XMG258

[Keith Clements]

Jowetteer 1977 Page 129
TECHNICAL CORNER
I REBUILD XMG 258
By Ben Shaw
XMG 258 was the runner-up at the first N.J.D, Concours held in Bradford, at that time having covered 245,000 miles. Since that date it had added another 145,000 and was showing signs of its age.
In view of the present concern about the spares situation, it may be of interest to fellow members to have a report on the rebuild operation as it progresses, particularly as I intend to ignore the spares suppliers as far as possible. We may thus get some idea of what we really require of the spares officers.
The first step was to strip it down to a bare shell, supported on four boxes, but with front suspension intact and the rear torsion bars and spring arms still in place.
Examination of the shell revealed a most frightening state of affairs. The rear end of the offside chassis was virtually non-existent and the nearside partially rusted away. The o/s angle which carries the boot floor had absconded and the bottom edges of the side panels were paper thin. The bottoms of both rear door pillars had rusted through, together with about 2" of the sills.
The box sections of the chassis members (which had been frequently sprayed, inside and out, with Dinitrol or Supertrol) were, apart from the extreme rear ends in quite good condition, as were the jacking points, and when the underseal and the black enamel had been chipped off, revealed bright metal underneath - a sight, I found most heartening as I was rapidly nearing the decision to scrap the lot.
However, I decided it was a job to keep me out of mischief, and, since the grass wasn't growing and I was not allowed to water it what else could I do?
I spent the whole summer cutting, shaping and welding bits of sheet steel. A new box section was made up to replace that missing from the rear offside, small sections of sills were folded and welded in, a 1" x 1" x 3/16" B.M.S. angle replaced the boot floor fixing angle, all the door pillars were repaired and the welds on these and the sills were tinned and wiped with plumbers metal (since I cannot bring myself to accept the modern fibreglass type body filler).
Until this welding was completed, I had not dared to extract the rear torsion bars as I was afraid the body would collapse, I now made a puller, which I fitted to the nearside, tightened it up a bit, walked round the other side and thumped it with a hammer using a brass drift and out it came no problem.
The rubber bush had worn considerably, but I had spares and did not bother to turn them 180° as the book says you may in an emergency. As this wear has taken place over 390,000 miles, presumably you will not need spares for this very often.
Now for the other side. The puller was fitted, tightened and the other end thumped - no effect; tightened a bit more and thumped again - no effect; tried the sledge hammer - no effect. I tightened the puller a bit more and there was a noise like a toy drum and lo and behold the flat sheet that ran across the body behind the torsion bars had developed a beautiful saucer like bulge around and about 4 inches from the rounded transmission shaft cover.
I released the puller and fitted two standard Javelin jacks, end to end, inside and between the torsion bar fixing bosses. Tried again - no effect. Eventually I got help.
The Jacks were fixed, the puller fitted and tightened, heated the boss with the blow lamp, poured cold water on the torsion bar whilst my helper thumped the end, and out it came.
But, if you do it like this you will need a spare rubber bush.
By this time space was at a premium so I decided to re-assemble the rear end. All the metal work was stripped and sanded to bright metal (took over a week to do the back end only) giving two coats of Metalife ATR1 (a sacrificial coating with a magnesium/zinc base) two coats of Norusto bitumen and two coats of a deep gold bronze underseal.
The back axle was already prepared, having new brake cylinders, new linings, new brake pipes, new oil Seals and new operating rods (1/4" M.S. rod).
The torsion bars were now replaced, a slight smear of moly grease on the hexagons and they slide in beautifully. New rubber bushes were fitted, but the offside aluminium housing was very badly corroded.
I built it up to shape with plasticine, filling up the mounting holes, laid it face down on a piece of glass, put a small cardboard box round it and poured in a plaster of Paris mixture, When it had set, I removed the metal/plasticine bit and had a mould of the outside, I greased the inside and flat face of the metal, filled it with plaster of Paris mixture and then placed over it a piece of marine ply with 3 wood screws protruding into the plaster mixture and let it set. I then drilled two 1/2" holes m the ply to act as risers and baked the lot in the oven to dry them out.
I then melted some bits of old water pump, and having heated up the mould in the oven, clamped it together with a G cramp and poured in the molten aluminium. It is beautiful and only needed four holes drilling - so that’s another spare you can manage without.
The offside spring arm welding had broken at the axle end allowing the leaves to part and, since there was a very, good specimen on the shelf I decided to fit it and weld the faulty one at a later date.
I fitted the axle, which incidentally isn’t easy when it weighs as much as I do (and not being one of the superstars), heaved a sigh of relief and stood back to admire it.
The offside brake drum was about 3 inches lower than the nearside.
I hadn’t realised that the spring arms are handed, so if you remove them make sure you mark them and refit to the same side. Of course, if you think the 2CV is a pretty motor you can always swop them over.
The rear axle link sleeves were rusty so new ones were made from a piece of 3/4"M.S. bar.
