THE INTERNATIONAL JAGUAR 'S'-TYPE REGISTER FORUM

My car being a 1967 has the BW35 gearbox also has an oil cooler for that which is in the base of the radiator. Seems a bit of an over kill but as you say possibly for hotter climates than ours.

Thanks for your thoughts, Rob. I'd imagine the cooler will be on the return. I am definitely going to use the car without any cooler for now and see how I get on. As you say, difficult to imagine that it would be needed but I guess Jaguar put it there for a reason - maybe for hotter climates than ours!

Nice to hear it is coming along. The PAS fluid cooler is pretty basic on the S Type. I have attached a photo of mine. I will have to check tomorrow where the pipes run from and to but I think it runs from the steering box through the cooler then in to the reservoir on a return. The cooler is just a curved metal pipe on the end of the rubber hoses with some alloy fins attached. You could buy a small after market oil cooler which would do the same job but then again unless you are really working the steering you are not going to heat up the PAS fluid where it would be needed in my view.

I thought I would update you on my progress. I have sorted out the hoses to the power steering box: I had some 420 hoses which I had bought just for the connectors which I repurposed. As the 420 box I am using has the connections on top the routing is not ideal - down to the front of the subframe with both the flow and the return. I haven't made any provision for a cooler which I understand was standard for S types with the varamatic box, but hoping that I won't need it. Anyhow, now back on the road and working, with no leak! Still need to finally position the p/s hoses, lockwire the front calipers and set up the suspension but feels like I am making progress! Then will need to move on to getting some new tyres, sorting out what I think is a front screen seal leak etc etc. The list is long but at least one milestone checked off.

Thanks for all of your help - it is great to have support. I will post some photos when I get a chance

Hi All. Been struggling to find the time to put the subframe back together and in the car, but now finally on the home straight. All pretty much done except for connecting up the steering box to the pump. Now I have a varamatic box, the connections on the box are different from the Burman and I have been struggling to find someone to make up hoses for me. A complicating factor is that the box I have is out of a 420, which has the connectors on top rather than what I think would be standard on the S type varamatic application where they appear to be at the bottom. The return being low pressure is not really a problem but the high pressure side is a bit more important critical.

Anyhow my question is: does anyone know what size of fitting the high pressure side of the varamatic box uses? Is it UNF, and if so, what size? From visiting a hose supplier it doesn't seem to be metric (not really a surprise), nor is it BSP. Not the end of the world if no-one knows, it is a good excuse to get a thread gauge - you can never have too many tools...

Thanks

Thanks. Interesting you have also come across some springs with pale blue markings. I imagine that mine must have been replaced over the years (one of them has no visible marking and one has pale blue) but they seemed to be fine prior to dismantling so I will stick with them for now. Great colour for an S type by the way!

Yes, my own front spring journey has been a bit of a nightmare, which started when I assumed the original springs would need replacing after 50 years. Not so! But I only discovered that after fitting new replacements which gave a ride height that was too low. Anyway, long story short, I too ended up with used 420 springs which also had pale blue markings. I had them tested by Leda in Lincoln and they both had 250lb/in spring rate, which I believe to be factory spec. I used a 1/8in packing ring on the right hand (driver's) side only. I think mine is still a little low at the front, but I'll live with it for now.

Thanks both. Feels like the best thing to do is to discard the packing rings and use my existing springs with my replacement subframe. I believe the replacement came out of a 420 so maybe that has something to do with why there were packing rings in both turrets - maybe the ride height needed to be higher. Of course, there's always the possibility of a bodge in the 50+ years the 420 was on the road!

I had all my spring rates reset by the original manufacturer for SA built cars. I have no packing pieces & ride height is perfect side to side. All they did was make up for various spring rate variances.

I think I am right in saying that the packing rings in the spring turrets were put on the drivers side so when the drivers weight was sat in the car the small packing ring evened out the suspension height. Mine had packing rings when I dismantled the car but I failed to note which ones went where so when I rebuilt the car I did not bother putting them back in and I have not had any problems with ride heights.