almost completed my install. Shifter lines up almost perfectly. No cutting required(i am using OEM style manual tunnel cover). Its pretty close, will know if there are any vibrations once I can test drive. Note, ideal shifter location looks to be forward shift, with the OEM tunnel cover there is plenty of room, will go that route vs cutting tunnel if there ends up being a problem. Feel free to ask any questions, happy to share my experience so far

 

Did you buy the entire kit from driven man or just a bellhousing?

 

entire kit. If i did it over, would do it all on my own as I am not really using anything they supplied.

pedals, master cylinder, shifter and knob - used my own as I didn't like what was included.

shifter linkage, wrong length included.

flywheel bolts, missing.

pressure plate bolts missing.

clutch remote reservoir missing.

bellhousing required a trip to the machine shop ti make it work to my standards

transmission mount is a poor design. Will be fabricating my own.

speedo transducer not compatible with tkx(no clearance at tranny mount).

also, the bellhousing accepts .625” dowels, my 86 has .621” dowels. Took me a while before I figured that out, had to have off the shelf .625” .007 offset dowels turned down on one end in order to get alignment correct(could not get consistent reading as there was play at bellhousing)

I am at the last leg of the project and looking forward to going for a spin

 

That sounds very disappointing considering the price, but I’m glad you were able to make it work.

I was sold a frankenbits XJS transmission home made “kit” but it lacks (among other things) a clutch and releaee bearing slave cylinder. What are you using there?

 

have to say, DrivenMan(American Powertrain) came through here. Clutch/flywheel/pressure plate fit perfectly(with my own bolts). They included their Hyrdamax concentric slave cylinder, well made piece and fit perfectly. Havent had a chance to bleed and test as i am awaiting an OEM master from UK.

 

The Jaguar brake pedal assembly has the same casting as the brake and clutch pedal assembly so it can be turned into a brake and clutch pedal assembly.
Grab an extra brake pedal. And plan on doing a little welding.
Go on u tube and look for camp chaos. He shows you how.
It’s easy to use a Chevy Bell housing to adapt a manual transmission to the 1978 and later V12. The alignment pins are in the right place. You will need to make an adapter but it’s easy work and not hyper critical. The bolts are a sloppy fit in the bell housing.. they don’t align anything. They just clamp. The alignment pins do the alignment.

The thickness of this adapter needs to be based on which transmission you use.
Transfer the holes in the Chevy bell housing and the Jaguar bell housing. Then use Flathead countersunk bolts to attach it to the block and thread the adapter to take the bolts from the Chevy bell housing.

 

Thank you for pointing out the brand name of Hydramax. Was there a part number on there? What about the clutch assembly? Was there a part number on that? I know this is cheating


I don’t need an adapter ring or a bell housing, it has a 5speeds housing already. The pedals are no problem. It came with two OEM manual transmission pedal box assemblies. The previous owner had no problem spending money!

 

The clutch and pressure plate are just GM spec stuff, I think its a 10” clutch.

 

One thing you must do is different transmissions have different pilot shaft lengths. . Some of those transmissions are too long and press on the crankshaft thrust bearing when tightened in place. That quickly tears up the bearing, then the crankshaft and block in very few miles. Measure to be sure. It’s a few minutes well spent.
Also the pilot shaft size varies too, so measure that as well. You don’t want it flopping around loose.