Proper intro: My name is Ed, I live in the country, in a white house, with a white picket fence and (2) kids, and my wonderful and understanding wife Amy. I've been raised with car's, my first was a 65 GTO that I purchased when I was 13. My father and I did a full resto that was completed by my 16th, rough, I know! Over the course of the past 18 years, yes, I'm 31 I've had everything from Harley's, Biscayne's a 29 5w, with Merc Flattie and now my 29 PU. The 29 was basically an abandoned project. The guy purchased a complete Brookville chassis, with a Jag rear, built a small block, and ordered everything he could, and lost interest...bad for him, great for me! I'm trying to dial in the rear end, why you ask a 'Jag'? Because it's already there. The Brookville frame is set for the rear, crossmember, etc., but how should I tie everyting else together, radius rods, additional crossmember? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'll be spending mucho time here! Regards
Welcome Ed. Sounds like you've got your hands full with the '29. I have a Jag rearend that I bought some time ago with the thought of using it in one of my projects. The sheetmetal carrier that comes stock with that rearend is butt-ugly so I was looking into ways to improve upon the mounting as well. I have since lost interest but while I was looking around I found that the Kugel setups seemed to have the best mounting configuration. They advertise in all the car mags and I'm sure there's a website that shows their products in great detail. Good Luck!
I consider Jag rear ends traditional, they were used in the '60s. I love '60s styled rods, I grew up in the '70s, they put Jag rears under everything, even front wheel drive cars.
nothing looks better then a chromed jag rear under a fenderless car. i am setting one up under my 30 pickup. you need to use a xke axles and lower control arms xj6 & xjs are too wide for an early car.
You need to square the tubular lower arms with the front axle centerline and 90 degrees to the centerline of the vehicle. The half-shafts should be level with the car at ride height. The lower arms will run a bit downhill from the center out to the uprights. I recommend rubber bushed trailing arms from the frame back to the lower arms. Here's one example :
Here's an exploded view of the Jag assembly. You can see the stock Jag trailing arm in the lower-right. The rearend from an XJS or XJ6 is quite wide. I narrowed the one I'm using ('91 XJS) 13 1/2". It now measures 50" over the wheel mounting flanges.
First A with a Jag rear I ever saw outside of a magazine was a '29 roadster pickup, back in 1976. Full fendered,black with American Mags, chromed Jag,...unforgetable.
most drive shaft shops will narrow the axles for about 100 each and you just have to narrow the control arms the same. if you need i have an extra set of arms and axles from a xjs
Guy's, Thanks for the great info! You mention the lower trailing arms (which I currently have installed). But how bout the tying the front and rear lower arms together (Speedway sells the plates) and running another set of links from the pinion end to a crossmember...overkill? Thank again to all
One more thing, how can I tell if I have the XK's over the XJ's, does anyone have lengths for the lower arms or halfshafts? My flange to flange is approx 58". Thanks again!
I used a torque plate at the nose of the pig to prevent any rotation from acceleration or braking forces.
I had an old 60s T-bnucket with a Jag and ut had some cool hairpin radius arms that matched to front ones. I did also see a rear mount somewhere that has a place for your exhaust pipes to go over it.