'99 Mistral Blue XJ8L Rehab
 

Just brought home my new to me XJ8L Friday night! Here is a thread I posted about a non-functioning shifter:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...n-gear-175865/

Preface story to the car is that my girlfriend is a real estate agent. She took me to one of her listings to take care of something, which is when i spotted the Jag keys on the counter. "Uhhhh, wheres the Jag?!". "In the a garage! But its broken" She tells me that its been there a while, as long as shes listed the house at least. Tells me that the woman selling the house has been trying to "get that thing outa the garage". I immediately perk up with curiosity.

Out in the garage i find a very dusty '99 Mistral Blue XJ8L. At this point in time i know absolutely nothing about these cars. I take a good look at it and find it to be in fairly good condition, save for being filthy inside and out. Only having been able to look at it for a couple minutes, we make plans to check it out in further detail the following evening. In the meantime, I find the craigslist ad for the car. Listed at $700, the ad states that the car starts but is not getting fuel even though the fuel pump had just been replaced. It goes on to state that the window switch and antenna are broken, and there is a dent in the drivers fender. Lastly, and likely most importantly, it stated where the car was serviced for her entire ownership of the car, a Jaguar specific shop located in CT. The next night, armed with a fresh battery and some basic hand tools, we go back and look at the car in closer detail. The first find that the car has only 128k miles on it. A little better than the 150k miles she assumed the car had. I get the car to fire rather reluctantly with the fresh battery fitted. Immediate stability, traction control, and ABS lights/messages come up. Engine light on for misfires, which i clear. Stick the car in drive, nothing. The shifter moves as if its not connected and the car feels as though its still in park and i get an immediate message "transmission fault". I remove enough of the console to be able to peer down and see the shift cable as i move the shifter. No movement at all. The car had gotten into that spot somehow, so that shifter worked at some point recently. I take that as a good sign. At this point i know the car runs and that the shifter is broken, likely due to a frozen shift cable, and someone trying to force the car into gear. Next step would be to get under the car and make sure the lever at the trans moves, but i did not feel comfortable getting that far into it while it technically still not being mine.

Its at this point i talk to the owner of the car in more detail. The reason she parked it was because the car would stall when driving. From my research, that looks to be a common issue with a failing throttle body. She then tells me that she bought the car from the garage she was having it serviced with only 65k miles on it. Tells me shes negotiable in price since shes selling the home and needs it gone (music to my ears!). The next day, i call the Jag specific garage to see what kind of info i can get, hopefully having to do with the secondary tensioners! Without missing a beat, he knew of the car when i gave him the woman's last name. Said he hasn't seen the car in over a year, but it was commonly in for oil changes and all other maintenance. Looking through his records turned up two large dollar bills for the car, one for the fuel pump replacement. The other for valve seals (:icon_eek:), valve cover gaskets, spark plug seals, spark plugs, and front control arms. He didnt note timing chain tensioners, but said it would have been incredibly stupid for him not to do them at the time. I will be pulling a valve cover at some point to look for metal tensioners. He stated that the last time he saw the car it needed only odds and ends, but was overall a very nice car. He even remembered it needing a drivers door seal, which it does!

Then comes this past Friday, i make plans to meet up with the seller to purchase the car. We agreed on $500, which i felt was a great deal knowing a bit of the cars history, while still taking a chance with the transmission. Paperwork done and money exchanged, i get to work. Thanks to a short DIY on here, i pulled the center console to get better access to the shift cable. Once the cable was disconnected, my strength could not move the cable. It was seriously frozen. Not being dressed to crawl under the car, and later finding out i didn't have the best tools for the job, i called for a tow. They used skates to load and unload the car, and before i knew it, the car was home. I jacked it up and got underneath. I removed the bolts for the shift cable and was able to easily get it into neutral. Through some clever usage of my lawn tractor, quad/winch, and ratchet straps, the car was now in the garage. Note to others. Much use of the steering wheel with the engine not running with pump the power steering fluid into the res and eventually overflow, leaving quite the mess.

