I already post in the XJS forum and had great advices from members.
Now I have an XK 140 OTS in the stable and some questions (newbie questions) on the car.
So, if you can help me, it will be great
1°) the dashboard is fitted with leather, correct ?
2°) it’s a good idea to put the SU 8 carburetors with this engine ? what are the modifications that must be done with the throttle linkage ? there is a drawing somewhere on that point ?
3°) I am looking for the correct part for the brake backplate. There is another plate against the brake back plate. This plate is fitted with a seal.
I give you a picture of the wrong part I have, and looking for the correct one. Look the plate with the seal is not matching with the brake back plate.
Jean;
What is suppose to be wrong with your current Bearing Plate??
You DO know there are five holes in the bearing plate and five in the Brake Backing Plate…
AND all one has to do is “rotate” the Bearing Plate around unto ALL the holes line-up… This
plate actually ONLY goes on one way… I do not recall if there is a difference between left and right… but there might be
I just refitted all the bits and pieces on my '53 XK120’s Salisbury Differential… AFTER Forty-Six Years!! Had no issues at all except the PO (first owner) allowed the use of a “replacement” rubber-type seal which “cut a groove” in my hub… a “Speedie-Sleeve” corrected that problem… That said, I STRONGLY recommend one ONLY use the original style LEATHER SEALS in all areas, as required, in in, on and around the differential AND in the gearbox!! (soak new leather seals in Neatsfoot Oil before installing… I soaked my new leather seals for about a month before installing them!!
Charles Ch #677556.
Can you explain why you recommend only leather seals? I was under the impression that leather seals had a greater tendency to trap dust and dirt between the seal and shaft causing wear and that rubber seals were therefore preferable. Is this wrong?
That is the advice I was give by Guy Broad’s. They told me the leather seals could get contaminated with dirt, grit etc and exacerbate wear on shafts. After all (they said) Jaguar moved to rubber lip-type seals once the technology was available. On the flip side, having just changed the ENV diff, plus seals and bearings, there was no appreciable shaft wear fom the old leather seals.
Q1. Yes. All XK140 OTS had leather over timber for the instrument panel and leather over aluminium for either side of the instruments.
Q2. You presumably mean H8 sandcast 2 inch carburettors. If you want to show your car, park it, and have onlookers saying wow then maybe you can put up with all the down side of H8s. If you want to drive your car socially and touring and spirited country driving it’s far best to stay with standard H6 1-3/4" carburetters.
When I was with International Harvester designing crawler tractors, we did an engineering study of various rubber lip seals for the track rollers. Crawler tractors see the worst environments (dirt, sand, gravel, rocks, swamps) and get the least maintenance of any tracked vehicle, so we wanted to improve the life of the rollers. We chose a double lip seal from one of the major seal producers, I think it was CRI.
Geoff;
As to why I “recommend” using only leather seals… My statement in my previous post: of “the PO
(first owner) allowed the use of a “replacement” rubber-type seal which “cut a groove” in my hub…” to be rather self-explanatory!! I followed-up this statement of fact with: "The “other hub” retained a leather seal that, oddly enough, was still soft enough to rub against the axle. My differential had remained assembled until 2018/19… I do not recall seeing any “dust and dirt” in fact, the surface where the leather had rubbed against barely had surface rust.
So, your impression “that leather seals had a greater tendency to trap dust and dirt between the seal and shaft causing wear and that rubber seals were therefore preferable.” would be considered, by myself and probably others, as being incorrect!
Charles Ch #677556
Thanks for the reply Charles. I have one further question. Are you sure that the groove in the shaft was worn by the lip seal or is it possible that the groove was worn by the original leather seal and the lip seal installed by PO was his/her attempt to rectify the resultant oil leak. To be clear my questions are intended to try to get an opinion from a broad range of listers not to disagree with your conclusion.
Geoff;
On being 100% positive that the “groove” was worn by the neoprene lip seal verses the leather seal… YES!! The “give-a-way” was the Neoprene seal AND the groove cut by same was about a eighth inch wide… The Leather Seal is a half inch wide!! Very noticeable difference! (the other axle, that had the leather seal, the “sealing area” was “polished”… tho it had a little rust due to sitting for decades)
On the PO trying to rectify anything… I seriously doubt it… he was NOT any form of a “do-it-yourselfer”… As I noted, the PO was also the first owner of the DHC. I bought the DHC in May '67, I became a professional mechanic a year later at the Datsun dealership located next door to the Jaguar dealership. As I drove my Jag to work, one of the Jag mechanics noted that he “always worked on that car” when it came into the Jag dealership… Sorry to say, he wasn’t much of a mechanic… When I was tasked with replacing a front or rear wheel seal, our shop policy (and common sense) dictated that we replace BOTH wheel seals… NOT just one!! (They both have the same age and miles on them!
Charles Ch #677556.
