Hi all.
I'm slowly returning a previous owner's bodges and shortcuts to original, but there is one I can't find any decent information on to know whether mine is bodged or correct.
My car is a 1981 late pre HE & the cable that connects both bonnet latches is an unsheathed stranded wire that is routed diagonally across the firewall from one latch to the other. Now this works just fine, but looks very Heath Robinson. The Jaguar ROM CD diagrams are often hard to see in detail & the diagram looks like it should be a sheathed cable routed differently.
Can anyone please advise what type it should be and the correct routing? Any photos would be a great help.
Thanks,
Scott.

 

Scott

Your suspicions are correct, it should be a sheathed cable (Bowden cable) like an bicycle brake cable. It runs straight along the firewall between the two latches. One end just fits into the RHS latch, and the other onto a nipple with a screw fitting on the LHS latch (US driver's side) to lock the inner onto the nipple on the LHS latch and adjust it to work properly.

If all is adjusted OK, then the cable from the release lever inside the cabin activates the LHS latch, and the LHS latch pulls the cross-firewall cable to release/pull the RHS latch. The latches are sprung open.

I have not got a photo to hand, but if you get stuck I'll take some, if no-one else has any. basically you just thread the outer along behind everything in the straightest path you can find!

Greg

 

While the cable is sheathed there is quite a bit of bare cable beyond the brackets at each end. The sheathed section is about the width of the motor.

 

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question Greg & Baxtor.
That at least confirms that mine is incorrect, so now I can look at getting it back to original.
Thanks guys.
Best regards.
Scott.