Some further wrenching removed the broken shifter and very frozen cable. It was at this point i needed parts, so i started to make a list of needs of the car for the next days junkyard trip :icon_headbang: and clean the car out a bit. In the glove box i found the paperwork from her purchasing the car. Sold to her in 2011 with 65k miles on it for 10 grand, PLUS a 48mo/48k miles $2250 warranty on it. Big dollars spent not all that long ago.

With some help from a forum member here, I plotted my trip one hour away to a junkyard in RI. What a day I had! There were probably 6-8 x308's in the yard, one being an XJR. Best part, i found a Mistral Blue car with a good front fender. No more dent for this cat! First things first, shifter and cable! I had my pick of the litter for the shifter, picking out the cleanest one. Once removed, i dreaded having to jack up a car to get a cable. I spotted one x308 with the front propped up already and figured that would be a good candidate. Got inside the car to find the shifter already gone and the cable end just lying there. Made sure i could move the cable, and got under the car to disconnect it from the trans.....wait, where is the trans?! Someone had pillaged the trans from this car already, leaving me with one nut to remove for the retention clamp in the tunnel, and out the cable came. How easy was that! Beyond those parts, i got the drivers fender, spare tire kit/tray, window switched, full antenna, front turn signal and marker light, a rear marker light, a key fob, front bumper chrome trim piece, a drivers headlight, a drivers door seal, passenger door puddle light lens, and the trim piece for the rear view mirror. I wasn't able to get the inner fender liners and replacement armrest (i did notice an update to the cup holder design in some of the cars). I am sure there will be more things needed, so i can always grab them next trip!

Tonight i will hopefully installing the shifter and cable and seeing if shes mobile. Once shes driving, i will be diaging the stalling issue and trac/stability/ABS lights. I am hoping some rotation of the wheels will solve the those, but we will see. I have seen some ICarSoft scanners for around 150 bucks on amazon and ebay supposedly compatible with the x308. Anyone have experience with them?

I believe the stalling issue has to do with the throttle body. I will attempt to clean it first and see where that gets me, thought it looks like i may be looking for a new/used throttle body, or getting it rebuilt. I see there was a change to them somewhere mid generation. Can i install an "updated" one on my car?

Thank you all for your help. I will try to get pictures up when i can finally wash the dust off.

the trac/stability/abs light could be related to wheel sensors, poor power supply to the ABS unit (the soldering tends to crack at the power connection in the ABS unit's PCB). I think you can read those codes with a high enough quality scanner. I don't know about that scanner. In the general tech forum I believe there was a thread on OBD scanner compatibility and issues which would be a good read.

I don't think you can change the TB without changing out a significant number of other bits. The earlier TB's were cable operated, while the later ones were entirely drive by wire. Stalling could maybe be the IAC valve dirtied up or sticking? I'd pull the intake out and look at the TB to see how dirty it is. Could be something else as well.

Great, thank you for your input. Cleaning the throttle body was certainly on the agenda once i get the car moving on its own. I will take a look for the OBD scanner thread, thank you for the heads up on that. Have a link to a thread for the ABS solder issue?

Great story, and it seems with your enthusiasm this cat will be back to new in no time!
All issues you have so far seem to be 'normal' occurrence on this forum, I am sure you will get them sorted.
And with 6 scrape yard cars, there will be no short of supply if needed.

Ok so good news in now I can shift the trans! Bad news is now the car won't start. Hmmm. No security light on the dash and I checked the inertia switch. Checked the Schrader valve at the rail and there's no fuel pressure. Jumped the relay and hear nothing in the tank. Per the shop I talked to, the pump was done less than two years ago so it's got no time on it. Tomorrow I will check for power at the fuel pump plug with the relay jumped.

