By Dick Maury
With the introduction of the XJ6/1, Steering racks were used in the Jaguar sedans. Later they were used in the XJS.
They had been used in the XKE and EV12 but this article concerns the Sedan and XJS Adwest racks only.
The early sedans and XJS cars used 205/70-15 tires. The lock tab in the steering rack was fine for this.
Part number JLM-172. It is the one on the left in the picture below:
With the introduction of the XJS HE and the Series 3 XJ6, 215/70-15 tires were used and the middle spacer was
installed on the racks to limit travel so the tires and wheels did not scrape on the car at full lock. You can see the
thickness variance below:
The plain tab is .044" thick. The middle one is .25" thick and the one on the right is .52" thick. The one on the right
was used on the XJS when Jaguar went to 235/60-15 tires.
The collar ID is 1.15" which fits over the 1.10 shaft just fine and only limits travel.
The tabs can only be bent but so many times and then need replacing. You simply grind the old one off and braze
the new flat one on top.
So if you have trouble with your car scrubbing tires after a rack replacement, you can switch these out without
removing the rack. Simply unscrew the tie rod knuckle, swap out the spacers, install and bend the lock tab over.