The plastic elbows on top of the brake master cylinder are NLA. Neither Moss, Welsh, nor SNG Barrat carry them. Even Jaguar Classic says NLA.
While these are not a wear item they are plastic and subject to degrade over time. They're also a fairly important safety item.


There are a couple options out there. There is the Mitsubishi brake master cylinder option detailed here and here. There's also the option to use the MC from a 1995 Ford truck mentioned in this thread.

Another option would be tapping the top of the master cylinder to put in a metal adapter but after spending some time with my dial calipers in one hand and the MC in the other - there doesn't look like there's enough material to make that work.

Before I over-think this - what is everyone else doing when it's time to replace the elbows?

 

Maybe suggest to SNG Barratt that they reproduce them? If would seem to be a prime item to 3D print, and I know they do that.

 

A few years ago, I bought a new MC and it came with new plastic elbows and the rubber seals from Paul's Jaguar. (He closed up shop earlier this year). Given that this item is NLA, I placed them in a vacuum sealed bag and put them away. I reused the old ones from the MC I replaced.
Good luck finding them if you want to replace yours.
Yours lok like they are in good condition. Take extreme care when removing them. If they are brittle and they break, oh well!

 

I did some researching this afternoon and I came up with two more potential options.

First is a Wilwood remote master cylinder part # 260-14243-P. This had a 1" bore as compared to the factory 15/16". The other point is that most of these MC's have a 2:1 volume ratio between the front and rear brake circuits. I don't know how that compares to the factory and I'm not going to be the guinea pig.

The other option is to re-create the factory set up. A grommet like this looks like it would be a great candidate to replace what the factory used. Those are made from silicone rubber which I believe is resistant to brake fluid. Instead of using a plastic elbow, these aluminum 90° fittings should last as long as we do. These should be here later this week and I'll be able to test them out.

 

Paul's is no more? They were fantastic resource for interior parts and all things XJS.

 

Paul's is still selling things on their eBay store. Turns out he can rent out the space in the building he owns for a lot more than the business brings in. He will still do upholstery and carpet kits from what I understand, but he's selling off the parts he's held back for years for customer cars. Call him NOW if you need anything.

 

The JEC has been notified of this problem and they asked SNG to produce them. I actually supplied one to the JEC for SNG last year (at SNG's request, and SNG have received it) to copy, but I have heard nothing since.

 

If you haven't seen it, this youtube video describes what Barrett is doing to reproduce obsolete parts. Worth watching.

 

I stand corrected. He closed up his walk in store. Whatever he has after selling some stuff for peanuts, he has for sale on his EBAY store. Pardon my misinformation.

 

I got the parts today and I'm going to reassemble the master cylinder using these parts. Here is the 1/4" aluminum elbow and the rubber grommet.


The rubber grommet fits perfectly in the groove in the master cylinder. The aluminum elbow slides in and the barb holds it securely. I was able to pick up the MC assembly holding on to just the aluminum elbow.


I also picked up some 1/4" viton tubing to go to the reservoir.


Here are the parts I used:
1/4" aluminum low-pressure barbed tube fitting. 1/4" size. 5058K511 $11.72 each
3/4" hole diameter, 1/8" thick high-temperature silicone grommet. Temp range -60 to 500F. 1061T115 $20.42/pack of 5
2' of 1/4" high-temperature viton flouroelastomer rubber tubing. 5119K85 $4.60/ft

 

Thomas
Fantastic, and thanks for the part numbers, Is there anywhere else (eg amazon or Summit) I buy them from pleaase, as McM C do not ship to Europe.

 

Greg - that's a bummer they don't ship internationally.
I looked around on Amazon and found the elbows but not the grommets. I might have an alternative - give me a couple days.

 

Thanks Thomas. No great urgency as I am wifi less at the moment as tree broke the phoneline. So I only pick up stuff from a mate's house very few days, .

 

Thorsen, why not just put on a ser3 master cyl with the reservoir on top? I've bought two or three for really cheap money, then you don't have the rubber hoses (leaks) and obsolete separate reservoir to deal with.

 

Sounds like that's a great option too - where do you get yours from?

 

Here's one, they have 8 available, $155. Last one I bought was about four years ago, bought a couple for spares, less than a hundred bucks. Wow, these thing have gone up!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/23526928265...Bk9SR96Fx5edYw

 

I usually keep an eye out for master cyls and calipers, I have two or three spares for all on the shelf. When I woke up my XJc a couple months back I had to use a new master and a pair of front calipers. Time to watch for a deal and put those back on the shelf. Ditto my bmw's, parts for older models getting harder to find at a good price. Btw.. I've used a few cheaper replacements for masters and calipers and have had good luck with them. I remember buying some at rock auto closeout too. I search their closeouts to see if there is anything I can use, usually for pennies on the dollar.

 

That's actually a deal since a new reservoir costs $150 alone. Which itself is laughable.

 

No kidding, they used to be pretty cheap, calipers too. Deals are still out there.

 

Greg,
I wasn't able to find a suitable grommet for you, but I think I have another alternative. When I bought the RTC1129 MC rebuild kit from Moss it came with the grommets for the elbow. The stock elbows are 1/2" diameter at the mounting point....


So what about this. 1/4 NPT has an OD of .540". If you took - 1/4 NPT on on side and 1/4" hose barb on the other - and threaded it into the grommet that comes with the rebuild kit that would conceivably work too.