The transverse stay rubbers were useless so I had to make replacements, I bought two of those rubber door stops one screws to the floor, and drilled a l/2" hole through them (using a rotary file instead of a drill) mounted them on a mandrel, but I found they were too soft to work.
I solved that one by putting them in the deep freeze and quickly shaping them with a hand, tool. So there is another spare that should not cause any panics. A pair of Koni shock absorbers were fitted and that was the axle out of the way.
The top of the spare wheel carrier had rusted away so a new steel sheet was welded on, the large hole cut and a 3/4" strip edge welded to produce the flange which carries the rubber sealing strip.
Except for the fitting of the petrol tank, the rear end is now completed.
So we move to the front end.
XMG 258, launched in July 1952, thus sported the metal bushed suspension, and although I once converted it to the later rubber bushed system, I didn’t like the feel of a bit of jelly between the steering wheel and the road wheels so it was returned to the original layout.
The front suspension was completely dismantled, the torsion bars being removed complete with lower spring arms, these latter being removed at the bench.
The upper link assembly and the attached oil reservoirs were first reconditioned.
One reservoir was found to be dry and this was traced to the failure of the soldered back plate and merely needed resoldering.
The bronze bushes were in good condition, but the trunnion tubes were beginning to rust so new ones were made from 5/8" silver steel, heated to cherry red and quenched in cold water, - That’s another spare off the list.
New sealing sleeves were also turned up from 1 1/8" M.S. rod and the units re-assembled.
Reconditioned swivel pins were obtained from one of our Jowett dealers. These are built up and ground to size, and though supplied by our dealers, this service is available from a number of specialists and there goes another spares requirement.
Whilst in the process of fitting the bushes to the stub axle, one of our members was somewhat perturbed to find me busy filing one of the bushes and obviously had never thought it necessary.
The stub axle and swivel pin bushes originally supplied by Jowetts are no longer available and dealers usually supply standard Glacier 2410 and 2408 bearings.
Now these bushes have an ‘X‘ type grease groove in them. In the original bushes this groove extended to one end and thus allowed grease to flow in or out. These bushes are pressed in with the grooves (which you have now filed to reach the edge) inwards, i.e. grease fed into the centre of the swivel pin can now find a way into the oilways in both bushes.
If you buy your swivel pin from the right dealer you will find these grooves already filed, but be sure you check it.
The same procedure applies to the stub axle, the filed grooves allowing grease to flow from the top bush down into the bottom bush.
If you have got the type of swivel pin which has a hole halfway down its length, you will find this connects with the grease nipple, and then the whole assembly is built up, you will find it very satisfying to put a grease gun on either swivel pin or stub axle nipple, pump the grease in and you will see it ooze out of all four joints. Even if you haven't got this type of swivel pin, there is no need for that extra nipple one often sees fitted to the bottom of the stub axle.
The bearing surface on both bronze yokes was slightly worn so they were mounted on a mandrel and a slight skim sufficed to clean them up.
The thrust washers had worn considerably so it was decided to make new ones. These were made from a piece of I/8" gauge plate and quenched in oil.
The spring arm distance tubes were made from a piece of 3/4" silver steel, heated and quenched in water.
The spring arm trunnion bushes had suffered from 24 years of oil and grease and although they functioned perfectly, they looked a bit "tatty". I only had two spare bushes and my contacts didn't appear to have any so these two were fitted to one spring arm and Alan Wright produced a new arm complete with bushes.
The conical bearings on the steering box, steering link assembly and intermediate steering arm were all lapped in using a fine grinding paste.
The wheel hubs were examined and although these have done 145.000 miles and are fitted with inner roller races they were "as new" (Ray and Arthur please note). However I had great difficulty in withdrawing one hub. The small end of the set screw that locks the locking ring had sheared off in the ring and preventing it being unscrewed. I had to labouriously cut it out since I did not wish to damage the internal threads of the hub.
I made a new one from a piece of mild steel and this now been fitted. After the locking set screw had been fitted normally I removed it and a smaller hole through the locking ring so in the event of the tip breaking off I can push it out from the inside.
The bump rubbers had parted from their mounting plates. These were cleaned up with emery cloth, as were the plates, and then remounted with a drop of Loctite I.S.12.
The rebound rubbers had disappeared so rubber blocks were stuck back on the places, sawn to shape, and finished off with emery cloth.
Incidentally, if Tony Fewster cares to buy a tube of I.S.12 (or any other cyanoacrylate adhesive and a piece of 10m/m rubber sheet, he need not worry about his Metalastics.
All these bits have been stripped, phosphated, and are now awaiting painting,
Because of the rubber bushes, stoving is out so I'm proposing to try the air drying two pack epoxy enamels.
And that's as far as I’ve got
The spares I did not make are; wheel cylinders, brake linings, front and rear spring arm trunnion bushes, rear axle oil seal, reconditioned swivel pin and bushes.

