I am getting ready to replace the front lower ball joints and corresponding control arm assemblies on my 2000 XJR with new ones that include the ball joint and bushing as a unit. Have read all of the prior posts related to this and have made the tool to hold the spring in place. (Those posts were quite useful as getting the actual Jaguar tool on loan via JCNA membership appears to have a lead time that makes no sense)

My question now is related to being able to remove the left side lower control arm/ball joint without having to lower the steering rack. On the right side, the inner control arm bolt goes in to the arm from the front of the car and there's no issue with anything blocking it. However, on the left side, the bolt goes in from the rear and the steering rack appears to be in the way.

I have the manual and it does include reference to lowering the rack, but the other threads don't appear to include this step and/or say that the manual has a ton of unneeded steps, as we all know it can (See for example: their steps for rear shock replacement versus MotorCarMan's brilliant approach) Pcolapacker's thread from when he did his has a great pic of the homemade tool holding things in place, but when I asked him, he doesn't recall having to lower the rack to do the left side. Most of the other threads on the topic relate to removing the spring, which obviously isn't necessary to do this. Thoughts?

Pic below show what I mean... Thanks!

Pic of left side lower contol arm on a 2000 X308 at a local pull and pay yard this weekend. Shows bolt inserted from the rear, just ahead of the steering linkage.

 

i found it easiest to just unthread the inner tie rods from the rack. Quick and easy and gives plenty of clearance.

 

Seemed strange to me that one bolt went in from the front and one went in from the back. I looked at underbody pics of x308s on BaT. All have both bolts going in from the rear. The bolts are eccentric with index marks. I'm guessing someone replace the right side before and reassembled incorrectly. I'm no suspension expert but I'm sure that matters. Mark index line of bolt on cross beam. Like you said I'm not sure if I loosened the steering rack. I did that on my daughter's Toyota so my memory is conflated if also did on Jag. If steering shaft has to be disconnected from the knuckel also mark that to presevt tilted steering wheel.

P.S. I was going to send you a message that you need to clean up your work area until I read the picture was from a salvage yard.

 

The rack can be unbolted (4 bolts) and displaced. You DO NOT need to remove it.
Leave it hanging on the steering shaft.

Mark the CAMBER bolt for the rear control arm of the front suspension.
That will at least get you to the alignment shop for a proper setup.

 

Thanks Bob - very much appreciated! I was hoping I'd be able to let it hang while I did the work and that does seem the fastest way to deal with it. I'll certainly mark the camber bolts to get it as close as I can to where it is now. I'm inclined to replace the bolts as I found them given it's the way my other XJR was set up and also each one I saw in the salvage yards I've been at recently. I believe that's also the only way to ensure the marks on the bolt shoulder align with the reference mark on the chassis, but I don't have a pic of that to confirm right now...

Quadcammer - I did think about unthreading the inner rod from the rack itself but didn't want to open a potential can of worms (cracked bellows, etc) as there's nothing wrong with it now. I think the circle is one time use, so if I have to disconnect that, I may be a bit stuck. I do have an inner tie rod wrench set, so that is certainly an option.

Age is the only reason I have to do this work, not wear/use. It's all perfectly tight and aligned, but every rubber boot has disintegrated from heat exposure. I'm quite confident this car had all the front suspension and steering bits replaced shortly before it sat (outside) for years and years long before I got it. Now, after nearly 5k miles on the swap, and with rain/etc finally "in season" here, it's time I do this before any of what might remain as lubricant within the joints totally gives up the ghost and things start getting squirrelly.

 

Totally agree. I just did this exact same job a few weeks back and this is how I did it. Buzzed the 4 steering rack bolts out, left the steering rack connected and then just carefully moved the rack while I worked out the lower control arm bolt. Actually, now that I think about it I think I ended up loosening the 2 on the one side, and removed the 2 on the other side that I was working on, the flipped that around to do the other side.

 

Pretty sure I've got this job (and maybe the uppers too) in my future on my 01 XJR.

May I ask which threads you've referenced and what parts everyone are using for this? I like just swapping out the whole rear LCA as it also addresses the bushing at the body mount, but which brand parts are decent as I only want to do this once in a great while and not every 18 months.

I've seen the photos with all the threaded rods coming out of the bottom of the spring plate, but I can't say I understand how it works. What keeps the spring compressed after you release the lower ball joint? I've removed one of the front vertical links completely in order to do a wheel bearing and all O did to support the spring was I put my floor jack under the lower spring plate and jacked up the car to keep weight on it, but I'm guessing this won't work when removing half of the lower control arm.

 

Leave the spring compressed!!!!!!!!!!!!
Only remove one lower arm at a time. (front or rear)

3/4" allthread rod with a 5/16" pin drilled and installed at the end with large washers and nuts will hold the spring and plate in place while you work.(duplicate the factory tool)

 

I forgot the brand of LCA I bought, but there were obtained from Rock Auto. I tend to stay away from their "value" or "daily driver" options, so it was whatever they had that wasn't that. The LCAs have been on the shelf in my garage for 12 months now...