This sounds like a good project, and the scrap yard you speak of sounds like a good resource. Get as much as you can from it now, otherwise you'll go back one day and find them gone.
The throttle bodies are different on the cars, but all are cable operated. We've successfully fitted a 2001 TB to a 99 car with the older TB and had it work straight away.
If you get the transmission to work, the first thing you should do is get the fluid and filter changed and have the modified Transgo valve fitted to help prevent the trans failing on you.

These cars are very easy to work on, and the space in the engine bay is such that you can easily work on most aspects of the engine without having to squeeze. The engine bay was designed to take a V12 so the V8 sits nicely. There is plenty of help available on this forum, and if you use the search facility you will often find past threads on your issue with a wealth of information.

I look forward to seeing your progress.

Check the fuel pump fuse back where the FP relay is. Just check all those fuses. Chances are from that car sitting it's probably got another bad pump.

Plus 1 on the transmission advice and junk yard parts.

I checked the fuel pump fuse as well. Looking at the wiring diagram, the fuse is only on the trigger wire circuit, so jumping 87/30 should fire the pump assuming it has a good ground. I will report back this evening.

hi if you need a throttle body send me a message I have one for $125 came off a running 2002 xj8

If you don't mind sharing the location of the breaker yard...there are always a few bits and pieces I can use for mine, and will be driving through RI (nothing is too far out of the way in such a small state...:)) next week...

Wrights auto salvage in foster ri!

Alright so i was able to get to work last night. I again checked for power at the relay location. Jumped and listened for pump and checked for rail pressure. Nada. I pulled the connector off the top of the tank and checked for correct power and ground there and found it. Has to be the pump! I dreaded having to get under the car to disconnect the lines, so i justified cutting up the rear parcel shelf by saying that it will make potential future work with the pump much much easier, side of the road job even! Pulled the rear seat and shelf and got to cutting. Once removed, i found a URO brand pump. From my BMW experience, this is bottom of the barrel. Of course i powered the pump on the bench and it worked. I will be replacing it anyhow. I ordered an Airtex from advance auto before really doing my research (e2471). I thought to myself that if it isnt URO, it will be worlds better. Do the Airtex pumps get good reviews around these parts? I found the Denso direct replacement on Amazon for the same price, and it comes with a strainer. I found a Delphi replacement locally for 15 dollars more, no strainer. Leaning towards the Denso. Thoughts?

Thanks!
 

PM'd you, but just a public shoutout of thanks for the info.

No worries. Gotta share the wealth of info. Ended up ordering the Denso on amazon. The price was good, the reviews are good, and it comes with a strainer. Supposed to be delivered Monday!

In the meantime, i will remove the throttle body and MAF for cleaning. And definitely some interior and trunk cleaning.

Hopefully it will end up being a good find. I just bought an 2002 XJR and it needed both fuel pumps replaced before i could get it home. The car was running when put away in October and they went bad that quick. The gas we get now is hard on pumps and I find that they don't last as long, especially if left sitting.

I also just pulled off the valve covers because one of them had a tiny oil drip and to check out the tensioners. I found second generation tensioners were on there so pulling off the valve cover to check is the right hing to do so you can be sure.

Good Luck and hope you get it on the road soon.

Thank you! The new pump arrives today, so its looking like ill be able to get it installed this evening and see if she starts. Following that, i will clean and inspect the throttle body.

Ran out of gas in the mower and in the spare cans. Used the old pump, jumped the relay, and fed some gas into a can from the Jag's tank. Hey, it was convenient.

I installed the Denso combo pump/strainer to replace my dying primary pump a few days ago. Bit of a struggle to do some things but it worked out. Almost silent now. Don't forget to inspect the in tank harness to make sure it's not melting anywhere, esp at old crimp points.

The old harness looks good from what i can tell. Looks like the little black box mid-harness is for RFI noise purposes, so i will likely splice the new pump in retaining this box.