Found whilst using the new JowettTalk search on our Vice Chairperson's Javelin registration number. OCR text copied into Word and tidied up.

[Keith Clements]

Never too old to learn..another tip from Ben Shaw from Jowetteer 1981 Page 6.

Somehow or other I never seem to get the usual logically traceable faults that other Jowett owners seen to suffer (or enjoy,) As most members are aware XMG 258 has been in process of restoration for some years, and the process now more or less complete. I have been running the engine for some time in order that the running in road work is reduced to a minimum. You are no doubt also aware that I like to run my engines at about 87 deg C (the next mark up on the 75°C), and have done so for years without the slightest trouble.
However, not this time. The engine started on the button from cold and ran quite normally until the temperature reached 87°C when it stopped abruptly and was impossible to start again. Allowed to cool down it would fire immediately, even on the coldest morning but switched itself off when it reached the 87° mark. There were no warning signs of missing, hunting or erratic running, just a sudden stop.
Raised at the noggin and natters, the diagnosis was unanimous - obviously the mixture was wrong so it became a game of patience, jets were cleaned and checked for size, floats were checked for leaks, float chambers were changed, complete carburettors were changed, pintel valve was replaced, brake servo was isolated, vacuum advance was checked for leakage, all to no avail. I despaired, and became convinced exorcism was the only remedy.
Then JOAC announced an evening on ignition system fault finding and I decided it would be nice to give the voltage produced by a coil with and without the condenser and the difference between the standard coil and my oil filled coil. The standard coil gave quite steady results l6/l0 kV the oil filled coil gave variable results, sometimes 30KV and sometimes 16KV.
I decided the Runbaken coil must be suffering from shorted turns and was about to dismantle it (I like to know what makes things tick), when I noticed that the primary
Had no markings of CB/SW or +/- Perhaps the various readings had boon due to the haphazard way I’d connected the crocodile clips. Which was the common point? (i.e. the one usually marked CB). Primary resistance was 3.6Ohms, secondary resistance was 7200 and no Ohmmeter could indicate the difference between 7200 and 7203.6. I pondered for some time before I realised a perfectly simple way to find the common point. No prizes for the answer - but just for you to ponder on.
Having now marked the coil it was replaced in XMG 258 and would you believe it – all my problems were solved. I wonder why it always happens to me. I’m not really an atheist merely an agnostic.

[Keith Clements]

Jowetteer August 1968
SOUTHEND. June 25rd was a Sunday to remember, dreadful weather if you stayed at home - picnic lunch in glorious sunshine if you went to the T.E.A.C.veteran meet at Southend, Although a scheduled event, only five Southern Section members made it, but some fourteen Anglian Section helped wave the Jowett Flag. Each section supplied three cars in the "Classic" post-war vehicle" class and collected three of the four prizes, Roger Gamble and Allan Wright taking 1st & 4th and Mr.Jacobs the 3rd.
Ben Shaw is now hunting for a veteran STEAM CAR though XMG 258 is using a fair amount of water (it's this 9 to1 business that does it )
Plus XMG second in concours and look TTD there as well....Amy's other Jowett.
More Javelins in this concours than currently in Concours at JAW.
SOUTHERN SECTION CONCOURS RESULTS
JT 1120
OLW 715
OKP 902 1st
YMI 546
SPB 172
JEW 672
XMG 258 2nd
DHH 12
YMC 56
FKW 51
NUV 266
MXJ 130
GPA 412
TTD 88 Way down
TML 997
TE7 97
RPO 416
MKC 1
CPG 63B
FVG 332
JBE 4
NYD 275
HJF 602

[Keith Clements]

Xmg258

[Keith Clements]

The first mention I can find in the Jowetteer when doing a search in the Archive is from 1960 when Ben joined the Southern Jowett Car Club. The reference is on page 2. Note to view the link you will need to be logged in and have access to the Archive as a club member. Also the link may not work in future as the server has a dynamic IP address. If this is the case you need to go via https://jowett.net/searchserver.php
You can start to see the problem developing within the SJCC as the club was becoming less about Jowetts with more members attending events in other makes. It also shows that the club was more about sociable get togethers and competition than preserving Jowetts.