The tool that Bob showed a pic of above, it what is used to hold the spring in a compressed position. The large washer/nut at the bottom of the 3/4 rod is used to turn the washers against the bottom of the arm, slightly compressing the spring so the lower arm can be unbolted and removed. Once it's reinstalled, the tension on the threaded rod is released by loosening the nut that's against the washers and relieving the tension on the spring.

The longer threaded 10mm rods are there to keep things aligned (lower control arm vs angle that the spring is pressing on it) when removing the spring entirely as there's such a bend in how the spring compresses. You'll never be able to line up the lower arm and the spring at the right angle without them. As we're not removing the spring do this, I see it as a bit of a safety net in case something were to happen with the homemade (or factory) tool. That said, I've not found any instance on any forum where either approach failed and it's not like you're leaving the tools in place for days/weeks. I suppose one could do it without the extra threaded rods using just the compressor tool, and maybe the experienced pros with years of muscle memory do so, but the couple extra minutes that it takes to insert the guide rods isn't a big deal (to me at least).

The threads I found were mostly here on this board after searching "lower ball joint" and "lower control arm". A couple of them linked to posts elsewhere where the specs/narrative for the homemade tool were listed. A good 30+ threads show up, but the research made things much clearer for me, and the clarification I got within this thread answered the rest of my questions. When I do get around to doing this, I'll try to remember to take pics, especially of where I had questions and will post up what I did. Hope this helps!

 

I have a pair of homemade spring compressors given to me by Highhorse ages ago which I could share some info on later when I have time. I may even be able to loan/give them away, once I'm sure I don't need them any more...

Are you buying complete aftermarket LCA's, or trying to replace the ball joint on your existing aftermarket LCA? I ran into issues trying to do the latter a while ago...

I had replaced my front lower rearward arms with aftermarket, and after a year or so they started making noises. So I got a replacement ball joint, press the old ones out... only to find that the sizes are completely different, and the new ball joints OD were undersized by 1/8 in. So the aftermarket arms were using some kind of proprietary ball joints I guess.
On top of that, the bore which the ball joints pressed into was PAINTED, and also tapered in such a way that only about 1/2 of the vertical height of the aftermarket arm's original ball joint even interfaced with the bore. Utter junk, no wonder they creaked.

So, I'd hunt down some NOS oem arms, or buy used and rebuild those, otherwise you'll be doing this job again in a year or two.

 

Not sure if you're replying to me or Mayhem's post but I have complete LCA units, they aren't painted and am not currently worried about whether they last a 12-18 months as I might not have the car then. (I get bored easily!) That said, if they do go bad, I'll just buy new lower arms that are complete again and reuse the tool I made. Actually, I've made two of them because the marginal cost was next to nothing for the longer 3/4" threaded rod. As for the uppers, I have an extra set of control arms I got for $60 that I will be putting the new bushings and upper ball joint into and then just swapping the whole unit in on each side. Hardest part was getting the old bushings out but the technique a member posted elsewhere here suggesting the use of a 20mm socket worked beautifully. I will probably rebuild the ones I remove once this job is done and list them for sale to save someone the need to press out/in the bushings and upper balljoint.

 

Closing the loop on this thread now that I've (finally!) done this work over the past weekend. The approach Bob outlined worked perfectly, as to be expected - much appreciated! I was pleasantly surprised at a) how easily everything came apart after 25 years, but that's undoubtedly a benefit of southern cars and b) how good the upper and lower control arms bushings were. I thought they'd be in much worse condition given all the gaiters/boots had totally deteriorated. I also confirmed my long-standing suspicion that this car DID get a lot of suspension work done right around when it then sat for many years. There were surprisingly fresh witness marks (not mine) on all of the eccentric bolts/cams. Doing the upper control arms as "rebuilt" units with new bushings and balljoints took about 20 minutes per side. The lower rear control arms took a bit longer, but that's because I was taking my time, but no more than 30-40 minutes each. Well worth taking the time to make the tool and tackle this job. It's not hard.


Original LF upper came out like it was new.


Bushings on both left and right looking like this. I was surprised they were this intact.


Gaiters were toast and open even before I separated the balljoint from the knuckle.


Here's a (so-so) pic of the tool in place within the spring, holding the front part of the lower control arm/plate in place. The jack was "there" but not actually doing anything.


Pic with new arm in place...


And everything all back together. Upper arms w/new bushings, ball joint, sway bar end links, out tie rods and complete lower control arm (rear section).

 

they can be done with a torch and a ball joint press without decompressing the spring. it's a struggle but doable

 

I am sure there are many ways to accomplish the same thing. I suspect it all
comes down to what an owner feels comfortable with and, of course, what
tools he has available.