Got some good news! Fuel pump arrived and i was able to get it installed without too much trouble. Some people complain that its not a direct drop in. Well its not, but its damn close. The upper rubber that slides around the connector end does need to be trimmed, but that is quick work with an Xacto. Lower rubber fits as it did before. So does the sock. Squeeze the bracket together and shes good to go. Splice in the new pump connector with supplied butt connectors (i left the RFI box inline). Next step, misplace the original fuel line clamp, grab a new one from the baggy of bits that the pump came with, and bolt the new pump down. Reinstall the fuel tank cap (?), reinstall the various fuel and vent lines, connect the fuel tank pressure sensor and main pump connector, and see what she does! I jumped the relay and was happy to hear the pump make noise. It was loud at first as it was priming the system, then quieted down. As i let it circulate, i went up to check pressure at the rail and was happy to find it there. Reached in and turned the key and she came to life with no issues. No CEL, but still have the ABS/Trac/Stability light/messages up. Shifted into drive and slowly pulled her into the driveway to warm up. Came up to temp and took her for her maiden voyage. Transmission feels great! Shifts are smooth and confident. Engine feels extremely smooth. No hiccups on the trip at all. Idled down when coming to a stop, no jerky acceleration, nada. I'm wondering if the PO was having intermittent issues with the fuel pump, causing the random stalling. Its either that or the classic throttle body issues. I will keep an eye out for those, but may not bother cleaning the throttle body at this point. Drove it to the gas station and filled the tank. Restarted with no issue and drove it home. Some semi-bad news. The suspensions feels nice and plush, but boy does it make some noise. Sounds like all four corners have dead shock mounts. The car rides OK, so im not sure its the shocks themselves. Is there any other bushings that tend to go bad and make noise? Sway bushings?

Two things to note about the fuel pump job:
-Fuel level. Like i noted above, i cut an access panel in the parcel shelf. With the tank sitting straight up and down, the gauge was registering the fuel level to be just at the top of the red, nearly empty, mark. The small bolt to hold the pump bracket down was still below the fuel level, but just barely.
-BE CAREFUL!! the opening to the tank is very very sharp. I cut my hands up a bit and i can see how this could mangle the wire harness for the pump.

Next Step:
-Car wash and pictures!! everyone likes pictures!
-Oil change. I know 10w40 is suggested, but I have some 10w30 synthetic on hand.
-From my research, it looks like that ABS light/trac/stabiliy issue is just the solder connections on the ABS module for the pump.
-Check for the metal secondary timing chain tensioners. Car hadnt run for just about 2 weeks at this point due to fuel pump failure. Upon first start last night, no chain noise.
-Clean the throttle body if issues arise.

Hey guys, curiosity question. Coolant/Antifreeze. Whats in the car looks orange. If i didnt know any better, i would pour some Dexcool in there without thinking twice. What do these cars require, assuming its an OEM type fluid?

As an addition to my next steps, i will likely clean each wheel speed sensor when looking for suspension clunk culprits. Seems easy enough to clean them, and some say that fixes some of their issues. Unless i break something, it cant hurt really. Then i will investigate the ABS module itself.

I am in Burlington, MA. I have a laptop with VCM and IDS, it is the same setup that Jaguar dealers used back in the day. Once you get the car running, I will gladly pull the codes and/or clear them, if you make it to my neck of the woods. I will do it free of charge of course, to help a fellow forum member.

on the 98-99 cars, they require a coolant which conforms to ESD-M97B49-A (EDIT: this seems to be the spec for the later-MY cars). I believe the 00-03 cars use the dexcool-type fluid. I found that the prestone universal (yellowish/green in color, not the traditional green) has that spec listed as a conforming spec in its compatibility chart. You can also get the OEM fluid I believe. jaguar classic parts UK lists the coolant for UP TO vin F00034 as JLM204042 for the 1liter or JLM204043 for the 5 liter tank. I'm assuming this is the correct coolant for the earlier cars, but you'll need to check your VIN as it sounds like the specs changed mid-99 MY.

