So….. Having brought our ‘62 mk2 3.8 auto into the uk, I thought I would look at what we would need to do to convert to RHD. Steering box obviously, pedal controls etc, but just wondered if anyone had done it recently and what problems were encountered.
Mike

 

All the dash wood would have to be replaced as the two sides ie glovebox and speedo/tacho are different. The centre section can remain although you might need to change the position of some of the switches and gauges. Although the steering column and mountings can be moved across I think you will need to change the steering box and linkages as these are sided. Obvious changes are moving the pedals over with the master cylinder but Jaguar have put all the mounting holes on both sides for you from factory. Lastly the wiper blades will be parking on the wrong side so that will have to be altered.I think you might get away with just resetting the park on the original motor rather than replacing it but the wiper arms will need replacing.
The good thing for you is most parts should be available second hand from RHD cars which are being broken.

 

It should be a fairly simple task bolt on task to do, my 3.8 MK2 was converted from LHD to RHD by the factory and as mentioned above all the mounting holes are already in place.

In addition to the parts mentioned above don't forget the headlamps will need changing to RHD ones and will need realigning.

If its an auto then the selector linkage will be different and it might need the column to change depending on the age of the car as the LHD one comes out at the bottom of the column as I understand it., the throttle linkage to the pedal is also different LHD to RHD and you will probably need a different speedo cable. I think the pedal box is the same LHD to RHD for brake (and clutch if applicable) but the pedals might crank differently on a RHD car.

The wiring loom will be different but I would try and just extend it left to right as changing it will be a pain and expensive, a simple extension loom should be cheap and easy to make.

The handbrake will also be different, i'm not sure how its routed on a LHD car but I assume it must be a mirror of a RHD car as it can't cross the tunnel because of the prop shaft, whether the handbrake cable then runs on the otherside and the compensator is swapped overi'm not sure?

As mentioned above finding parts in the UK won't be an issue.

Good luck and enjoy driving on the correct side of the road!

 

Thanks for the comments guys, much appreciated.
I’m now underway with conversion and it looks surprisingly straightforward. As mentioned, all the apertures are already in place and covered over with blanking plates, even to the headlight dip switch, the wiring is long enough from the main loom to move it across and through the bulkhead blanking plate. Handbrake mechanism swaps over with just 2 replacement items (mirror image of other side). Handbrake cable is just routed across prop shaft on lhd and runs alongside it on RHD, so seems to be same cable. Pedal assembly slightly different, but simple to do. Lhd uses two arms instead of one, the second one being a dummy to allow the pedal rubber to be located further left. I removed the dummy arm completely and fitted the rubber pedal centrally t replicate the RHD assembly. I’m currently looking for the dash surround which are available completely renovate at a cost, but I’m trying to find good second hand ones to restore.
Steering column will need figuring out but we’ll look at that later. I may also look at the power steering rack conversion while we’re doing this.
I’ll post more updates as I move forward. Once again, all comments and advise welcome.
Mike