Gents,

Am about to embark on redoing the front end on my 219K mile XJR. I have all new control arm bushes, sway bar bushes and links, engine mounts, subframe vee-mounts and the round subframe bushes with the offset thru bolt hole in them. My question (and forgive me as I've not looked at JTIS yet) is how does one 'clock' the round bushes with the offset hole in them? Is there any sort of indicator or bevel which allows one to line them up as before or do I go about it with a good old paint marker?

Also got a few rear end bits such as sway bar bushes and links. I had the shocks out last year to re-bush them, top and bottom, and in true Bilstein fashion, the shocks themselves were fine, even at 200K miles (they may have been replaced already) but the spherical joints were done and the upper bushes were wiped out.

Thanks in advance.

 

The round sub-frame bushings have voids in the rubber (to allow movement in 1 direction) and it is critical that the new bushings install in the same clock position. Mark the frame and old bushing and take a photo before removing the old ones. This will make it easy to align the new ones correctly.

To remove the old control arm bushigns I recommend that you press out the center stell and rubber section and then carefully cut a notch thru the remaining rubber and outer sleave. Cut the notch facing towards the control arm (rather than the outer circle) in case you cut a little too deep. Then you can fold-in the outer sleave at the notch will a cold chisel and they will come right out. I could not get the old ones to press-out intact even with a 10 ton press. I spent hours trying to get the 1st one out but the cup kept tilting to 1 side and I was afraid I would split the control arm apart. Once I cut switched to cuttign the notch they came out quickly.

For the rear I would repalce the lower front subframe bushings using the same method of notching the outer ring after pressing out the center steel and rubber. These bushings also have to be "clocked" to maintain the correct position. Installing new ones made a big difference in ride quality. I didn't change any ohter rear bushings other than the shock bushings that you already mentioned.

Good luck - Are you replacing the upper and lower ball joints as well?

 

Thanks Rockland. What I needed to know!

Upper and lower BJs have already been done about two months ago. Didn't have time to get into anything further at that time as I also had to do the rack and tie rod ends and needed to wrap it up in a weekend. As for the rear end, my subframe mounts looked great when I had the a-frame down so I'm just doing sway bar links and bushes.