"what coolant to use" can open up a can of worms, so here is the TSB on it http://www.mediafire.com/file/xc7ca3...XL+coolant.pdf

Here is an other reference.

Great, thanks for the coolant info.

I appreciate the offer! I will do the basics and see if i need to swing up there.

Last night i tinkered with the car for a little while. I was able to bend the fuel pump access panel back down and use a couple screws in the cut line itself to secure it, and then duct tape the cut line as well. Next I spent some time with the subwoofer and soldering iron as one of the voice coil wires separated from its terminal. Next step is to get the interior back together, but i want to clean the pieces before reinstallation. Might get to that tonight if i can defrost the leather/interior cleaner.

The CD changer worked fine last week. Now it does not. The car came with one CD, Bob Marley! Wont eject the cassette or play whats in there. Not sure what happened since i didnt touch that side of the trunk. I guess ill be looking for a fuse.

New (to me) drivers door seal went on. The old one was missing about a foot section, and a lot of gorilla glue was present :icon_errrr: I still need to remove the door panel to get to the window switches. The switches currently do two things, lower the left rear and move the mirrors. That is all. I grabbed another switch from the junkyard, hoping it fixes these issues. The global open/close works fine with the key in the door. The lock/unlock button inside the car seems dead as well. At the same time, theres a loose metal piece of something noise in the door i will be looking into at the same time.

Im thinking Saturday morning i will be registering it :icon_hyper:

Good to see fast progress.

After you installed the new switch, check the connectors of the module as well.
Don't know if your windows were tinted, but during the process, water drips down and creates havoc.

If done, you will need to perform a hard reset, otherwise the door switches operate all the wrong things.

Ok, very good. Thank you for the info. Windows are not tinted, though the PO told me the buttons had failed on her. She had them replaced and they failed again in the same fashion. That was one of the points she made when making the sale ad. Ive performed a couple hard resets while getting the shifter set up, and the window buttons have not changed performance. I will check the connections when i install the new buttons.

She was also a smoker, so id bet the window was down when it rained and whatnot....

+1 what Eric said about the door module. Before you do anything else with the windows, simply disconnect your drivers door module electrical connector and then reconnect it. If it still doesn't work, unplug then replug again followed by a hard reset.

If the trunk release inside the car isn't working, either your car is in valet mode or your trunk (or boot) wiring harness is broken by the RH hinge.

Got a lot done last night. Got the interior back together. When disassembling the rear parcel shelf, i pulled off the third brake light cover, breaking the retention clips right off of the brake light fixture itself. When reassembly happened, i figured i would find another way to secure it. Well i picked up the cover and it basically fell apart in my hands. I am hoping the third brake light can be removed easily and is not adhered to the window. At the very least, i need a new cover, and to fashion a way to secure it to my broken fixture.

My cup holder was broken, which from my junkyard trip, tells me this is a very common occurance. I saw a revised, more robust, design at the junkyard, but the interior colors were more tan than off white leather, so i didnt get one.

As far as the window controls went, the buttons themselves felt sticky, so i didnt have much hope for them. I pulled the door panel to replace the switch, plugged in the new one, and reconnected the battery. Everything came back to life. Mirrors work too. Before i head to the owners manual, can someone explain how to set a memory?

The metallic noise i had in the door turned out to be the window track at the back edge of the door. Somehow the tab broke clean off of the track section, so with the window up, the track was swinging in the breeze. I removed it, welded it back together, and reinstalled it. Window goes up and down fine with no binding.

Off course with all this progress i also was due for a failure. I removed the intake boot so i could inspect the cleanliness of the throttle body. Leaned over the engine bay from the drivers side, and accidentally put weight on the coolant bleed line that runs from the expansion tank to the top of the radiator, breaking the end clean off. Oops. Doesnt look very easy to rig up a repair, but i will figure something out until i can make another junkyard trip. I will be registering the car tomorrow morning, so i will be itching a drive in this thing!

where are the pics...? I've seen sapphire blue, but what color is mistral blue? PICS !!!

