The spare wheel tray is the area at the back of the car where the spare tire is stored. This area can be closed with a wooden lid.
The bracket, which is used to secure the wheel firmly, is bolted onto the floor. On the backside of the floor massive steel strips, with threaded holes, are used to reinforce the floor. Between the body and the recess panel (half round shaped part) a small strip of felt is mounted to prevent rubbing of the two separate parts.
Because my car was missing the starter, I bough one several years ago on ebay.
Although it is still looking in good shape I decided to take it apart to see if there are any problems inside.
The bush on the drive end side has some play (0.12mm) but it is not clear to me what is allowed. On the commutator end the play is only (0.05mm) Based on the original bush ID measurements it makes no sens to replace them, the difference is in the outside diameter of the axle. Because the axle, on the places where the bushes are located, looks normal and not worn, I will reused the available bushes.
| lucas number | Jaguar number | Length new | OD new | ID new | ID real | Axle real | Play |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 270038 | 2812 | 1.328" | 1.003" | 0.877" | 0.8767" | 0.872" | 0.0047" |
| LB361 | 33.731mm | 25.476mm | 22.276mm | 22.27mm | 22.15mm | 0.12mm | |
| 255491 | 8370 | 0.750" | 0.752" | 0.626" | 0.626" | 0.624" | 0.002" |
| LB360 | 19.05mm | 19.101mm | 15.900mm | 15.90mm | 15.85mm | 0.05mm |
Parts needed to rebuild the starter
As can be seen on the above picture the armature just looks like new. The length of the brushes are still in good condition with a length of 0,51″ or 13.0mm. (a new one measures 0.53″ or 13.5mm)
After everything has been put together again. the starter motor has been mounted onto the bell housing.
Until now, when the car needs to be moved, I had to turn the wheels by hand. Especially when I need to turning the car around on the street it can be a heavy job. Now that the body has been mounted onto the chassis the steering column can be placed back.
Original steering column inside
Original steering column in engine bay
After cleaning and inspecting all parts I decided to:
Parts needed to rebuild the steering column
After mounting everything on the correct place I noticed that the rubber grommet, normally visible from the engine bay, did not came into contact with the outside of the steering column. Therefore I decided to keep it inside of the body, not as it should be, it will keep the air stream outside of the body compartment.
Restored steering column inside engine bay
Restored steering column inside
The last part needed to complete the gearbox / bell housing is the striking gear. The part makes the translation from movement of the gear stick to selecting the correct gears inside the gearbox.
The Xk140 has the normal H shape for 1st, 2nd, 3th and 4th gear. The reverse gear is placed on the left side of the 1st gear. Before the reverse gear can be selected the gear stick must be pressed to the left with a little pressure before it can be moved forward.
All parts needed to assemble the striking gear
A fresh gasket will be use to mount the assembled striking gear on top of the gearbox.
Now everything for the gearbox and bell housing has been finished we can start assembling the engine.
Until now I was able to sand-glass blast everything myself. For the parts that where to big for the cabin I did it with wire brushes (with or without the help of a drilling machine). But the steel doors are very difficult to clean from the inside and sand blasting seems the only easy solution. I’ve always been very reserved with sand blasting parts by specialized companies because I am afraid that the parts will be damaged in some way.
After inspecting I found out that the surface of all parts where made very rough and before I could start painting it had to be sanded very well. I also had to straighten out some sheet metal parts because they very distorted. The right door also show some kind of dent and will need to be repaired.
The same hold for the left door because the lower part of the door has been replace completely
After the sand blasting I also found two parts which show holes through the metal which are in need to be welded before they can be painted.
All parts are, as mentioned before, sanded and painted in 2K Epoxy primer, before they are painted in the correct color;
The last items which are still in need of some fresh layer epoxy primer are;
First everything has been cleaned (some steel and aluminium parts are glass bead blasted)
The oil seal and gaskets are replace with fresh ones.
All sprockets still look fine (all teeth still have a the flat surface on the top)
All parts needed to install the timing gear
Front engine without the timing gear
In the below picture the timing gear is installed completely. Also the timing gear cover and dynamo adjustment bracket is mounted. The Engine is now ready to receive the engine head.
The position where the water pump will be mounted, with 9 bolts, is clearly visible now.
All separate parts used to rebuild the torsion bar mechanism
On 28 September 2008 we went, together with Cees van Ouwerkerk and my neighbor to the current owner Peter Metz. Because the car was disassembled we had to drive to Rotterdam (the current location) with two cars and two trailers to accommodate all parts during the trip.
The XK140 FHC on the trailer, ready to be transported
After a two hours drive we arrived in Helmond, the new location for this beauty.
In the following picture a part of the pile of boxes and crates, where all disassembled parts are temporary stored in, are shown. The very very nice XK 140 FHC from 1957 is shown in the back ground. I only spotted a small amount off places where rust did his work in the past 51 years. This car shows how a car keeps preserved if it is stored in the USA Arizona area, unbelievable. If the same car was store somewhere in Europe it would be rotten away completely.
The jaguar has been arrived on his final destination
The front wings, which where remove due to the extensive rust in the Dashside Strengthener area, can only be placed back when this area and the inside of the front wings are painted. This area between the front wing and the dashside strengthener is very difficult to reach when the front wings are mounted.
I decided to paint the whole inside of the upper body shell together with the area around the dashside strengthener. I must first rid the body of paint and rust before the paint process can start . This was an enormous amount of work and I spent about 8 weeks in total to finish this job. (That why the blog was not updated for some time 🙂 )
Metal work
In the next places I need to do some sheet metal repair before the painting process could start:
The Dashside Strengtener
The Firewall and front windscreen
The Floor and occasionally seat area
The Trunk and rear windscreen
The Roof
All separate parts used to rebuild upper wishbone
