I am looking closely at my rear suspension as it is jacked up
with wheels off to swap out my diff.

Some of the bushings in the upper and lower control arms are cracking so I want to replace all of them.

Have been reading threads that seem a little old and with, to me, confusing info or incomplete info.

JAGUAR XJ S TYPE Rear Lower Control Arm Fluid Hydrabushes BUSHING Bushings SET 3 | eBay

I looked at the above on Ebay and tho they fit a 2005 XJ they are apparently not compatible with an XJR?

Would appreciate some suggestions please.

 

None of the rear lower wishbone bushes are of the hydrabush type, so the eBay vendor is wrong with the description at least even if they are selling the right parts. Two bushes are ball-type, (but not the typical ball joints we are used to). These are the ones that wear out quickly, like between 40-50k miles!! The other bush is a rubber, Silentbloc type, that lasts a long time, but will eventually need replacing.

You have to be very careful pressing these bushes in and out because the wishbone is an aluminium casting, not a forging, and you can end up cracking the housing. If you're going to attempt the job, at least pour a couple of kettles of boiling water over the wishbone before pressing. Aluminium expands at twice the rate of steel, so the bush should almost drop out when you apply pressure. Similarly when pressing the new bush back.

PS: same bushes on all versions of the X350.

 

Thank you Fraser. Very useful info.

any idea where to locate the upper rear control arm bushing? I cannot see any on Ebay.

 

Look for 2003 - 2006 Ford Thunderbird or Lincoln LS. Also Jaguar S-Type. They were a little over a 100.00 each two years ago.
If I was going to replace again would go with Moog. The Lemforder OEM fail prematurely. Not sure OEM is better than Moog.

 

I bought the ebay kit that you have mentioned for my XJ8 and they fit fine.The only problem the ebay company doesn't mention is that the bushings are Hamburg Tech brand which has gotten poor quality reviews in the past. I'm hoping the company has improved the quality of their product.They were the only company that I found to have the bushings available. Not sure what the proper name for the bushings is -hydrabushing or cross axis ball joint they were easy to press into the arms. Since you have to take the boot off one end of the bushing to press it in make sure to add more grease before rebooting. And the LS arms do fit and actually have the jaguar name stamped into them
Bought mine from Sunrise Ford on Ebay. So not sure if these bushings will fit your XJR-that you will have to see if the arms are the same part numbers for both models.

 

I have ordered complete upper control arms and a set of lower control arm bushings so we will see.
If it is not too cold I will work on getting the arms off and my rebuilt diff with the Quaife installed over the next few days.

 

Don't forget to take many pics and to share them here (bushings and diff) with the list of outstanding issues you meet (hope not too many) and solutions, most valuable for us DIY apprentices!

 

I will.

It is 19 F this morning after hitting 70 F a couple of days ago so too cold
in the garage for me as yet!

 

I have had a lot of friendly conversations with my local indie over the past few years re the X350 suspension. The bushes on the top wishbones front and rear last a long time, as do the steel balljoints provided the rubber boots aren't split and ignored. For the lower rear wishbones the life has apparently got better since the XF came out. This model uses the same suspension except it is steel coils not air. So there may have been a material improvement in later cars, but too late for the X350 and X358, as the XF dates from 2009. Maybe the current XJ saloon has them. However I believe they are backwardly compatible.

What has improved are the prices. When Ford owned Jaguar they seemed to have the philosophy of "give him the car and whallop him for the spare parts", a bit like the computer printer manufacturers with printers and the ink !!

Now Tata Motors are in charge the rear lower wishbone prices have come down dramatically to less than half the £460 originally charged by Jaguar. In fact it makes swapping bushes out a non-starter if you're getting a shop to do the job as labour charges for bush swaps outweigh the cost of just swapping wishbones.

 

I will be doing the bushing swap job myself.

I found rebuilt rear lower control arms in the UK however shipping cost was probably going to be to high to make them worthwhile.

I did find new upper rear control arms for a very reasonable price here in the US thanks to a previous post in this thread by Panelhead.

 

The dealers in the US must not not gotten the memo on lowering the prices for rear lower arms. Maybe soon.
The picture of the arms looks the same for the arms. Guess they are compatable.