It's not uncommon to see those coolant lines broken where folk have leaned on them. But as you say it's easy to fix them.

Go back and get the cup holder as you can swap the parts and keep your colour as it's easy to do.

If she was a smoker and you are not, then I imagine you will want to rid the smell from the cabin. There are products available on the internet which mist the inside of the car, or I'm sure there is a company near to you which will be able to use a machine to fog the interior and rid the smells.

You are by far the first, and surely not the last one to do this.
I think I spend a quarter of my time thinking where to put my hands on something solid, it is kind of 2nd nature by now.

So no pictures yet since im not proud of what it looks like just yet, but i did get some work into it this past Saturday. That morning i message a guy on craigslist who states he has three x308's hes parting out. The ad is a month old and at this point hes got one, but its complete. I meet him and find that the bleed line i need is broken, but at the radiator end. Figure i can splice mine and this one together and make a good one. I grab the third brake light assembly and was on my way. Get home, installed the third brake light, breaking a tab on it in the process (man that light is brittle!). I 'fix' the cupholder again so it stops popping open if i look at it funny (really annoying). Graft the two bleed lines together with a short piece of fuel line and two clamps and quickly wipe out the throttle body and slap the intake back on. I start her up, get it up to temp and i take it for a spin. Eventually start to smell coolant so i turn around and head home. On my way i listen more closely to the suspension. The rear is definitely the worst of the noise, the front is OK, but a little clunky. Still very impressed with how smooth the engine and trans feel, so very happy about that. I also notice a slight pull in the steering, so figure its just due for an alignment. Once home i pop the hood to see the engine steaming. Coolant was leaking from the plastic 'tower' at the front of the engine, WAS being the key word. Hasn't done it since then, and ive let it warm up three times. Ill be keeping an eye on that. An oil change completed my engine work for the weekend. Suspension-wise, i dug into the front to find both lower ball joints to be bad. Looking around, all i can seem to find is URO brand, which i would like to avoid. The top joint seems fine, and the Jag garage said they had replaced some kind of control arm in 2013. Any suggestions on ball joint? I also felt a knocking inner tie rod on the passenger side, so i will likely do it as well. I will see how the outer feels when i disassemble it before ordering parts. Out back, i cleaned both ABS sensors, breaking one bolt into the hub. Current plan is to flip the sensor and use the 'spare' bolt hole. Hopefully the system doesn't care if its spinning 'backwards', and its just looking for reference rotation. We shall see. The drivers lower shock mount is beyond toast. The passenger side isnt far behind. I am contemplating doing shocks, but they feel OK driving the car, and the lower bushing is available.

I have one minor annoyance i need to figure out. I dont have the manual to tell me how to use the memory function. Can someone explain to me how it is programmed? I have successfully adjusted the seat, steering, and mirrors, all for the memory 'ease of exit' business to suck the steering wheel in and move the seat back. When i restart the car, the seat stays put and the steering adjustment no longer works. Same goes for the mirrors, sometimes the adjustment works, sometimes it doesnt. I am trying a hard reset to see if things come back, but does anyone know what may cause this? It would be nice to use the 'ease of exit' business, but i will turn it off if it continues to be unreliable.

Press memory and then a number and you should hear a ping which confirms its programmed. Ensure the switch on the column is set to Auto.

I've added links to the Jaguar customer introduction videos which are the manuals in visual form.

thank you for the info. Ordered a pile of parts.
-4x Sensen shocks. They seem to get decent reviews and with a lifetime warranty, ill take the gamble on the cheapies.
-KYB rear spring isolator. With this and the shock replacement, the rear end should be taken care of. I will be adopting the lower subframe drop method in removing the spring/shock assy as seen here: http://jaguar.blackonyx.net/tech/rearshocks.pdf
-New front lower ball joints. Ill be attempting this with the arm on the car.
-The upper front shock bushings are nice and tight. I will order some if i need them when i get the car apart. Not terrible to do after the fact if clunks persist.
-Still need to order tie rods. Might as well do both inners and outers if ill be needing an alignment anyway. Its seeming tough to find inners that dont seem sketchy. suggestions?
-Aluminum thermostat housing. For 45 bucks including a new thermostat, piece of mind here is what im after.

