THE INTERNATIONAL JAGUAR 'S'-TYPE REGISTER FORUM

That is exactly what my car has. The discord between the reality and the parts book and manual is perplexing indeed.

Here is the set up as it is on my parts car. You can see the bracket and the cable which has been propped up and would normally be rearward to the shift bracket on the trans.

i see more what you are faced with now. I think I was replacing the Ujoint in the column at this point. You can see that the shifter rod has a right hand tunr in it at the end where it hooks to the cable. This is one of the parts that neither the shop manual nor the parts book actually Show.

The linkage for the auto should be fairly simple to remedy. All it consists of is a lever at the top that has movement from left to right we will say. At the bottom on the side of the gearbox is a second lever that goes up and down. If the lever on the gearbox has we will say five settings, Park, Neutral, Reveres, Drive and drive1 then the lever on the top also needs five settings to correspond with the gearbox lever. How the two levers are connected is your problem and the linkage with the bars should be ripped out. Lay a cable from the top to the bottom connecting the two. Mine (RHD BW35) runs from the top through the firewall over the top of the transmission tunnel and down to the left side of the gearbox. It does not matter really if it is LHD or RHD the cable will just be shorter for the LHD. Your problem will be how the cable connects at each end so the sleeve is held and the inner cable can move freely to operate the lever. You will have to manufacture a bracket or adapt the existing one to work with the cable.

True - but that's about the least of the problems at this stage.

Woh that hole is going to let a lot of engine fumes into the cabin and noise.

Thanks Jerry and Cass. Some clarification. My car had been fitted with a BW8 replacing the original DG250. It appears that when that was done a completely different shifter linkage was installed. But it seems to be the same as what Jerry has with his DG250, which in turn is very different from what is shown in the books. The photo shows where the linkage cable connects to the straight shaft which runs alongside the steering column. It comes out through a crudely hacked hole in the firewall. Definitely not standard. The BW8 transmission is out while my engine is being rebuilt. It did work but leaked badly and was deficient in other ways - no cooler, no kickdown in particular. My intention is to replace it with a GM transmission using the kit from John's Cars. That kit is supplied with controls compatible with specific models of classic Jaguars but that will be an issue because I don't have the shifter that the car should have. I don't want to be fabricating a custom linkage to allow the GM transmission to work. That's my dilemma. That and the fact that Jerry's linkage is also apparently non-stock.

Rolly the 420 will not look the same as it was fitted with a Model 8 auto box. The S Type was fitted with either the DG250 which is what Jerry has shown or from around Sept 1967 they fitted the BW35 gear box.
I have the BW35 but I have right hand drive so the set up would be different for the DG250 but for the BW35 it should be the same. There is a linkage under the dash which is adjustable but there is a cable that attaches behind the dash and runs through the fire wall down to a lever on the side of the gear box. The set up should be the same for RHD and LHD as it is just a cable with no bars running down the side of the steering column. I checked through my photos and I do not have a photo of the underside of the dash showing the linkage but I have attached a photo similar to Jerrys showing the side of the gear box on the BW35. The wiring block you can see is the immobiliser switch which on the DG250 is under the dash.

For clarification- do you have the DG250 with a different linkage? Do you have a different transmission? I suppose its possible that at this age a later trans could have been swapped in -in any case maybe you could post a pic or a link to a pic of what you are dealing with. Good luck.

Hi Jerry - I am getting back to the issue of my auto transmission linkage. The problem is that mine and yours bear zero resemblance to what is pictured in the Workshop manuals and parts catalogues for S-type or for 420. Maybe someone with greater knowledge than I can shed some light on this because I am mystified. The books all show a linkage and cable that connects to the shifter near the top of the steering column and passes through the firewall on its way to the transmission. Can someone help out here?