Well done Jose and nice work.

 

Great Jose! One thing I can say in your favour is you are scrupulously honest in your parts sales. The vacuum operated water valve you sold me is perfect & as promised.

 

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Thanks Glyn and Cass.
Too bad the SA Customs held it for so long. I have shipped parts to Belgium (took less than 2 weeks), and Australia (took 3 weeks). UK is slow too. Netherlands is quicker.

I knew that the Heater valve was perfect. I kept it under vacuum for two days. If the diaphragm was going to leak, it would have done it in the first 12 hours.

 

Jose ~ as you know those things are as rare as rocking horse poo. The car that unit came out of had maintained coolant concentration for the life of the valve.

 

Glyn, it is the one part that should be reproduced.

 

I could not agree more Jose. Trying to fit the old Daimler valve, as some do, is a disaster and looks ridiculous.

 

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I have done the same with the Daimler Heater valve, it simply is not the same.

 

I'm going to write a letter to Mr Barratt ~ he and I get along well and he has a large picture of my car on his office wall. He personally sourced many NOS parts for my S Type. The 420, 420G etc. uses the same unit.

I'm going to ask him if he could persuade someone to do a run of them or do them in house. They have the gear to do that.

They would sell like hot cakes initially ~ I know so many that are looking for them. The wise would buy one and hold it in their own private stock.

 

put me down for two repro Heater valves.
Most Jaguar parts suppliers want to sell the Series 1 XJ-6 Heater valve as a substitute, whose only resemblance to the classic S type Heater Valve is that it Opens with Vacuum.

 

I managed to open, clean and reassemble the switch. It now works fine. It appears that the lubricant from the rotating part collects on the contacts and is constantly pushed to end of travel and prevents the short circuit for the reverse function.
The reverse function has a very limited range and is stopped by the arm hitting a post. I grinded off part of the post to extend the range. This makes it much easier to setup the switch so both functions work.
Photos to follow.

 

Stop post at top right

 

Let me first see what my powers of persuasion are Jose ~ but noted.

 

The problem is though Jose only a handful of Jaguars and Daimlers used this heater valve. I think just the S Type, 420, Daimler DS420 and possibly the 420G. How many of these are left on the road and how many would require a replacement heater valve? The production run would have to be quite big to make it worth while to sell cheap otherwise they will produce 50 on a short run but then sell them for a small fortune to get their money back on the tooling to make one. Yes there are lots of people who need/want one but a new one should last another 50 years or longer so they would have to be careful that they are not left with hundreds of stock on the shelf and no buyers. I would love a spare but would not pay a couple of hundred quid for it.

 

Mr Barratt is prepared to make a loss on a few components if you are buying box loads of spares from him as I did right down to a radiator. We bought a mountain load of spares from him. The courier cost was extreme to say the least. Look at the price of a new radiator now. My importation from him way exceeded 25,000 Pounds Sterling.

 

Cass if you only consider the economics of reproducing a scarce part, there would not be a Classic Car business. Some parts are in the "devil may care about price" class as long as you can get them. Many parts for E types get reproduced and are not cheap. The MK-2 and S type have a future in the collectible car hobby, sometimes we have to "lay our money down" and get it done.

Glyn, I bet a chinese contractor would take on the project for a lot less money.

 

I woke up this morning to a response from Mr Barratt. He is going to search for the original aluminium mould. If he can find it he will make them in-house. If he can't he will try printing them.

 

wow Glyn, that's a giant step for mankind... Congrats !

if needed, I have a disassembled C19407 and an assembled one that I can provide.

 

I'll let you know how it goes Jose.

 

Is there any one of yours that says who made them? Mine only shows flow direction. I have 3 ~ 2 are leakers.