Checking in! Got most of the parts I ordered. Still waiting on front shock mount bushings from welsh. I finished up the rear shock replacement this morning. Took about 4 hours. I dropped the lower k member to allow the arms the droop enough to yank the spring and shock combo out. As I said, the lower bushing on the drivers side was beyond bad. The passenger side wasn't too far behind. I replaced the spring isolator as well on both sides. The one that came out was worn but still looked usable. Definitely gained some height replacing that. Once together, I turned my attention to the abs sensor. As I noted, I cleaned both rear sensors. They were filthy. I tried welding a nut to what was left of the bolt in the hub, but it did not work. I tapped the hole and flipped the sensor. Upon the test drive, no more rear end noise!! And cleaning the sensors fixed the trac/stability/abs issue!!! Yeehaww!!!

Fixing the back of the car revealed how bad the front is, so apart it came. I'm in the middle of trying to release the lower ball joint from the upright on one side. I think removing the dust shield is going to be helpful. We shall see! Let's get back to it!

Good to hear of your progress, it keeps my spirits up! Still want to see pics of your car. Wouldn't mind seeing the "before" pics first. Good luck on your journey.

i realized yesterday that i didnt/havent really taken that many :( I started taking some of the front suspension work though! and once shes cleaned up, i will be taking a lot more!

A small update. I was able to get the suspension apart without too much issue. The dust sheild wasnt able to be removed due to a tab being captured by the lower ball joint anyhow. This tool is key to get the lower taper to release:

Bad news is the Eurospare ball joints dont fit, so im shopping again. The press diameter was machined 0.008"-0.010" to small. Welsh has some greasable ones on their website. Very cheap though, so thats a little offputting. OEM lemforder will run me 100 or so for both sides, a little less than twice what the Eurospare ones cost me.

while the car sits waiting for parts, i will swap in the aluminum thermostat housing/tower. Easy draining coolant when its already in the air!!

EDIT: looking for a favor if someone has the parts on hand. The shop that sold/serviced the car stated that they once did "control arms". I do not know which they did. Assuming they did the lower with the ball joint, there is a chance they replaced the whole thing. This leaves it open for the control arm and ball joint press area to be open to whomever designed it, not allowing OEM replacement parts to fit correctly. I am hoping someone either has some lower ball joints sitting around there can measure, or control arms they can measure. Just trying to decide if the arms are the culprit or if the ball joints are at fault here. I have a couple emails out to various vendors to see if they can measure it for me. Welsh offers very inexpensive joints that im curious about.

I just bought a URO upper and lower ball joint since the lower on mine has play, waiting on LCA bushings to come from SNG Barratt (might as well while in there). Also held up by other things in life before getting a press, and building a spring compressor, and getting small parts like althread guides for the pan, and BJ seperators, and and and... You know the deal...

Anyway, I'll try and measure best as possible with the cheap digital calipers I've got. The pressed section of the ball joint measures to 1.557 in with a variation of +/- .001 in out of round.

Thank you very much for that. I appreciate the response. I measured my old ball joints to be 1.561-1.562" and the new ones to be 1.553-1.554". The new ones slide right into the arm with new press at all. If the URO brand is only a couple thou larger than the new ones i got, then i cant bank on my control arms accepting a different brand of joint. I am awaiting response from two vendors to see if they will supply me with diameter measurements. I will report back. Might be shopping for a new set of control arms unfortunately.

