Do you have any suggestions as to which spring compressors to buy? I don't have any, so now would be a good time to find some.

Also, do you believe the springs need to be compressed in order to get the assembly out or just to get the shock out of the assembly once the assembly has been removed?

I'm thinking that the entire assembly might not need to be removed in order to get the upper wishbone bolts out. It looks to me like there would be room to get the bolts out if the assembly was disconnected at the top and bottom.

Any thoughts on this?

I'm still shopping for the upper wishbones, too.

 

I believe it's the weirdly-shaped (er, resembles a knuckle LOL) large lump of metal behind the wheel that lots of things are bolted on to. I stuck it into google and gots tons of matches...

 

Ok, so how do you support it and lower the car at the same time?

 

I would follow the JTIS procedure. It's not that hard. Most likely the upper ball joint is still good but you have a busted boot so water and dirt are getting inside.

It is a good idea to change them. Just a little note. I believe the upper control arm was the same for all 2000-2008 S Types and all 2000-2006 Lincoln LS's. BUT this has NOT be verified.

I have both cars and just changed the upper control arms on the 2003 LS at 95K miles. They certainly look identical and it would be great if this was another one of those undocumented parts swap that would save us Jaguar guys a ton of money.

Does anybody know? Anybody feel like a Guinea pig??
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The JTIS procedure says to support the knuckle and lower the car -- how would you recommend I do that?

 

JTIS procedure does not say to lower the car during the process. It only says to do the final tightening to torque with the vehicle on wheels.

 

If you look at my post #10 in this thread, I posted the JTIS procedure for removing the shock and spring assembly which is part of the upper wishbone R&R instructions, and it clearly says to raise the vehicle to take off the front wheel, then in step 5 it says to support the knuckle, and step 6 says to lower the vehicle.

That's where my confusion comes from.

 

Look at my post 15. JTIS assumes the repair is done on a lift thus calls to lower the vehicle to the get easy access to strut top. If your doing it on jack stands there is no need to lower from jack stands. You need to support the bottom of the lateral control arm when you loosen the the top control arm ball joint from top of knuckle. I'd use a jack to temporarily support the arm. Also you will want to loosen the inside bolt of the lateral control arm which will allow it to rotate further and allow easy removal of the strut assembly.

 

TonyX....thanks, that seems like the ticket!

 

+1 !!! I have been wondering the same thing. The 2000-2002 upper control arm is MUCH cheaper (less than $70) while the 2003-2008 version is over $200 on most sites. They certainly have different part numbers but are they in fact different? I have no idea. The change was at VIN M45255. My 2003 is M47xxx so of course the more expensive part If anyone knows whether they're interchangeable please post!

BTW where did you buy yours and how much did you pay?

 

I got them on EBay. $128/pair

Lincoln LS Ford Thunderbird Jaguar 2 Premium Front Upper Control Arms 00 06 | eBay

BUT I don't trust the application listing and it does include the S Type and the STR. That and comparing my two cars I can't find anything different. My LS had Ford on the arm but without removing the upper arm on my STR I could not see if it was marked the same or not?

Of course I never heard of the brand SPD so that makes me wonder too!
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I've had a lot of luck with Welsh Enterprises. I just sent my contact person an email, will post here when I get the information.

 

I used two sets of spring compressors when I was doing the front shocks. One set does the initial compression of the spring then the second set does the final compression(between the putting on the second set and the final compression of the spring, you need to take off the first set of compressors otherwise the hooks on the first set will prevent full compression of the coils). I had to do this because the spring is soft and needed almost coil on coil contact compression in order to relieve the pressure on the top strut mount.

I also took the spring compressor apart then reassembled them on the strut otherwise the compressor hooks can not be engaged on the coils. Do the same in reverse during new shock installation.

 

I checked with Welsh today - they don't have the upper wishbones for my car (at least none in stock) and they don't know of any aftermarket products.

So, back to the question -- does anyone have a suggestion as to where to get them and maybe even a part number?

Thanks.

 

I got mine from Amazon. They are made by Lemfoerder and Amazon had the best price I could find. Free shipping, too.
W0133-1836757-LEM and
W0133-1849614-LEM

 

Thanks -- those are the ones that keep coming up!

Since there's so much talk about the right ones/wrong ones, please let me know if you installed these on your car and what is the VIN # (last letter and five numbers). Thanks.

What would be really cool is if you had photos of your installation process...

 

my number is in the HM79000 range.
I'm fairly confident the parts fit. (car is in independent shop now; I would not touch this myself).
Will let you know as to how it worked.

 

my old parts look like this...
the same as yours?

 

That's pretty much how mine look!

 

In Europe the same part is sold for the whole range of S-types. There have been numerous part no.-s but they were marked as supersessions.