Who's running a Jag rear and can you use the jag 1/2 shafts?

[ng8264723]

I was on the website and was looking at suspension. The Kirkham uses 4 wheel Wilwood rotors right? So the only thing that you use from the suspension is the center section? Can you use the half shafts?

[Tom Wells]

Dunno whether you can use the Jag 1/2 shafts in the Kirkham....

Just so you know, there are at least three different length Jaguar halfshafts.

1) XKE - the shortest

2) 3.8S/420 (or 420G, I forget) - middle length

3) The rest: XJ6, XJ12 XJS, all the big sedans - the longest.

The halfshaft length must match up with the wishbone length - not the same measurement, but from the same car, ie., if you use XKE wishbones, you need the XKE halfshafts.

Lotsa folks use tubular axle shafts. See the ERA web site for their manual in the PDF file to see how this is done: http://erareplicas.com/

Another good source for info is Mike at CWI: http://www.cwiinc.com/index.html

Hope this helps,

Tom

[ENTDOC]

get their halfshafts, they are excellent and worth the cash

[mickmate]

You need a splined shaft that can change length with original type suspensions like KMP. The Jags are fixed length and have a 1410 u-joint that interferes with the hole in the plate it has to pass through on most. Short answer no. They are just a short driveshaft like a front wheel drive splined one and can be made up at any reputable driveshaft shop to suit.

[big-boss]

No, you can not use any of the Jag driveshafts. Do not be shocked when you get the price for all the parts. The Kirkham price is very reasonable. You will need a spacer from the stub axels to the drive shafts. You can buy a cool one or simple cut down a couple of rotors.

[David Kirkham]

ng8264723,

No, the Jaguar suspension will not work at all on our car. The only thing that will work in our car (or an original car for that matter) from an original Jaguar is the differential itself. We can not even use the Jaguar brakes as they are inboard brakes on a Jag. Original Cobras (and our car) both use outboard brakes.

I think this conversation is particularly interesting as someone told me even today they had spoken with another manufacturer's representative and they told him "original Cobras from 1962-1968 all came with solid axle rear ends in them. We even have a CSX4000 car in our shop right now. Kirkham cars also have the solid axle rear ends in them." Obviously, I was very surprised to hear that as most anyone who has done any research realizes original Cobras had true independent rear suspensions in them and of course, our cars do as well as we copied an original Cobra to make our Kirkham car.

There has been a lot of confusion over the years with this and what exactly came in an original car. Original differentials were "Salisbury" units. That is, Salisbury made the differential. The guts inside the differential are standard Dana 44 pieces. A period Jaguar differential is also a Salisbury unit. Even the little differentials in MGB's and such were Salisbury differentials. Of course, there were many different models. So, just because you have a "Salisbury" differential does not mean you have a Cobra differential.

As for Jaguar rear suspensions:

Jaguars use the 1/2 shaft as the upper control arm. It is a pretty bad design. You have to make the parts very heavy to make them able to stand the abuse--even in a normal car. An original Cobra (and our car) both have a true upper control arm with a plunging 1/2 shaft. The Jaguar 1/2 shaft/control arm combination can't plunge as the rear wheel would fold in if it did.

Finally, strange this all comes up at this time. Even today, we were all discussing simply dropping the Jaguar differential out of our options list as we sell very, very few of them. We would then put the Kirkham aluminum differential (copied off an original car) and 1/2 shafts in the base model and adjust the pricing.

David

[xlr8or]

NG I'm running the Jag rear with the brackets supplied by Kirkham. I used the part list from the Kirkham site to have a local shop build the half shafts and drive shaft with spicer parts. It works great but is one heavy lump. Diff and mounts are about 130 lbs. I believe the Kirkham diff will lower that by about 40 or 50 lbs.