EDIT: did a lot of picture investigation and came to a couple conclusions. Here is how the numbers stack up:
1.562", original ball joint press diameter
1.553", aftermarket Eurospare ball joint press diameter
1.557", URO brand press diameter, thanks to Nilinium for this info
No vendor i messaged got back to me.

As i said, the Eurospare ball joints slide into the press diameter of the arms with no force. There is actually room for play here. I checked both sides and both ball joints. Google and eBay image searching revealed a small indent/circle on the back of the FACTORY lower ball joint, an indent that did not exist on either of the ball joints i removed. It also revealed a difference in how the casting looks. This was evidence enough that the arms are aftermarket. I found and ordered complete factory/used lower control/A-arms (front and rear arm, spring plate, bushings, ball joint) on ebay for 35 each with free shipping. Look to be in fantastic shape. We shall see how they are when they arrive.

Update:
I have some pictures but its all of the front end work im doing. Nothing you guys havent seen before. When i get her driving and cleaned up ill get some up!

So as i said on the last update, i bought factory Jag complete control arms on ebay. I did confirm having aftermarket arms. Once they arrived, i decided that while the ball joints felt OK, i did not want to be back in there again soon doing them, assuming they had all of the 81k miles the ad stated the car had. I still had the Eurospare joints on hand, so in they went. Pressed out the joints the same way i did the others and proceeded to get the new ones in. Once both were ready, i unbolted the steering rack so i would be able to get the rear control arm bolt out. I removed the nuts for the control arm bolts and made sure they were free to rotate/slide out. So at this point i needed to get the spring retained so i could remove all the bolts from the spring plate. Here is what i bought/needed:
-18" of 3/4" threaded rod. Got it from Lowes in a 3ft bar and cut it in half. 18" is probably sufficient if you actually plan to unload the spring, which i did not do.
-1x 3/4" nut
-3x 3/4" washer
-1x 5/16" x 1-1/4" bolt, Need this for the cross "pin" at one end of the threaded rod.

After cutting the 18" bar in half, i made a flat about a half inch down from the end. This here is where i drilled my 5/16" hole. I cut the bolt head off and slid the "pin" into the threaded rod. I tacked it in with my MIG to make sure it stayed put. At this point i tried fitting it to the car, and had to shorten both sides of the "pin" down to get it to fit into the slot in the subframe. I havent measured it, but it likely ended up being just a bit over an inch long. Slide it in, turn it 90°, and she locks into place nicely. Slide washers on and spin nut up. Tighten nut until the load is removed from the control arms. Remove all the nuts, slide the control arm pivot bolts out, and fish the control arm assembly out. Once it was removed, i was able to slide the new control arm assy in and re-secure the spring plate to it without having to unload the spring at all. Now its just reassembly time! I was able to get the passenger side installed. I am going to line the arms back up to the original marks for now until i can get an alignment. Now that i have the method and the tools i need, it shouldn't take too long to get her back together.

Now onto the inner tie rods. As i mentioned previously, the right inner tie rod has a little bit of play in it. It would likely be fine for a good long while, but i cant bring myself to pay for an alignment knowing that. The issue is finding quality aftermarket replacement pieces. There is a couple available on ebay, all of which dont really give me the warm fuzzies. No brand name usually, some just say "quality". Yea, no thank you. There is some from Taiwan available. I see another labeled "black dog", which are 55 each for who knows what. Jagbits offers one with no brand listed for 150 each!! ahh!! None of this made me comfortable, and i am not about to just do the outer joint and call it good. Here is where Moog comes in. After some research, i see that Moog has a very handy sortable list of the inner tie rods they offer. One ebay auction for an x308 inner tie rod listed the thread size at each end and the length. Moog make a pile of tie rods with the correct thread size at both ends, of varying lengths. Not sure how exactly either the ebay seller or Moog is measuring their tie rods, so i will need to measure the one on the car and then go shopping at my local auto parts store. I will report back with what i find, but one for a 95-01 Explorer/Ranger is looking very promising.