Tuning the 1956 Jensen 541

Our workshop are a bit of a dab hand when it comes to Jensen’s – it is without doubt the most frequent car that we have restored in nearly 20 years. The most recent 541 which our team have been working is this beautiful Grey 1956 Jensen 541.

Most recently, Jon has been working on tuning the classic GT car to run perfectly. To do this, Jon stripped down the intake side of the engine by removing the air filter box and housing to gain access to the carburettors. Carefully, he removed them and stripped them down on the bench to remove the pistons and suction chambers, from there Jon could accurately measure the jet depth for each individual chamber, lowering each one slightly in order to richen up the air/fuel mixture, while apart it gave Jon the opportunity to thoroughly clean up the pistons and suction chambers before refitting back onto the car.

With everything back together, Jon could run up the straight-six and begin by firstly tuning the carburettors by ear to get them roughly into the right area before the team deep dive into tuning the car completely. The keys were handed over to Big John, our workshop manager, to perform the road tests.

While out on test, Big John made some notes about some small changes and areas which Jon would need to take a look into once back at the workshop. With the car back at our Suffolk HQ, Jon got the 541 back onto the ramp. From there, he could slacken off the exhaust clamps and apply a small amount of sealer before refitting the pipework back together, and whilst under the car he could adjust the clutch arm to give it more clearance.

Working on the 1956 Jensen 541

Our workshop is well versed in all things Jensen 541 – having restored over a dozen of these classic GT cars (with 2 more in our workshop currently going through their restoration journey). So, when it comes to getting this beautiful 1956 Jensen 541 back up and running the team were eager to jump in.

Our technician Jon has been working on this particular car. He has been stripping down the interior in order to gain access to the gearbox as part of the team prepping for a clutch replacement. Jon has carefully gone through the systems to make sure that everything is undone as well as assess each component for its condition and operation.

As part of the clutch replacement, Jon has also serviced and inspected the car thoroughly which involved a repair to a HT lead and new spark plugs for the straight-six. While the car is up in the air, it gave Jon the chance to remove all of the wheels to inspect and strip down the brakes. All of the brake shoes were due for replacement, so they have been removed and are off to be refurbished. This exposed the backing plates for Jon to take a closer look at, cleaning up the units and repainting areas which had bare metal exposed.