Recently & a few other times before, there were questions re. the clutch
release bearing when converting ones 10" clutch to the 9 1/2" clutch used in
the 4.2L XKE. No one has produced photos comparing the 2 & I recently had
the opportunity to do so because of a purchase I made on e-bay from someone
who didn’t know their a… from their elbow. It was advertised as fitting
the late 150 & XKE. When I received it, it was identical to my old one, so I
thought I was good. Then Mike Sp. or some other Lister who had done the
conversion, mentioned that the bearing was larger than the 150 type. I then
ordered the bearing from Bill Bassett for the 4.2L clutch & got the same one
I already had, what the h…! now I have 2 of the same wrong bearing. I
sent one back to Bill & he told me it was boxed wrong & ordered the correct
one, which is pictured below.
Sorry for the winded explanation but I hope it clears it up.
An interesting, instructive - and in the end terrifying -
experience.
But because of grace/circumstances, it sounds like you might have
installed the wrong part and then faced costly and time consuming
detective work and repairs - and it is no consolation that the
eBayer and a generally knowledgeable and trusted XK supplier both
failed you about equally.
I wish I could draw a lesson from this perplexing occurrence, but
am unable to do so. All the usual platitudes ; i.e., ‘‘you get what
you pay for’’, etc, fail.
About all I can generalize is that from my shade tree days, I
learned to ALWAYS take the old part off the car and to the parts
store and compare before you buy and NEVER accept a parts box that
was not opened for the first time in your presence. But when you
cannot hold the old one up to the new one for comparison, what do
you do ?
In reply to a message from karl sent Sat 27 Jun 2009:
Unfortunately, he could not take the old part to the parts shop as
the old part would not be correct. I did the conversion on my 120
& recognize the longer release bearing from the 4.2 on the right of
his image.
In the end, the conversion is well worth the effort. Less clutch
pedal effort (for our aging left legs) and much more clutch ‘‘bite’’
for our surprisingly un-aged sporting ego. And it is significantly
lighter than the stock spring pressure plate.
Do the sump and front cover of a late XK120 3.4L engine have enough
material to machine out to accommodate the seal used for the XK140 from
engine G.1908 on instead of the original rope seal? Do any of you have
the diameter of that later bore handy? The reason I ask is that
Gussie’s front rope seal leaks like a sieve (at best) and since I’m
doing some engine work (don’t ask) thought I might take the opportunity
to solve that problem. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Bill Rooklidge
1950 XK120 OTS “Gussie”
1952 XK120 OTS “Tuppy”
1953 XK120 FHC “Bertram”
1953 XK120 FHC “Stilton”
Laguna Beach, California USA
Bill,
On my 120 fhc I just took the oil pan and timing case cover to the
machine shop and the machined the two parts to fit the new seal they had no
problems running out of material.
Bob L.----- Original Message -----
From: “Rooklidge” rooklidge@verizon.net
To: xk@jag-lovers.org
Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 10:26 PM
Subject: [xk] 3.4L Engine Question
Do the sump and front cover of a late XK120 3.4L engine have enough
material to machine out to accommodate the seal used for the XK140 from
engine G.1908 on instead of the original rope seal? Do any of you have
the diameter of that later bore handy? The reason I ask is that Gussie’s
front rope seal leaks like a sieve (at best) and since I’m doing some
engine work (don’t ask) thought I might take the opportunity to solve that
problem. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Bill Rooklidge
1950 XK120 OTS “Gussie”
1952 XK120 OTS “Tuppy”
1953 XK120 FHC “Bertram”
1953 XK120 FHC “Stilton”
Laguna Beach, California USA
Looking for piston make and sourcing recommendations for 3.4L XK120
engine. Nothing sporty, just a driver, so I assume 8:1, and the bore is
standard. Both JE and Venolia are local here for me.
Bill Rooklidge
1950 XK120 OTS “Gussie”
1952 XK120 OTS “Tuppy”
1953 XK120 FHC “Bertram”
1953 XK120 FHC “Stilton”
Laguna Beach, California USA
My mother always told me if you can’t say something nice about
someone, don’t say anything at all. I’ll hit you offline with some
further comments because I can’t say anything at all about one of
the vendors.
Dave S.–
The original message included these comments:
standard. Both JE and Venolia are local here for me.
Dave S;
When I cruised thru all your pics (looks like you are doing great work on
your 140), my AVG, which has always detected any “bugs”, never made a peep…
I also did a quick “update” (which is normally done automatically), just in
case… Nada.
One thing I did notice, and I have no idea if it’s relevant, is my address
bar showed: cardomain.com/ride/2865366/X with the “X” being one thru seven,
depending on the “page” being viewed. Opening on each picture did not
change the “page number” or anything after the word “ride” in the address
bar…
The address (URL) Pim noted was:
…/ride_images/1/869/3581/2171790001_small.jpg.
Might it be that Pim’s link was highjacked?
Don’t know if this means anything, or not…
Charles #677556.----- Original Message -----
From: “Dave Shaw”
In reply to a message from Pim sent Thu 23 Jul 2009:
My goodness, Pim. Thanks for the warning. I’ll contact Cardomain,
but meanwhile, I suggest everyone heed Pim’s warning. I apologize
for any problems.
Dave S.
1957 XK140MC OTS, 1964 E-type OTS, 1973 Maserati Bora 4.9L
Orange/CA, United States
In a message dated 7/23/2009 11:42:24 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, Bishop-13@texican.net writes:
Dave S;
When I cruised thru all your pics (looks like you are doing great work on
your 140), my AVG, which has always detected any “bugs”, never made a
peep…
I also did a quick “update” (which is normally done automatically), just in
case… Nada
Ditto for me also Dave, the only issue I had was that I was unable to go
to page 2 or 4 from page 3, it just stuck on 3. No problem closing out from
there though. If I log on to your site through “my Favorites” link, I can
go through your whole site without a problem.
I’ve been meaning to ask you anyway, did you finally resolve your problem
with the larger sump pickup pipe other than welding the adaptor on the
original pipe? I also got the larger pipe from Guy but had to make some minor
changes because I had zero clearance between the sump bottom & pipe.
Another point, I noticed at the bottom of the pipe, you have the plate,
(sealing the bottom of the suction pipe), reversed. The large flange part is
supposed to face down & the spring fits onto the smaller flange, between
the collar near the bottom & plate, per plate 2 of the parts manual.
In reply to a message from Pim sent Thu 23 Jul 2009:
Thanks for all the input. I sent the direct link to XK140 page 3 to
save folks from wading through my verbosity. I didn’t know
it ‘‘locked’’ you into that page. If interested, the main link is
below:
Otto, you’re absolutely right about the oil pickup flange. Many
thanks for averting disaster.
I spoke to Guy Broad about my problems fitting the oil pickup tube,
and he sent out another that fits perfectly. Great fellow!
Pim, yes that’s a con rod bent into a pretzel. I never want to hear
an engine make that noise again!