One of the springs was broken and for the price of these compared to even used Jag parts, it just made sense to go aftermarket upgrade.



Car is now officially on wheels and driving.

 

This whole project is just so awesome! I wish you all the best. Thanks for sharing.

 

You gotta put the leaping Jag back on that hood!

 

Ha! We will. I took it off originally to sell it, but then saw it's only worth $30. Everything we sell counts against the $500 limit. The springs were $225 so we have to sell some stuff to be even.

 

So as I am sure many of you already know, changing the front struts/springs is a PITA! The bolt that holds the base of the strut in snapped, as from what I am reading is fairly common. It is still there and we've just been drilling away in an attempt to remove it. The good news is that we decided the struts are also done and we're going to replace them too. I do not want to do this suspension job again. I'll let you know when we get that bold out and how.

 

When having similar problems with nuts and bolts if you can jack it up in a way that puts a load on the bolt then zap it with you impact wrench. Back in the day I would bounce the car up and down to load the shocks as I zapped the nut that way.

I do recall reading another post about making a bent up wrench to put in the access hole.

 

We ended up taking the entire hub off and we're going to take it to a shop to have it drilled out. For the other side I'll give this trick a shot.

 

We made a little progress today. Got a little movement on that corner. Also have struts from the sport model to replace the old ones. Rockauto was by far the cheapest for Bilstein. Cage is still coming along slowly.

 

Here is the new spring next to the old. Many more coils and much shorter. It should be much firmer.

 

Should have taken some pictures, but I learned that you can put new struts/springs in the front with out lowering the subframe. I was very afraid to do this because of the horror stories from the welded on nut breaking loose. Instead we ratchet strapped the lower control arm from the far subframe and it was just enough to pull it low enough. I felt like this was the best option for my very rusty Jag.

 

Great news indeed.

After I do my cat thing in the next week or two, new struts are on the list. Maybe springs too.

I just put two new front tires on due to inner edge wear that I failed to notice.

I'd rather avoid doing that again anytime soon, if possible. Maybe new bushings are in order too.

 

If you are doing your struts I highly recommend doing your springs too as you have to take them out anyhow. Also, it's still was a PITA job requiring two bolts from the the base of the strut tower having to get drilled out at at machine shop $100 and I also replaced 4 rusty bolts as well. Again, my car sat in salt water for an unknown length of time and has extensive rust issues, so maybe you will not have this problem. Not lowering the subframe did eliminate a huge head ache though.

 

I had to replace my front strut bearings to fix that inner tire wear issue, id recommend replacing them when you remove the struts

 

Ok, struts, springs, bushings and bearings!

I have dropped the very front part of the subframe before, which was really simple, so maybe between that and ratcheting belts, or something, I'll get it done.

Thanks guys!

 

I would highly recommend powerflex polly bushings for the front end.

check out my posting on the sub frame bolt.
could be useful

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...e-free-113243/

 

I tried ordering the powerflex bushings but they were all on back order up to 8 weeks, that was back in January, so I went with the full poly kit offered on eBay by a UK jaguarforum member. Pretty good quality kit but sort of pricey.

 

Got the rear springs in tonight, suspension is done.





Looks nice! Here is our next issue. We went to start it up and nothing. We were reading 13 volts at the starter, but it was not engaging. My guess at this point is a bad starter, but I'm afrauf to pull the tight bolts and have it snap. Now I'm paranoid. Ideas?

 

Something to do with the security system perhaps?

 

Possibly. We jumped the starter and it worked. Tried to turn the key while jumping and we are either lacking fuel, spark or both. My thought is both as we also don't have dash lights. Is there a thread on the security or how to by-pass it?

 

So I decided to just pull every fuse in the hopes one broke. Found a 5 amp fuse for the instrument cluster that broke. Replaced it and started right up.