Well I have managed to make some progress on the front axle, cleaning and stripping was straight forward but time consuming, a couple of seized bolts in the fulcrum lever and a couple in the bottom shock absorber plate, but other than that all went well.

Painted the parts, and then came the frustration ... I decided to get a plating kit and zinc/nickle plate the bolts etc. This didn't go so well, all looked ok until I went to passivate and the bolts went black ! I eventually worked out that I was using too low a current so did.t get enough plating on the bits.

I ordered a current stabilized power supply and the second attempt was better, I will try buffing the bolts to see if they look better, the long bolt is shown in the picture with new plating, and the bolt supplied by SNG is above it which is too short for the job.

In the meantime I decided to get some of the bolts from SNG, unfortunately the bolts supplied for the upper ball joint were too short, the long bolt was 1/2" short and the short bolt was 3/4" short ! After calling SNG, and then not getting called back, and calling again, same thing, eventually I have been told they have ordered the correct length bolts and will send them out tomorrow, so hopefully I can get some of the axle back together this weekend.

 

Nice job on the suspension. I am in the process of attempting a complete rebuild of my suspension and have a question for you. How did you manage to separate the ball joints from the upper and lower wishbones? I have both wishbones removed from the sub-frame but I have been unable to break the ball joints free. For all of my hardware, I am installing new hardware. I have a local source that is very reasonable in price and seem to have about 90% of what I need. All of the hardware is zinc plated and will likely outlast me.

 

A good whack with a heavy hammer worked on mine, but otherwise use a ball joint splitter like these below

HEAVY DUTY 16" 400MM BALL JOINT REMOVER SPLITTER SEPARATOR TIE ROD END

BALL JOINT SEPARATOR HEAVY DUTY 20--50MM SCISSOR TYPE SPLITTER TIE ROD END | eBay

That should do the trick, otherwise you are on to a press, but you really shouldn't need to go that far.

 

Suspension Shim mess !

I carefully noted all the shims on the fulcrum levers and upper balljoints, but happened to look at the service manual, and found that the shims are messed up !

The upper balljoints should always have 8 shims and 1 packer , the order of these sets the Castor angle, mine had a total 5 on one side and 3 on the other, then the fulcrum levers should have equal No's on both sides, mine had 5 and 2 on one side and 3 and 2 on the other ! So the Castor angle was being adjusted by the Camber shims on the fulcrum shaft and the lack of shims on the balljoints were putting extra pressure on the bushes on the fulcrum lever as they are essentially twisting the levers in not allowing them to sit square in the bushes! (SEE EDIT BELOW)

EDIT TO THE ABOVE
When 8 shims are in place the upper bump stop won't fit, the bolt holes are too far apart ! The maximum no of shims I can get in is 5, has there been an amendment to the manual, or has anyone else had this issue ?

I have just simply taken an educated guess as far as shim numbers are concerned and will have to set the suspension up from scratch when I get her all back together.

Quick plea to anyone here that can help with another problem. Both my outer bumper brackets are missing from the car and are no longer available, I can fabricate new ones, but getting either a pattern I can borrow (in the UK) or if someone has or could do me a drawing with dimensions it would be very useful.

many thanks

Jon

 

Jon,

Did you sort out your bumper brackets? If not then there are a pair for sale on ebay at the moment

JAGUAR DAIMLER MK2 / V8 FRONT USED BUMPER MOUNTING BRACKETS X2 | eBay

Hope this is of help.

 

Thanks Homer, but I think they are the outer brackets for the big bumper that has an angle piece bolted to the end that in turn bolts to the bumper. I maybe wrong ?

My 340 has the thin bumpers, it had some dexion bodged to fit ! So I don't know exactly what they look like, but they should have an offset and be cranked down from the fixing point on the cross member, I can't find a picture anywhere at the moment !

