1995 XJS 5 Speed Manual

I have a 1994 XJS Conv with 4.0L and factory 5 speed which I ordered new. When the 95's came out with AJ16 engines I was interested in buying a coupe with 5 speed but was told by my dealer that the option had been dropped in the US. Apparently the option was only available on the 4.0 cars in the US in 93 and 94 with most coming in 93. Sales of 94 5 speeds were so low that Jag decided to drop the option in 95.

Allan Ghazarian
1994 XJS Conv 4.0L factory 5 speed

Peter- I own a 1990 XJS coupe and want to convert to a manual transmission. Are you willing to sell me one of yours? If yes, then please either email me at ghcunninghamcomcast.net or call me at 248-470-4000. Thanks! -Gary

Many of these conversions have been done and all owners seem quite happy. The 1st gear is quite aggressive which significantly helps with the 2.88 rear, and the 5th gear drops the rpms at 70 mph from 3,000 to 1,800. Kit is complete with the only decision to be made is whether to use an aluminum or steel flywheel. They offer close ratio 5 speeds and 6 speeds also, but then you have to change the rear end. Other goodies are available but one step at a time ;-)

Please do. A couple of weeks ago I found three original V12 XJS Jag low mileage 4-speeds in the UK, complete with flywheel, clutch and starters. Apart from not having overdrive fifth they will have the same results as your swap, so it will be interesting how you feel about the sleeping cat suddenly springing to life as you tread on its tail! I'll also be interested how he organises the clutch pedal and throw-out bearing and how you find the fuel consumption if you can restrain yourself to driving at a like-for-like pace to the original slush-box spec.

I do have the Jag 5-speeds as well but that swap is not the straight bolt-in that the original 4-synchro trans is. A 4-speed with a typical 2.88 V12 Powr-Lok is still great for highway cruising, especially as the V12 revs higher. There aren't too many major performance upgrades that offer significant potential fuel savings as well...

Pete

OK, Chris at Foreign Accents is going to put the 5 speed manual in my '90 XJS V12...will let you guys know how it works out.

Edward
Are you in the US?
I have a genuine Jaguar factory built 5 speed manual 4.0 XJS coupe, build date July 1993, '94 MY (outboard rear brakes etc).
I think the easiest way to confirm whether the '95 car you are looking at is a factory fitted manual transmission car is to check the VIN. The 8th digit is either an 8 or a 4. An 8 is a manual and a 4 is an auto.
As far as I know, and like the other replies, it was only 93 and 94 MY 4.0 XJS's that were offered with the manual transmission in the US, probably as a special order.
My car originally came from California where it was a birthday present for the owner.
I may be interested in selling my 5 speed.

I was only discussing sixes. AFAIK there were a couple of hundred 4-synchro V12 XJ-Ss very early in 76-77-ish using E-type bell and gearbox etc and that was the only manual V12 ever built by Jaguar. Some years later a few TWR- built special editions were sold by Jag with the Getrag, as well as a few S3 XJ TWR cars using that trans. Is that right George?

Pete

To all you guys--I can't stress enough (again) that if you want to know what happened in the US market you should get a copy of "Jaguar in America" by Dugdale/Cook. It is in the shoppe and is very reasonable. Ok ad over--page 314 chapter head "The XJS gets a 5 speed and the XJ12 returns---" Humm wonder what is in here--it seems that Jaguar USA did not want the 5 speed but Coventry made them anyway in limited quantities-- Mike dale of Jaguar stated "They were impossible to sell!" Only a few hundred were made and they have now become sought after by collectors. This ref. is to the 4.0 L car. As far as the V12 cars there was no regular production. A limited run in 93 of the XJR-S coupes was done by Jaguar Sports but all coupes. Somewhere I think I have a bulletin that there were 50 5 speed V12s in 1995--but I will need to look.

Don't know the answer to if a 5 speed was offered in '95 but do have a question of my own:

Thinking about putting a new manual in my '90 XJS convertible. There is a company in TN that offers a nice complete kit that seems to have had good results. Issue is that I don't know how much it actually costs in labor time/expense to install the kit and the company doesn't offer the service or seem to know the cost. Anyone in NC familiar with this type of project? I am in W-S, belong to the CJC and have my car serviced at Foreign Accents in G'boro.

Thanks.

I recall reading that the 5-speed XJS was offered in the USA and Canada for two years and about 200 were sold.

Whether it was offered for two *model* years,or for a two year period of time (which could conceiveably include three model years) I cannot say. The few I've seen, either in the flesh or advertised for sale, were 93 or 94 model years.

I certainly wouldn't mind owning one. That much I can say with certainty :-)

Cheers
DD

Edited on 2012-12-08 9:08:35

The 1995 Model Year Technical Update says this:

Manual five-speed transmission--
Not Available on 6.0L, or on 4.0L in Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, ROW, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and USA

ROW=Rest of World. That usually means all the smaller markets and countries around the world. It doesn't say Europe, for instance, so I'd say it was available in Germany, as an example.

If we had the last six digits of the VIN# we can probably figure out what market the car was built for.

Hope that helps.

As far as I know, there was a manual version every year the AJ6 or AJ16 was produced in the XJ and XJ-S/XJS.

I had an 84 and 86 5-speed XJ-S and a 94XJR manual. I assume manuals were almost unheard of in the USA but technically there's no reason why there would not have been manuals leaving the factory in small numbers every year the sixes were being made. I certainly have one of each factory transmission, flywheel and pedal box etc to convert any AJ6 or AJ16 Jaguar to manual and those cover all years so your car should be fine IMHO even if it was a grey import.

I don't have detailed US info though.