Jag rear, hot rod history?

When did the Jag' rear appear on the hot rod scene?
Some general talk/comment/discissions/exceperience around the Jag' rear on hot rods?

I'm collecting informations for my private homepage!

 

Probably about a week after the first Jag was crashed

 

Whoops! "Honey, I shrunk the rod"

 

i'm not sure when the first jag rear end went into a hot rod, but i do remember Rod & Custom doing some articles on it back in the 60's , i'd have to dig through them to see what isssue. Jim Jacobs drove a `29 ford panel delivery to the very first Street Rod Nationals in Peoria Il in 1970 that had a jag rear....he was working for R & C at the time

 

My first recollection of one in a rod was in a T bucket. They were pretty pricey so they were used were they would be seen.

Total Performance in Conn. made lots of parts to use them in a rod. They made wheel bolt hole plates to weld onto the E-type splined axle shafts, tie bars to replace the cage and radius rods for a rod.

 

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Probably about a week after the first Jag was crashed

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Probably the most accurate answer.

And who was first and who was first in the magazine/rod history are probably two different cars/dates.
That rear end hit the states around '62-'63 so probably soon after that here. The Jag rear had two different gear ratios, one in the sedan and one in the XK-E, but it's the same make as a Corvette so you can swap in some Vette gears if you want different ratios.
The XK-E was a better width than the sedan for a Rod but the sedan hubs had a 5 bolt pattern for wheels and the XK-E had splined hubs for wire wheels so a combination of parts from the two is what is desired. A lot were narrowed sedan rears.
They lose a lot of their "good" handling and ride characteristics when the "ugly" stock mounting cage is removed.

 

While we're on the subject, I had a friend ask me if I wanted a Jag rear end complete for free, free is my favorite price. its still laying where he dropped it
now its free to the highest bidder(whats higher than free)

 

The Jag rear was the vega box or Mustang II of the 70's. Everybody had to build one. If you could find a Jag. The class act back then was fully independent suspensions. Jags or Corvettes went under everything. Pick up an early 70's mag and see what's under all the feature cars...

 

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When did the Jag rear appear on the hot rod scene?

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The March, 1969 issue of Rod & Custom has an article by Joe Rusz on pages 26 to 29 that shows Ted Brown installing a Jag rear end in the chassis for L.A. Roadsters member Jack McNeil's Deuce roadster.

It was shortly after that when Jerry Kugel mounted Jag front and rear suspension in his own Deuce roadster.

Dave
http://www.roadsters.com/

 

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While we're on the subject, I had a friend ask me if I wanted a Jag rear end complete for free, free is my favorite price. its still laying where he dropped it
now its free to the highest bidder(whats higher than free)

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If your trying to get it gone, I bid twice free....

 

Morrisman, what's the story on that l'il rod? That looks cool.

DrJ, did guys use XK120-140-150 rear ends before the E-Type arrived? I remember my dad saying he had some Jag bits in his 55 Chev, but I don't know off the top of my feeble brain what he used (that was in 1956).

 

Jag rear end movie trivia:

Losin' It - there is a junkyard RPU that's supposed to have a LaSalle box and other junkyard parts. During a chase scene you can easily see the chrome Jag rearend and arms under the bed. The rear wheels are widened Jag spoke jobbies while the fronts are steel wheels.

 

Buy a few Street Rodder early issues or the R&C annuals or quarterlies or whatever they were--I think this all happened in one of the periods when the monthly R&C was out of business. You'll find tons of installation articles and bracket kits. It was much like the more recent arrival of Pinto front suspension, with companies frantically releasing new kits for more and more applications. A street rod without a Jag was second rate, like one without power windows now.
I think the fad was able to exist only in a short window of time when early XKE's were dying of rust and before they became too collectable to junk. Handling benefits didn't really seem to be there--Ford suspension went about the same in the few tests--but as pointed out above, rodders went with bracketry designed mostly to be invisible rather than strong. The rears made lots of sense, as almost any normal rear, even original, is way too much unsprung weight for an early roadster.
Unlike the Pinto suspension game, the aftermarket wasn't then able to manufacture a replacement system once the junkyards were picked clean.

 

DrJ,
Jag and 'vette gears are made by the same people? Sounds odd.
Another thing with Jag rear ends is that they are very heavy, and not particularly stong, if you plan running a hot motor. They were built to go under a big heavy car, thus the solid steel and huge castings.

Big A, I snapped that little rod at a car show in England. Real nice but kinda odd that a guy put so much effort into what is essentially a toy. It had a horrible flame paint job laid over that beautiful red candy too.

And that's my two year old girl desperatly trying to get out of the pram and jump into the rod!

 

It's very many ways to mount a Jag rear, but only two of them are correct.
I've already bought one. Did initially planning to use a 8" Ford, but got the Jag' rear cheap, so i bought it.
After surfing around on the net searching for information on how to install the axle correct, it seems to mee that AC Cobra kitcar builders are best on that.
They use whatever gives good handling and don't bother too much about the look under their cars.

I posted a pic of a mossy, rusted jag axle a while ago. It's now taken apart, the rust is removed, the hubs is carefully grinded, and I only have some sandblasting left before repaint and reassembling.

 

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DrJ,
Jag and 'vette gears are made by the same people? Sounds odd.
Another thing with Jag rear ends is that they are very heavy, and not particularly stong, if you plan running a hot motor.


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It's because they both use dana 44 center sections. and they can be plenty strong, check out some 4x4 sites for beefy parts for the dana 44.

 

In the November 1967 Rod & Custom coverage of the roadster roundup at Pismo Beach, Tex Smith credits two San Jose Roadster Club members with putting Jag rear ends under their 28 and 29 roadster pickups. He included the first picture I had seen of a Jag rear end in that article. He credited Les Erben with being the first to do so in a later R&C. In a feature on Joe Cardoza’s 29 roadster pickup in the Oct 69 issue of R&C, Bud Bryan gives Cardoza and Erben of the San Jose Roadsters “the distinction of being the first anywhere to install the flashy and complicated Jag rearend hookup in an early roadster chassis.” If not the first, they were the first to get publicity.