XK 120 brake line routing

It seems I can’t raise the links to pictures when searching for pictures for the routing of 1954 ots brake line routing. Does anyone have current links or pictures of brake lines?

First, is it LHD or RHD?

This is a left drive steering wheel

Hi Ed,
This is a coincidence I am looking for the same thing. I have a LHD drive coupe with a single cylinder master cylinder. If anyone has a pic looking down on the master from above it would help immensely. Also maybe a pic of the brake line as it goes by the chassis.
Many thanks
Wes Keyes
York, Maine

Well, Bernard Viart’s book has excellent drawings, but it shows single and tandem rear lines on different sides of the chassis going to the rear axle. I thought the rear line was always on the inboard side of the right hand rail for all cars, with a brass tee on the right hand side of the rear axle. It is that way on my single system car. Anybody know if that’s true for the LHD tandem system?

I was hoping somebody with their body off would have better pictures than my unrestored car, though I believe it to be all original. Anyway, here is how mine is.
Near the front of the chassis on the inboard sides are two brackets with brass tees attached.
Left side:


Right side:

There is a line from the front of the master cylinder to the left tee.

There is a line running across the front of the chassis below the radiator connecting the two tees.
Each tee has a line running up to a bracket where the hose to each front wheel connects. Here is the right hand line just to the rear of the steering idler.

From the right hand tee is a line running up and over the chassis and down along the outboard side of the chassis under the unused bracket for a RHD master cylinder.

There is a union connecting the front and rear lines.
Aft of the fuel pump there is a hole where the line passes through to the inboard side of the right hand chassis rail, along with the fuel line.

The rear line continues along the inboard side and up the dogleg to a bracket where the rear hose is attached. This picture is of my Mark V but the 120 is the same idea.
PICT0111
The rear hose connects to a brass tee on the rear axle.

Two lines from the tee connect to the rear wheel cylinders.

Answering my own question, on Tadek’s LHD tandem car I can see the rear line running from the master cylinder up over the chassis and along the outboard left hand side to the hole aft of the cross member where there is a union, then going through to the inboard left hand side, then on back and up the dogleg to a bracket and hose going to a tee bracket on the left side of the rear axle (symmetrical to mine). On tandem cars they put tee brackets on both sides of the rear axle so it could be used for RHD or LHD.
Also on LHD tandem cars there would be no need for a tee at the right front, and on RHD tandem cars there would be no need for a tee at the left front.
So in summary, there are four different configurations for XK120 brake line routing.
LHD single system
RHD single system
LHD tandem system
RHD tandem system

Thanks Rob,
That makes it clearer to me. Mine is a LHD single system coupe. My line to the rear from the master is on the left side chassis rail. So unlike the pictures posted.

Wes

As I recall, yours had been converted from a tandem system, so that would make sense that the person who did the conversion would not have bothered to change the pipes over. I suppose they just put a tee on the front of the master cylinder?

I found some pix of LHD tandem cars.


IMGP7042
IMGP7041
IMGP7037
IMGP7191
IMGP7345

IMGP7405

Hi Bob,
Something on my car must not be original I agree. The funny thing is the bolt holes in the chassis line up perfectly with a single system master cylinder. When I got the car it had a single master however there were two ferrule type fittings instead of the usual male fitting on the end of the pipes going to the front and the rear. I don’t recall the way they fitted it but your right they must have made a Y somewhere. So everything point to my car being dual originally except the fact the holes in the chassis fit a single master. Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Wes Keyes
York, Maine

Here’s a pic of the front cross member. You can see a hole… there is a clip for the hard line at the center (line’s been removed).

Mitch, thanks for that pic, I have the same clip there. XKs and others have those, and they are installed by twisting.
BTW those other two holes were used when that cross member was a flat sheet, for setting it in the forming die set when it was bent into a channel shape.

Wes, always interesting to try to figure out these cars.
Possibly your bracket was changed, or the guy at the Rubery Owen factory welded on the wrong one and nobody caught it until the guy at the Jaguar factory went to install the master cylinder and went “hey wha??”

Here is a single system bracket.


I see I am missing one of those clips.

Here is a tandem system bracket.
IMGP7333
These are for RHD but the LHD brackets will have the same difference in hole spacing.

And now for some more fun Jaguar archaeology.
My 120 has this little bracket on the left hand side, but not the right.


What is it, you ask? On a Mark V these brackets are where the brass tees are attached.


Why is it on my 120? Maybe it was that same careless guy at Rubery Owen. Guesses welcome.

The brake lines are well exposed on my project so I’ve just now taken this video. Note that none of the clips securing the lines to the frame are in place yet.

Rob:

Yep, got the same bracket on mine just on the LH side. No ideas as to why I’m afraid.

Chris.

And Nick does not have it, although he has the later round type front engine mount which occupies the same space.
I see Viart has drawn it on both sides in all his chassis drawings, so for some reason he was aware of it.
It would only make sense if the front hoses were to the rear of the suspension as they are on Mark V, but my 120 has the hoses in front of the suspension.
Mine is 679187.
Is it on any other early cars with the rectangular front mounts?
That would be up to 660993, 672481, 679815.

I want to thank Nick Santarelli for the great film clip–it solved a lot of questions I have. One more question though-where is the brake light switch located on your system, does it go into the top of the master cylinder?Also, does anyone have a crossmember mounting plate that the rear mounts fasten onto? Seems that after 50 years of storage mine comes up missing. Thanks again Nick, Ed Cornwell

1 Like

Hey Ed. The brake light switch In the later XK120 is screwed into the front end of the tandem master cylinder, thus

image

It’s the same hydraulic switch used in many models, including my E-type. They’re notorious once in service for many years for either not working at all or for a delay closing their electrical contacts, in the latter instance causing the brake lights to come on a second or two after the brake pedal is depressed. Even newer switches have the same issue. Best to gang a redundant mechanical switch in a parallel circuit actuated by the brake pedal lever itself.

Thanks again for the info. i took this thing apart over 30 years ago and it seems the memory is starting to fail me as to how to put together again. The engine is almost complete, jus have to put damper on front, water pump and carbs. Putting it on the frame is another challenge. Maybe you can be my expert from afar. I have the transmission mounts, but I seem to be missing a piece that the mounts fasten onto that goes between the crossmember and transmission housing where the rear seal is located. Holes in housing are in horizontal position while mounting part on front of crossmember has two angled pieces (lookss to be angled at about 30 degrees) What am I missing? Ed

Hi Ed. You are missing this C4308 angled piece of sheet metal.
C4308 carrier bracket
This was also used on some Mark V models.

Ed, if you can’t find it or don’t have one, start another thread. Someone has got to have it in a box under their bench. This is something that can be made, but I’d wait and haunt eBay for a while.

See Rob’s pic above. I’ve measured up the piece and it would be a fairly straightforward job to fab it out of 1/8” x 2.5” steel plate sourced at your local metal supermarket. Here’s a sketch - centimetres unless otherwise indicated:

I don’t think the 5/8" hole in the middle is necessary, except maybe for water drainage. there’s a bevel on the underside of the two 7/16" holes the spindle mounts bolt into - I don’t think the bevel is necessary either.

What did you do about the front crankshaft seal? Currently my rebuild holdup.