Between finishing a bathroom, the daughters’ fastpitch softball, and a
reorganization at work, I have had little time to work on or read about
XK’s. I did get a chance to work on my window regulators, though.
Like many XK’s. the small gears in the 150’s regulators were hosed.
After pricing repair parts and complete used regulators, I was
considering a change to power lifts 
Luckily, a friend in the
business has a mostly stripped Mk 1 awaiting the crusher. I was able to
get three of the four regulators out and, although they are completely
different from an XK 150 regulator, they use the same small drive gear.
I also scored the windscreen wiper rack and wheelboxes but that is
another story.
After dissasembly, I trial fit the new gears into the 150 assemblies.
I don’t know if my assemblied were really wrecked or whether the small
gears were less identical than they appeared but the new gears would not
mesh with the large partial gears on the regulator arm. The centers of
the two gears were too close together, causing interference. After some
thinking, I grabbed some small files and carefully reshaped the small
gear until it mated with the large gear. I also did some minimal
cleanup of the large gear. Finally I got the two to mesh and, although
the action is somewhat rough, the regulator is functional. However,
given the way the gears are meshing, I an unsure how long it will last.
The non-working gear looks like it was destroyed from the same issue.
On the second regulator, I found the interference even worse. After a
little trial filing, it was obvious that some sort of major surgery
would be required. I started looking for ways to move the two pivot
points apart. The body of the regulator is a plate with features
pressed into it. Between the two pivots, there is an area where the
center of the plate is punched out leaving two outer “bridges” of metal.
With a hacksaw, I cut one of these “bridges” in half and the other most
of the way through. I then bent the two halves apart until the two
gears meshed. I clamped the parts in place and, using my torch, welded
a small portion of the open split to hold everthing in place. After
cooling, I checked to see if the regulator worked and it was OK. I then
completed closing the cuts by braizing since I was concerned the welding
would cause too much warpage and questioned my ability to bridge that
large of a gap (around 1/8 inch) with steel filler rod.
After cooling, the gears moved a little closer together so the action
is a little rough. I may hammer the braize out a bit to loosen the fit.
I considered cutting and braizing the other regulator as well but I
think I will leave it alone for now. If it fails, I have one more small
gear and can fix it then.
Regards,
Bill Eastman
58 fhc slowly being revived.
3rd bathroom almost done