i installed the battery cable in my 120 fhc as per the book. i.e in the sill. as has been said it just didn’t ‘feel right’ with the cable exposed in the rear wheel arch. i re routed the cable such that it leaves the battery box then follows the chassis rail clipped along with insulated clips to the front bulkhead.
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Growler,
On a left hand drive car, is that cable routed on the left (driver) side top of the door frame, which would make sense as the dashboard interior light switch is more to the left side of the car ?. Also, what is the proper routing for the cable going from one light to the other side?
Thanks for your help
Bernard
Bernard,
The interior light cable is definitely on the right (passenger, offside) side on my LHD car 679265 and Big Jim says his is the same (although his may not be LHD, but that isn’t necessarily relevant as mine is).
After the supply arrives at the offside interior light a branch goes into the boot (trunk) and then through the metal duct fixed to the roof of the boot and comes out on the driver’s side.
The attached rather messy photo shows the cable coming out of the duct in the top left corner (driver’s side LHD) of the boot. You can imagine where it goes in on the right side, unfortunately I don’t have a picture of that, but it would be a mirror image.
Do let me know if that’s not clear.
Simon
Thank you so much for the clarification. This is very helpful. I had always thought the wire between both lights would be routed between the headliner and the roof, but I’ve learned a long time ago that what makes sense to me is usually not the way Jaguar chose to assemble their cars, so I learn something everyday. The picture, by the way, is fine and speaks volumes. Thanks again.
Bernard
In my FHC 679187 there is a single wire that I can see through a large oval hole forward of the glovebox, which passes through a smaller rubber grommeted oval hole above that along with the wiper cable. This wire connects to the interior light switch. It is cloth covered and though faded appears to be purple with black. I pull on this wire and I can hear it rattling inside the right hand windshield pillar and above the door channel. So I conclude that the interior light wiring runs above the right hand door. Then I have a single wire running across sitting in a kind of half-round channel in the parcel shelf going to the left side, which I presume must be for the other interior light.
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Thanks Rob for explaining the routing of the front end of the cable for the rear interior lights of the XK120 FHC. I was trying to guess how it went from the light switch into the right side windshield pillar, and now I know. This forum is a real gold mine for people like me as I wasn’t the one who took the car apart and there’s a lot of guess work when it comes to putting it back together as correctly as possible.
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my wiring (1953 FHC) came in the loom that runs in the sill, that continues into the boot. it runs across the rear to connect the second interior lamp.
Hi Phil,
When rewiring, putting that feed to the FHC interior rear lights in the sill loom with everything else seems a lot more sensible to me than running it separately up the windscreen pillar and over the top.
Would you say your sill wiring is original?
If so I guess the pillar route was added when the FHC was introduced and when the existing batch of looms ran out the subsequent looms (thro the sill) included the interior light feed.
my wiring was definitely original
That seems to me a reasonable assumption, they may have used the OTS body harness for early FHCs, though noting that in the SPC among cables on page 89 are listed a C.5245 Cable for Interior Lights FHC and a C.5511 Cable for Interior Lights DHC.
I have noticed a similar instance with my USA delivered Mark V; the wiring for the flashing turn signals being separate individual wires, not incorporated in the woven harness, and unused wiring located in the roof for trafficators which were not installed in US delivered cars.
Another curiosity for which we may never find an explanation, is the Harness for Flasher Unit Export Models and Cables for Side Lamps Export Models beginning with FHC 680116 rather than 679001, and including 110, 113 & 114. What happened to those first 1012 cars? They had turn signals, too. I suspect the writer of the SPC was informed of the chassis numbers for the first OTS’s to receive turn signals in Sept '52, and assumed the information applied to the FHC’s passing down the line at the same time.
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My 1953 FHC 680468 Dec 8 1952 build date has the wire running up over the top of the right side door frame.
Cliff
My Sept 1953 FHC wiring for the rear interior lights went over the top of the right door sill, and then across the rear shelf as shown in Phil’s photos above.