 

Ok so I am at this point where I need to "loosen" the half shaft splines in the hub knuckle/ carrier.

It does not want to cooperate. Am I missing something?

I just read thru this https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...arings-115195/

I think I need a bigger puller!!

 

Insert a crowbar behind the flange and apply pressure on the back of the flange.

At the same time hit the end of the half shaft with a heavy copper faced hammer.

 

The rear upper control arms arrived today along with the lower control arm bushings.

Rough measurements look good.

I ordered new rear sway bar end links as so far I have had to saw thru the top bolt on the right one to get it off. Assuming I will have the same problem on the left.

The bolts holding in the control arms release fairly easily.

I am waiting on this Ebay item: Hydraulic Gear Puller Bearing Wheel Pulling 2 or 3 Jaws set (5 tons) L-5, since I absolutely cannot shift the rhs half shaft splined end out of the carrier.

I have tried suggestions and it does not budge. If I use much harder blows on the end of the half shaft it will be damaged even with the nut on the end. I have ordered new nuts as well.

Since I have a spare half shaft I might end up doing that anyway.

I just hope 5 tons is enough.

Too cold to work any length of time in my garage right now.

 

Put the new bushings in the freezer until you are ready to press them in.And some heat on the arm-I used a heat gun- helps to press out the old and press in the new.

 

Now that the temperature is a balmy 37 degrees F I made some progress.

Pic shows nut I had to saw thru on the sway bar link. I will have to do the same on all the link nuts.

2nd pic shows detached brake line with rubber tube inserted to stop excessive bleeding.

I detached the connector to the reluctor sensor as well as taking the sensor off to prevent damage.

Both the handbrake caliper and main caliper were removed out of the way completely.

All clip on components were unclipped to facilitate the removal of the control arms.

3rd pic shows the 5 ton hydraulic puller that just arrived.

When applying this puller it did "break" the spline inside the carrier, however, it did not have enough range of motion to push the half shaft spline completely out.

At the time I did not realize what the issue was. So I took the whole half shaft out along with the hub.

Detaching the half shaft at the diff was incredibly easy. Not much pressure with a bearing splitter.

The last 2 pics are difficult to see but I could see quite a bit of a gap between the hub and half shaft so I was encouraged.

Next step I took the whole assembly and hung it vertically with a support under the hub.

Then I used my 2 jaw puller to press the half shaft out of the hub.
This process took a lot of effort but worked.

Plenty of PB blaster used.

Next step is to take out the upper and lower control arms and deal with the bushings.

I will do the same on the lhs and then take out and replace the diff with the Quaife unit that is ready to go.

Btw I have 4 jack stands and a hydraulic hand pump lift supporting the rear with front wheels chocked both sides.

 

It occurred to me last night that I wasted a lot of time and energy getting the half shaft disconnected from the hub!

If you are not going to work on the hub or half shaft just take the whole sheebang out. So easy!

There is a risk of damaging the seal in the diff but if you are careful it will not happen.

Replacing the seal with the diff installed should not be difficult anyway.

So on the lhs this is the procedure I will employ.

 

Making slow but steady progress.

Both the lower and upper rear rhs control arms are now removed.

The upper that I bought on Ebay, LINCOLN LS V6 V8 REAR UPPER CONTROL ARM ARMS BALL JOINT JOINTS LEFT RIGHT SET 2, does match.

I had to cut of the end of a wrench/spanner to stop the bolt head twisting on the inner upper control arm mount. This was the most difficult bolt to get at and also to extract once undone as very little clearance to pull out toward the rear of the car.

Why it was inserted with the bolt to the rear I dont quite understand. If the nut was on the rear with a tab attached It would have been easier.

Getting the nut back on maybe not so easy?

The shock bottom mount looks in great condition.

 

Little late now but i never remove the hubs or axles to replace control arms. Totally not neccessary so was a little confused as to why you were doing it

 

I am swapping out the diff for one with a Quaife so thats why I wanted to take out the half shaft.

However I absolutely did not need to seperate the half shaft from the carrier.

Live and learn.