Having been frustrated many times by the bonnet's limited opening I saw a pic in another thread this week of one with much wider opening. Inadvertently I briefly hijacked the thread (which had nothing to do with the bonnet) by mentioning it!

Anyhow, I had long been aware of the idea that removing the safety linkage would allow the bonnet to open much wider, but had the impression the grille would foul on the bumper. I've now removed the linkage and find that opening up to just a bit under 90 degrees works brilliantly - no more stabs in the back by the catch pin!! There is still a tiny amount of space left between the grille and bumper trim, so no damage there either (not sure how this would be with Series 1 & 2?). If I open it up outside I will use a rod/stay as insurance against the wind having its wicked way, otherwise I'll confine any bonnet opening to the garage.

Thank you to Elinor and Carl for their encouragement to try this.

 

I'm glad it worked well for you Tony.
Perhaps the reason my grill actually touches the bumper is I have a Series 3 grill and a series 2 bumper. However, as chrome is so hard to scratch, I don't worry when I need to open the hood fully.
(';')

 

Reading this thread got me motivated to look into mine, looks like it has already been removed or the series 1 doesn't have one. Not much more room to move anyway,maybe a few mm to spare.
I should have remembered it didn't have a strap, it wasn't that long ago I had the bonnet off to replace the engine.

 

Must look at this , I got a bonnet prong in the ear yesterday which I guess made a nice change from the back of the head. You would think it would be possible to make it into a two step arrangement somehow. Probably just needs the right mix of injury and fabrication skills to come together.

 

I had similar thoughts but along simpler lines: Something like a short rod that pivots from the linkage connecting bracket on the bonnet, the other end would manually hook to the rad support. The rod could fold back onto the bonnet when stowed. The stick in pic.1 gives a crude idea, but I'm thinking of a solid metal rod, about 10mm diameter with an offset dog leg at the bonnet end allowing it to fold into the existing channel on the bonnet's inner skin.

With the bonnet open as in pic 2 the gap between grille and bumper is about 7mm.

 

IIRC Somewhere on the internet is a mod for the stays which allows you to open the bonnet wider. I can't find it at the moment though.

 

Ok, found it
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...e-78120/page3/

 

Thank you, looks like a good straight forward option. I guess there must be a variety of homemade versions out there!

Jaguar obviously took the original design right through the Series XJ years (S2 & S3 at least) so I'm surprised they didn't update it at some point. My previous X300 was certainly more user friendly with almost a full 90 degrees opening, I think XJ40's were the same.

 

Could use a combination of small steel cable as a travel limiter and a pair of gas struts.Toss the original linkage into a box and put in storage..

 

Stuff:


1. The bonnet may not be stiff enough and bend at the moment
created by the strut attachment. Older Chevrolet truck hoods
suffered this malady.


2. Some critters, I think it was my 94ish Olds Achieva that
had a rod to support it's hood while I serviced it's quaint
transverse mounted DOHC 4. It had a clip to stow it when the
hood was closed.


3. My solution is simple. A left over shaft from a defunct weed whacker in the garage. Away from home, I hope I don't need it!!!
but, there is a shilelegh in the boot that will do this as well....


4. My car's grill just barely "kisses" the bumper. Not enough to
be harmful...


One of these days I'll mess with a tiny misalign???


Carl

 

Just to clarify, are you referring to a point at which gas struts might be attached?

On the other hand, if a solid rod (or for that matter, a revised version of the factory device) is fastened at the attachment points for the existing linkage (both ends), the stresses would remain unchanged, no increased risk of bending.

 

Tony:


Yes, that is it. but, it seems to me that compressing the
gas strut places more load on that point than the factory link or
anything similar.


Being that the gas struts store energy to make the opening of the
bonnet easier. So, in effect, they must be "charged" closing.
Done internaly by valving.


Carl

 

There are two mods, one involves eliminating the factory Stay and instead adding a Hook to catch the bonnet at the point where you open it to maximum, but this mod leads to accidents where the grille is always damaged. The second mod is fabricating a new longer Stay which stops the bonnet at just the right point, allowing maximum travel.