Something that I’ve repeatedly pondered over for 45 years is the XK120 Auxiliary or Long Range Petrol Tank Assembly C.4359 & it’s steel bodied OTS main petrol tank C.4366.
I know the capacity was increased to approx. 24 gallons & it’s pretty safe to assume that the main petrol tank was similar in shape to the regular tank but w/o the indent for the spare wheel. I’d assume the auxiliary tank was wedge shaped to fit into the spare wheel cavity, but the plumbing & venting puzzles me. I’ve yet to find any information or even decent pictures of this configuration.
It’s well known that the record breaking LWK 707 Montlhery XK120 carried a long range petrol tank & the only picture I’ve seen of the Coupes boot interior isn’t of much assistance. It appears that the aux. tank was filled from inside the boot on LWK 707 & not from the main filler neck.
The XK120 SPC also makes mention of a revised spare wheel mounting to the RH boot floor board though no part number is shown in the SPC. Not having a XK140 SPC handy, I’m assuming the stud, knob & disc assembly is the same as the spare wheel mounting stud on the XK140. Perhaps the stud mounting plate is nothing more than a sheet metal fabrication with a threaded nut floating inside & retained to the boot floor by the 6 2BA CSK 5/8” long set screws.
If anyone can offer any assistance I’d appreciate it. Harold Lang
No immediate clear answer. The only thing I can say is that Clausager shows a picture of a quick-release filler cap on the LH rear wing of LWK 707. This is in the same position as the standard filler lid. I assume this was still original, as he states that the whole car never had a respray.
Viart has one drawing on page 475, showing the auxiliary tank held in by two straps that look similar to the regular spare tire strap, and the tank takes up the whole spare tire compartment.
It’s not clear to me why the steel OTS and FHC would need two different main tanks to go with this auxiliary tank.
Urs Schmid says the aux tank was 9 Imp. gallons or 40.5 liters (or 10.7 US gallons), connected to the main tank by a pipe, and with an additional fuel pump.
I did not find a service bulletin mentioning the auxiliary tank. It is not in SB95 the racing mods bulletin. So either I missed it, or they didn’t sell enough of them to bother with writing an SB about it.
The spare tire bracket sounds like there was a thing screwed to the floor with 6 tee nuts on the underside, and the stud, knob and disc like maybe they borrowed something out of the Mark VII, my guess anyway until somebody comes up with a picture.
Assume you mean Viart page 395 for the auxiliary tank. As the term already points at: it must be something in addition to the standard tank (that had to be modified to get a connection between the two). That also explains why LWK 707 has the Quick-Release Filler Cap on the original position (where the hose ends).
What car is that on the photos? It’s very, very special…
Must be different editions, my Viart XK120 book page 395 is about door hardware.
LWK 707 presumably had the quick release cap for quick fillings.
But they probably didn’t carry a spare on that run.
The green car is a standard Mark VII, vertically mounted spare with knob and disc to clamp the wheel, sorry I should have explained that.
I refer to the “revised Edition” (Viart + Terry McGrath) that only counts 407 pages in total.
Sorry, didn’t recognize the Mk VII boot or to be honest: never seen one open!.
I have taken up the quest to try to define what the installation would have looked like in a late OTS with the C.4366 main tank.
I am digging through my spares as my notes show that long ago I was able to purcase a very used aux tank as well as a reproduction aux tank. The source was from the post-war sports car racing group in Southern California where there were a number of cases of locally manufactured items finding their way into some of the Jaguars mixed on with originals, so my fingers are crossed that it is as original.
My completely speculative take on the record breaking car is that the aux tank is on the upper shelf area and had its fill connected to the normal place, and the quick release shown in the pictures if for the main tank. Terry has said it is not as offered to customers. I am hopeful he willl submit some details to help sort this out.
Karl
