I intend changing the rear discs and pads on 420g and was hoping for some pointers. I presume i drop the rear subframe cage? Looks straightforward enough? I have car raised on heavy duty jack stands supported on chassis rails just forward of suspension arms. I have the rear cage supported by 2 tonne trolley jack and it "appears" as though i now undo drive shaft, remove bolts thru rubber mounts in forward suspension arms, handbrake cable and rubber mounts on each corner? Then she should drop free? Am i missing anything? And having done this how would i go about removing calipers and discs or is it self explanatory? Cheers jj.

 

You have it pretty well right. Don't forget the hydraulic brake line to the sub-frame. You just loosen off the flexible at one end.

Removal of the radius arms that project forward can be a problem when the arm won't come off their taper on the front, (large diameter), mount underneath the sill. These can be a PITA to loosen off due to years of rusting. It is not unknown for the sill itself to start breaking-up if a lot of removal effort is made.

This suspension assembly carried on unchanged right through to the 90s with the V12s but some late XJS's had outboard brakes as per the XJ40

 

Yeah wish i had out board brakes on this! Cage is down now, not too bad, it was a bit front heavy when i was lowering it! The calipers look a curse to remove, how in gods name do i get these wired mounting bolts out without turning them a tiny fraction at a time? Surely there's an easier way?

 

Jeez the calipers are a scourge to remove, i had to use a modified ie: ground down 5/8 socket through a hole in the discs to loosen one of the bolts and a modified 5/8 spanner to loosen the other a tiny amount at a time! Then wriggle them from the cage/ disc. Took two days on and off! I dread putting them back, was there an easier way? Or did i just make a meal of it?

 

I have this project in my sights on the 3.8. I hope youll keep us posted.

 

Certainly ill try. Its not particularly difficult, a decent trolley jack and 2 good jack stands is pretty much all needed to drop the subframe cage. As i say the calipers are fiddly to remove to say the least but perhaps there is an easier way.

Also the large rubber mounts in the forward facing arms take a serious amount of grunt to separate from the tapered body mount. Remove the two small bracket bolts then the large bolt thru the rubber mount bushing and use the biggest pry bar you can find to force it down and free! It will separate, believe me. Ill post pics during the week.