these subjects in the Factory Fit Forum here:
Conduit: http://forum.etypeuk.com/viewtopic.php?p=59237#p59237
Plug caps: http://forum.etypeuk.com/viewtopic.php?p=34661#p34661

And don’t even start on coils - so complicated! Again all in the Factory fit thread.

David

3 Likes

Wow. Not just an answer but a ‘when’, ‘why’ & ‘what else’.

David, I read your replies with great interest even when they do not apply to my car - much as I read popular science that has no direct application to my life. Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge.

thanks david
on the blue car in the factory fit thread, the conduit is attached to stud 3 and 5 not 3 and 6. which is correct for june 63 build?

see pic


also. red over painted black means the rivets would also be black whereas on a black conduit the rivets would be silver? correct?

The blue FHC has a later conduit (I need to change the reference!). The early conduit fits on studs 3 and 6 counting from the front, or 2 and 5 counting from the rear. When the front lifting eye was fitted they moved one conduit bracket inwards to 5 (or 3 depending on how you count it).

The red Fibre sheets were painted before being riveted. So rivets on both seam and brackets would have been silver. The mix of red and black Vulcanised fibre was dependant of what the supplier had available and there is no logic to the colour fitted. Red is seen on the later conduits through S2 production. All the red ones were painted black though for no other reason than to avoid customer/Service Centre confusion…

David

david
for june 63, which conduit should be ordered, black or red?
my car is neither early nor late.

You need the C2451 (red) conduit recently produced by SNGB based on an original pattern with the correct shape brackets. https://www.sngbarratt.com/us/#!/English/parts/6d542963-af06-42b6-9179-ddf6150c2d3b

They did a superb job thanks to Tadek and other XK owners who supplied detailed drawings of originals and, ultimately, donated a red original to copy so there could be no doubt. When you compare it to the later C23608/C24126 (black) reproduction you will see what I mean.

To be Factory original you will need to paint it black so mask off the rivets. Note they did a quick ‘flash’ paint job using a cheap matt black paint with no undercoat as witnessed by the fact the inside of the conduits are still red and the paint falls off very quickly especially as Vulcanised Fibre is non stick and impervious to most chemicals…

David

are the wires gathered together at the front with a 6” long plastic sleeve or with the round wire organizer as shown in the above picture?

Plastic sleeve with HT leads then going into the elongated rubber grommet secured with a bracket to front of engine. More info here: http://forum.etypeuk.com/viewtopic.php?p=69517#p69517

David

This is a little off topic, but does anyone know when Jaguar first used the red conduit? Was it ever used on the XK 140?

The C2451 (red) conduit was used from the XK120 onwards until the end of XK production, and then on the E-Type’s until 1964…

David