I recently replaced the lower shock bushing and upper a-arm bushings on our 2002 XKR. Its is a spherical steel ball cartridge style joint. Similar to a johnny joint.

Its not all that hard to do. I'll give a quick write up here.

1) Remove wheel, and brake caliper (do not hang by hose).

2) Remove upper a-arm inner mounting bolt, keeping track of what spacers go where. The spacers are located on the inner sides of the bushings in contact with the subframe. On ours there is a thin and thick on on each side. The bolt came out fairly easy using a wrench under the bolt head and a hammer on the wrench.

3) Remove 3 bolts holding top of shock in and then the lower shock bolt. If you have the CATS system you also need to unplug the wiring from the shock. You may have to disconnect the sway bar link so the suspension can drop all the way.

4) Now the shock can be pulled out.

5)Next is the fun part.. getting the old bushing out. What I did was use a ball joint installer/remover rented from advance auto. A bench press would also work and is better suited for this. The sleeve/adapters for the kit are made for balljoints so they are a little large for the bushing sleeve. I used a variety of sockets to push the old bushing out. I then took apart the old bushing and used the old sleeve to push the new bushing in. Make sure the ID of the sleeve is clean with out sharp edges so you don't cut the bushing boot. You do not want to push the bushing in on the part that the bolt goes through. That will damage the bushing. You must push it in on the outer sleeve.

When installing the new bushing it is best to put it in the freezer over night and then take it out just before you install it. Use grease on it as well. Make sure that when you go to install it it doesn't **** and bind in the shock. Due to the freezing and grease I was able to tap it in most of the way with a hammer.

Replacing the a-arm bushings is easy. I just removed a the washers from the rubber and the bushing pretty much came out. I then greased up the new bushings and installed them with a c-clamp. They don't need a lot of pressure to seat them.

Assembly is the reverse. Make sure you put the caliper hose under the a-arm. Not above it like I did and I had to remove the a-arm again to route it correctly.

 

Nice write up Silver! Its very much appreciated to share with the group. I'll FAQ it for future DIYers. Any pictures to go along with your hard work and effort?

 

No, unfortunately I did not take any pictures. I had a lot of work to do this weekend and didn't even pull the camera out due to lack of time. I might add pictures of it assembled as the brakes need to be done. At least that way I can label which step to which part.

 

Even if you could circle the bolts removed, your new bushings, and other important parts that you identified, it would really assist first timers doing this themselves. Again, nice job and a big thanks for the writeup.

 

SilverXJ, if I may ask, where did you buy your bushings from? Did you get them as a lot or individual?

Thanks

 

Nice write up silver, exactly the kind we like around here....Only thing missing is the pics ( they really are worth a thousand words! )

Any more like that please post them and add pics if you can...They 'll be really helpful for others I'm sure

 

I'll be doing my upper shock mounts and upper A-arm bushings as soon as they show up so I'll try to take some pictures for you guys.

 

The bushings were purchased from www.classicautospares.us

 

I get my parts from jaguarparts.com or autopartswharehouse. But ever since The Ohio Dealer took over jaguarparts I think everything comes on a slow boat from China and the prices increased about 15%. A Dealer in Washington used to have it and it was awesome. No offense to OhioTech he's not parts.

Autopartswharehouse carries alot of genuine jaguar parts labeled OES genuine and free shipping on most items.

 

a tip for aligning the shims and spacers in the upper control arm, a piece of copper tube, here in the states it's called 1/2" but it's not actually 1/2", it's bigger and it will fit into the bushes and shims.

insert a 3" piece from the outer ends then load the shims and thrust washers onto the copper with just enough pipe sticking through the bush on the inside to hold everything in place.

push the bolt in which will push the copper tube out as it goes in.

this way there is no problem miss aligning the shims, it should just push together.

for those of you not in the colonies, 15mm pipe and 75mm long, should be the same but i don't have any here in Arizona to check.

 

SilverXJ,

I am poised to do the upper bushings myself. Looks like you are one of several of us who seem to indicate you can get A arm bushings out without seperating the ball joint. Hope you don't mind but I wanted to verify that - it will make the job much much faster & easier.

Might even takle it today. Thanks,

 

You can take out the entire shock assembly, including the upper A-arm without removing or separating the ball joint. You do need to support it so the weight doesn't tear its bushing.

Unless the pivot bolt is rusted, the upper A-arm bushings are fairly straight forward. As others have noted, pay attention to this shims.

 

My factory upper wishbone bushings twisted out by hand. Lubed up new factory style bushing and they twisted in. I guess a large C-clamp could have been used, too.


Breaking the ball joint makes this task easier, (and I needed to do the wheel bearings and LBJ, anyway) but it should be able to be done on the car.


Be sure to cut the two zip ties and unplug/unscrew the ABS sensor wires and put them out of the way. These wires are super fragile. I'm surprised the write up doesn't mention these.

 

Just did mine today. A couple of things for the next guy:

1) Separating the ball joint was so easy, I vote just do it. Trying to clean out and press the new bushes in with that connected may be more work than just disconnecting it.
2) The bolt attaching the ball joint is 18mm.
3) While you may get that bolt off with a wrench - You need an impact wrench to reattach it. The threaded shaft is part of the ball joint and it just spins. Mine had no visible way to immobilize it for a regular wrench. Impact wrench attached it in seconds.
4) The interior cylinder where the bushings reside is smooth when new. ANY ridges, residue, or rust will make it much much harder to push the new bushings in. A few seconds with a dremmel takes care of the ridges/residue. It doesn't need to look like a mirror, just get it flat and your life will be easy. I found the cylindrical sand paper attachments actually worked the fastest/best.

 

The trick I've found to help installing the ball joints manually is to first use a couple thick washers under the nut.

This allows the nut to be torqued in the "clean" region of the threads when pulling the ball joint into the taper.

Once the ball joint is seated in the taper, remove the nut/washers and torque the nut down normally. The "jam" portion of the threads should now not provide enough resistance to spin the ball joint shaft in the taper.

 

Thanks Ungn great to know. I'm sure I would never have figured that one out yesterday.

 

Ball Joint, if you slide the boot upward the shaft is notched and you can use a wrench

 

I didn't want to risk that with my original uppers as the boots are still in good condition.

On the lower ball joints, my boots were trashed and there definitely is no flat. The taper goes to the ball.

 

Perhaps true I replace my B-joints when I did this and may depend on what you buy, I figure if you have the arms off you might as well replace them if never done for they WILL go bad, surprised a 97 still has original.

 

i pressed out my upper ball joints, they took a lot of pressing which i put down to rust.

pressed in the new ones alot easier than the old came out and re- assembled the car, drove it round for a few days and today i took the front wheels off and guess what i found, the drivers side ball joint had pressed itself back out again!!!!!
now it seems to just push in and out of the control arm, anyone had this problem.

these control arms are not very well designed, they are clearly designed to be replaced when the ball joint fails so that at that time the inner bushes are replaced and because they will be seized.

if i were designing it, i would make the upper ball joint a push fit, not a press fit and provide a groove for a circlip to hold it in place, in addition, the inner bushes are true bearings not just a rubber bush and tube, they should be greased on assembly and provision for a grease nipple in the middle of each pair to keep them lubricated.

when i looked at the way they were made i almost made some better ones from DOM tube with a screw in ball joint and suitably sized "energy" bushes, i may still do that as i have two cars with two upper arms each so i would make good use of a jig fixture.

now all i am waiting for are a pair of ball joint boots from balljointboots.co.uk