Good Morning All.

Spring is trying to happen in New England. I've managed to keep the Jaguar out of the wet salted roads. Saturday, it was warm and I decided to adjust the Parking Brake because it's always seemed a bit weak to me. No worries, got the wheels off and it adjusted up fine. Thanks Don for posting how to do this.

But I also checked the rear wheel bearings and can feel some play. The wheels turn fine and don't make any noises. The car has 78k miles on it now. I don't hear any growling or bad noises when I drive the car. How bad is some play in these rear bearings? There is play and if this was an easy bearing to adjust and from my past experience with other cars and bicycles, I'd adjust out the play.

But these rear bearings don't look like an easy adjustment. From what I'm reading, It looks like I have to take hub carriers off and renew races etc. If these wheel bearings are not making any bad noises both when driving and when spinning by hand is it OK to just leave them be?

Is there in fact a way to just adjust them, maybe just relube and adjust them?

I also read somewhere that when rebuilding these, one should have a few different sizes of adjustable shims on hand. I've also read that there are 2 hub carrier bushing fulcrum bearings? -these need to be done at the same time? I've rebuild my old 67 Land Rover wheel bearings a few times over the years but removing these Jaguar hub carriers might be a bit too specilized for me.

Can I leave them for a while? Thoughts?

Side note- the previous owner records indicate the front bearings were repacked before.

Thanks

Basil

 

Also as an aside to my wheel bearing question, I also noticed low rear brake pads. Have others used TRW pads for rear pads on their Jaguar x300 with OK results? I think I read someplace TRW was original equipment, but who knows what is what brand these days. I also attached some shots of my Jaguar below. I drive it in the winter as long there is no wet salty snow. Trying to keep her nice buy also enjoy driving it. Car is from Miami so up until last September when I got it, it lived in a climate controlled garage.

 

TRW never made anything, they would have just repackaged something from someone else. If Akebono makes brake pads for your car (most likely just the rear) that is probably the best way to go.

For the XJS, I repacked my wheel bearings when I heard a growling noise....but I can no longer remember if those were the fronts or back. I believe it was the front.

 

Gday Gents,

I've had Akebono pads front and rear in my X305 and they work just fine and no black dust.

Cheers,
Jeff.

 

original pads had Ate printed on them

 

Most any ceramic brake pad will give you adequate, dust-free service. Rear wheel bearings are not adjustable in any reasonable sense of the word. Yes, you can adjust their pre-load by losing the shims upon disassembly, as some have done, but in the end, you'll be searching the pick-n-pull yards for a complete hub assembly armed with the knowledge that the "icky, gooey, black mess" in the middle that you tossed in the rubbish bin when "adjusting or replacing" your rear wheel bearings actually contains a collection of shims specifically fitted to that particular hub and the lot must remain together for appropriate stack-up. Alternatively, you could get a castellated nut, adjust them as you do the fronts, then mark and drill the axle for the cotter pin to fix the castellated nut in place. There's probably more to it than that, but I know some have converted them to the front-wheel style of fixing and adjustment.

IMHO, no point in trying to repack them with new grease as you'll be, by definition, $50 deep just in the $25 single-use nut on each side you'll have to remove to do so. What's another $15-$20 in bearings and races?

It's not for the faint of heart, but rear bearing renewal is certainly DIY-able, but you'll need a comfort level with hammers and punches and a willingness to immerse your hands (gloved though they may be) in much grease - old and grubby as well as clean and new - and beware that the shims are in there, and they must go back in there, rather than in the trash with the grease glob. Don has some excellent how-to's up on it, and some others may as well. Also IMHO, no need to replace fulcrum bearings unless they exhibit excess play. I've done rear wheel bearings on two X300's, in-situ and never badgered the fulcrum bearings. I did construct a work-aid of a pair of sandwiched 2 X 4's I found laying about the shop for the 2nd one as the old races were not keen on giving up their perch. 2 X 4's were stacked in the 1.75" dimension, then cut at a certain angle, which I *think* I posted here somewhere, though I cannot swear to it. This gave the hub a matched surface to lie on whilst still attached to the fulcrum to improve the punch and hammer work. A bearing removal and installation kit, from my perspective, is required to complete this job, though some have probably done it with one hammer and drift punch.

Last of all, if you decide it's not for you and decide to farm it out, I recommend interviewing the prospective wrencher to see if he/she is aware of the shim issue, because if not, you'll likely be hunting down an increasingly rare, complete used hub in decent condition, likely still in need of bearing renewal.

Having said all that, I wouldn't mess with the rear bearings based on a little bit of play. I'd wait until the noise becomes noticeable or your alignment specialist indicates he cannot achieve alignment due to the play.

 

Thanks kindly for all for the advice. I'm going to do the brake pads. I've read that I can add grease to those rear hubs; I may do that while the wheels are off. I have some hi temp blue amsoil grease and some high quality red stuff. For now adding some grease may not hurt but I'm going to wait and see and observe on this rear wheel play. I'm going to inspect more for Diff output bearing play too.

Again thanks for the help and all the previous threads on this too.