 

I've not had much time on the car recently, but nearly have the front axle done, I have the wheel bearings and oil seals on order from SNG, so should have it completed this week. (if the parts fit ! see below)

I went to trial fit the Vee mounts, and found that the holes do not line up with the holes in the chassis rails, after looking online, I found that "MK2" Lin had the same issue, it turnes out that the cheaper mount supplied by SNG don't actually fit properly, on Lin's "valvechatter" blog, he found that the part that is £17 is NOT a precision part, but the part that is £70 is !!! He notes that a precision part means that it actually fits !

The bottom line is that unless you are prepared to set about the chassis rail and/or the Vee mount with a grinder/welder/hammer then buy the part No C9004 and not C9004#

I will raise this with SNG but I am not expecting much !

 

Yep, been there and done that. Sorry that you had the same experience.
Lin

 

I wouldn't even bother contacting them about this issue. I had some problems with them as well with the left and right clutch pedal/brake return springs_ they are mixed up. They did send the correct one at their expense, but they never did admit that there was a problem and to my knowledge, it's still not fixed on their web page.

 

You are probably right Jeff, so far I have had an oil pipe from the oil filter housing to the sump that was the wrong size, bolts for the upper front ball joints incorrect size, Vee mounts that don't fit.

With the oil pipe and bolts, I have had to pay for the correct replacements !
They have eventually collected the incorrect parts, but as yet I have heard nothing from them regarding the credit. They also say that they the correct part no's and will look into it, but I never get a reply.

They have missed out my discount on orders, I have asked 3 times now, and they say that they will get a manager to look, but still nothing.

I have spent the best part of £3K with them, you would think they would be a little more on the ball.

Maybe we should all compile a list of ill fitting or incorrect parts as a reference for others ?

 

geez, what firm is that?

 

SNG Barrett I'm afraid to say Jose

 

SNG UK? in the US, SNG is reliable, or at least it has been for me, not 100% perfecto mind you, but the parts I have purchased from them have done and continue to do the job, contrary to the experiences I had with XKs Unlimited in California, they sent me the lowest quality garbage parts and the worst part is they wouldn't do right.

For example, check their "replacement fuel pump mounts"; They fell apart while I was fitting them. The bolt head was GLUED to the rubber as opposed to being a straight-thru stud which was VULCANIZED like the original mounts.

 

Jose, it's not the quality of the parts that's the issue I'm happy to say, unlike yours and other peoples experience with XK's , I read about the fuel mount on another thread, just terrible !

It's that they supply parts that don't fit, MK2 (Lin) had the same problem with the VEE mount from SNG US that I had.

 

I bought the cheaper v mounts from SNG Barratt and they fitted fine on my car, from memory there is a right and a wrong way around and my car when I bought it had one on one way and one on the other which had then caused the front mounting to bend.

Must of been terrible to drive!

 

I'm glad you didn't have the same problem, you are correct the mounts should be fitted with the point toward the front, but the ones I had didn't fit either way !
When they were tight against the chassis, they fixing bolts didn't line up with the hole in the chassis leg, they were about 1/8" too low, at first I assumed it was where I had made the repairs to the right side rail, but when I checked it on the other side (which was original) the same issue was there.
A little work with the grinder and welder soon fixed the issue, it only takes a very small difference to put things out as essentially there are 2 V's that mate, so a small amount on the face of the V makes a bigger difference at the fixing point.

The new bearings arrived today, so I will spray the hubs tomorrow and mount them this week which will complete the front axle except for making the bracket for the power steering rack.

 

It's been a slow week on the car, but completed the front suspension except for the power steering mount.

The front calipers and polybushes were Christmas presents from my very best friend, and the balljoints were from my kids, so the front suspension is that bit extra special.

You will see in the pictures that I had to cut away part of the splash guard which used to hold the brake pipe to accommodate the larger calipers, this was on one of them, the very part that I painstakingly re-created as it had rusted away ! (One should always read the instructions before starting ! I personally like to look at the instructions when I can't get it to fit !!!)

Now to start the rear axle -----

 

Hi Jon,
Did you get my PM response?
Lin

 

Thanks for the quick reply, I have just replied actually, then saw this post.

 

That front end looks beautiful. You sure you want to hide it under a car and get it all dirty? It would make a beautiful coffee table.