1952 Jaguar XK120 restoration

Painting all the bits and pieces separately doesn’t help. Where the factory would have bolted together two pieces of reasonably clean, bare metal, I’m putting about four coats of paint between them.

Car is neg earth.
My defence:
The main positive lead is what was in the car and it is good cable, so I reused that. Even though it’s black.
It all goes downhill from here…
For the rest I used a piece of new, good quality cable that was left over from the Healey. I’m slightly comforted by the fact that the (much longer) bit in the Healey is the right colour for positive.
This piece was the right length. (Admittedly the last earth lead shown could have been a wee bit shorter.)
So I used what I had.
The next keeper will just have to figure it out. I’ll be worm food by then.

You should try fibreglass cars…. Especially kit cars using the loom from a steel bodied car with no earths in it….

Anyhow….. bouncing on the edge of my seat now in anticipation of first start and first drive 🙂

Nick

Looking amazing. Not meaning to nitpick, is this wire rubbing on the bracket?

Seats are in.
So I can now sit in it and make brrrm brrrm noises.






Except I don’t need to.

Because…

THE MOTOR RUNS.

The Otter switch showed up. So I was able to close up the hole and keep the coolant in.

While I gave the sealant a bit of time to set, I pulled the plugs and squirted some oil into the cylinders.
Turned the engine over a few seconds at a time until it had oil pressure.
Bead blasted the plugs and reinstalled them.

Put some fuel in and was pleasantly surprised that none ended up on the floor.
So I connected the power wire to the fuel pump. No fuel squirting out.

So I gave the starter button a push and it burst into life. Wow.

It sounds good, was worried about it being too loud, but it seems fine.

I didn’t run it for long as I hadn’t topped up the coolant. Just started it several times. Starts beautifully, almost instantly.

Not all beer and skittles though, there was a fuel drip from one of the carbs. Once I’d opened up the throat of an old open end spanner so it would fit, I was able to tighten that jet and all was good.

I have one question for the electrical brains trust.

When the key is turned on, the ignition light comes on, as it should.
It goes out when the engine starts, as it should.

But when the engine is turned off, the ignition light comes back on, and stays on.
Until the cutoff switch is turned off.

When the cutoff switch is turned back on, the sequence starts again. No ignition light till key is turned on. Goes off when engine starts. Comes back on when key is turned off.

Any suggestions as to what may be wrong will be gratefully looked into.

Isn’t this where one of these is needed?

A Zener diode is a special type of diode designed to reliably allow current to flow "backwards" when a certain set reverse voltage, known as the Zener voltage, is reached.

Glen’s on the money for this one but thanks to all the competitors…

It was one of the contacts sticking, but not mechanically. It was being held by the coil. So maybe Mark and Zagato deserve an honourable mention.
I had tried spraying some lube to see if that would make it release. No joy.
So I disconnected the earth wire (from the control box) and it clicked open.
Reconnected the earth wire and it’s been behaving itself ever since.

There’s something else weird.
With the key on (engine not running) the left hand blinker makes the fuel pump click in unison. Not the right hand though.

Other than that, I’m really chuffed. It starts instantly, even from cold. And sounds wonderful.

I found that the fuel pump clicks in time with the blinkers on both sides. I can’t explain it, everything seems to be working and there’s no smoke release, so I think I’ll just ignore it.

Front parking/indicator lights are now sorted.
I started with these. The original lamps ( the lens is not screwed in in this photo) and a couple of old Lucas dual filament bulb holders.







This car didn’t originally have indicators, they were fitted by someone in the past.
They had fitted the front ones in holes cut in the guards. I didn’t want to do it like that.
It had also had a DIRU fitted. That is a direction indicator relay unit. It’s a nifty relay that cuts the brake circuit to flash a brake light for an indicator. Or a parking light in the front.
I didn’t know the DIRU wasn’t original to the car ( poor research ) and ordered a wiring harness to suit.
Anyway, to get to the point, I have the DIRU, the wiring and the indicator switch on the steering wheel. I may as well have indicators.
This meant I had to do something with the front parking lights if I didn’t want additional lamps.

So I bought some LED park/indicator bulbs like these. (Smaller diameter than regular bulbs.)











And I needed to fit them in the chrome housing that sits on top of the guards. Not a lot of room.
I didn’t want to cut up the original lenses, just in case it didn’t work out and I wanted to go back to standard.
So that meant making new ones.
Started by supergluing three pieces of 6mm-ish Lexan together.










Left them for 24 hours then ground them into a rough cylinder so I could put then in the lathe.








Trued up one end then turned it around. Trued and shaped the end that will go inside the chrome housing.











Turned it around again and shaped, sanded and polished the front.









Times two.









Fitted in housing with a very short self tapper.










Cut a short piece of brass tube and expanded the end to fit over the Lexan inside the housing.










Then cut the flange off the Lucas bulb holder.









The bulb holder just slides over the brass tube. It’s a nice fit in the housing and really can’t go anywhere.
I put some really thick heat shrink on the end where the wires go in. The type with glue in it,so I don’t think it’ll go anywhere.

And they work a treat.








I think that’s the electrical all done.

That’s all for now.
Cheers

Most excellent.