Wentworth (sp?) tools.

Don't know if there are "Wentworth" tools, but "Whitworth" is the old, now-obsolete BS (British Standard) screw thread form for threaded fasteners -- has a 55 deg thread "V" angle versus today's UN (Unified National) 60 deg angle. Also the Whitworth form has rounded thread roots and crests versus the modern trapezoidal shapes. You wouldn't need special tools other than taps & dies (if needed), but getting Whitworth bolts and nuts might be a b*tch except thru Jaguar specialists and/or dealers.

 

The hex head sizes of whitworth screws do not match the common english
fractional sizes. So you need a special set of wrenches to work on old Jags.

I don't know when the move away from whitworth occured on British cars.
Sometime in the late 50's is my guess.

I know my 65 Sunbeam Tiger uses all SAE threads and bolts.
I have never heard any Alpine owner talk about whitworth. Alpines came out in 1959.

Erich

 

IIRC Norton used them through the mid 60's

 

My mistake -- the bolt and nut hex head sizes are a bit strange (I was looking only at the nominal thread diameters which are the usual English sizes).

 

I vaguely recall that whitworth measures the hex by the length of one side. NOT the distance across the flats.

Erich

 

Whitworth tools and BSF (British Standard Fine) stuff is easy to get, you just have to get away from the Italian car dealers. It goes back to the days when there were multiple metric designations, the Brits did it their way. I don't want to say its common but its fairly easy to get if you play with old Brit stuff (not just Jags) its all over. Only time I have any trouble is when I want to find a odd size in Stainless Steel, since I like to use Stainless on the chassis parts.

Cute little story...I purchased a set of Whitworth wrenches one time at a garage sale in the S. of France while on vacation, they had the Nazi swaztika (spelling?) cast on them, the owner said that during the war Hitler recognized that after he conquered England he would have to have the tools to repair the machinery and he figured all the Brits would destroy the machinery and not offer their tools, so he had huge numbers of Withworth tools and BSF stuff made, this guy I purchased them from had crates and crates all over the place of brand new tools still wrapped in their leather bags and cosmolene. I got them aa a spare set because they were so cheap, he could not sell them because of the swaztika and no one but "weirdos" (his words) wanted them. I threw them in the back of my 34 Singer and don't worry if they get ripped off or damaged and keep the quality tools in the garage.

When you get your XK150 you will get very friendly with places like Victoria British and/or Moss Motors and/or XK's Unlimited, they will be more than happy to take more than usual of your hard earned cash for the tools, they will make SEARS look inexpensive. And if this place http://www.britishfasteners.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc does not have what you need you are in trouble.