Hi all,

My 98 has a funny sideways wiggle to it. It only happens when one rear wheel goes over a bump, like a manhole cover for example. The whole back end moves sideways and back again. I don't need to correct with the steering wheel at all. It does not happen if both wheels hit, like a train track.

Any ideas?

 

This to me sounds like a wheel bearing has failed!! I would get his looked at ASAP because you don't want this to collapse!!!

 

I've had the left rear wheel off, and can't see anything unusual. I'm thinking maybe sloppy bushings somewhere? When my back gets back to normal I'll check the right rear.

 

Rob,

On the 350 series cars there are a number of oil filled donut type bushes in the suspension. These bushes get seriously wacky when they leak out all their oil.

I don't know if your series car has this technology but it may be worth looking into. You can sometimes see or feel the oil leak.

 

Mystery solved, although not in a good way. Today it developed a loud clunking, accompanied by a very squirrely drive, and the steering wheel "centre" kept changing.
Thanks heavens for my hoist. I lift her up, and the left rear wheel wiggles a couple inches (yes, INCHES) in every direction.
The bearings in the hub carrier pivot (where the suspension arm attaches) have totally disintegrated.
Now to research replacement bearings and the procedure to do it. The JTIS is not very well written, I'm hoping someone who has done this job has written up a DYI.

 

Warning! This contains images that may be disturbing to some viewers.

I swear it drove quite normally apart from the slight wiggle, prior to this failure.

When I took the pivot bolt out, here's what fell on the garage floor;

 

Repairing this was quite the job. Although the parts weren't expensive, and the job not technically demanding, getting things apart after 218,000 km was a challenge.
As per JTIS;
Step 1: slacken the park brake cable and remove it. Yeah, right, you mean the adjuster hanging out in the elements for the last 13 years? OK, skip that part.
Step 2: remove the caliper. No problem.
Step3: Using special tool number blah blah blah, remove the hub from the driveshaft. Sorry, no special tools, so the plan is, unbolt the halfshaft from the differential. Sounded like a good plan, but no way could I get decent access, and even when I did manage to get a socket on there, my impact gun wouldn't budge it.

No worries, I guess I'll just have to do the job without pulling the hub carrier off the car.

Getting the pivot bolt out was easy, I do have a compressor and air tools.
Getting the old bearing cups out, however..........Oh my God, what a battle. While Jag does give you places to put a drift to drive them out, you need a curved drift to fit it in there.
Ever seen one of those in the store? I haven't, so I bought a set of big drifts and bent one by heating it in the vise.

Hours of spirited pounding with a 2 pound ball peen hammer produced no movement whatsoever. Next came the Dremel tool.
By grinding the race right down and splitting it, I still had to pound it to get it out. That's why they are split in the pictures.

More Dremel work to clean out the carrier in preparation for the new races. Then I drove them in carefully with the hammer, a big socket and a big washer. I couldn't use a press like JTIS says, since I couldn't get the darned hub carrier off the car!

After that, grease the bearings, put new spacers in, and wrestle the carrier back into position.

It's a heck of a job, but if your races are in good shape, then leave them in and put new bearings in and call it a day.

At any rate, she's finished, and that funny wiggle is gone!

Now back to the couch to watch the Stanley Cup Finals!

 

well done!

 

Wow, what an ordeal! Job well done. I always tell my wife that with an older car, 90% of the work is getting the old parts off. How many Dremel bits did you wear out? I would think that roller bearing races would be tough cutting.

 

I found a grinder type bit, a ceramic or stone style, that worked pretty well. I would have been in big trouble without it.
As you say, getting things apart is the hard part.

 

Unbelieveable.

How many miles on the clock?

Thanks for sharing.

 

218,000 km is just over 135,500 miles. There are rubber seals to keep the water out, but apparently that only goes so far....

 

Hi,
My Dad needs to repair the wheel bearings on our 2001 vanden plas 165k miles.
I have a few specific questions, if you could send me a message.

D

 

Hello D,

I am glad to help if I can, but this job was not wheel bearings, it was the bearing in the swing arm.

 

Rob,
Thanks for replying....I misread your post, thinking it was wheel bearings.
I will make a new post in the forum for our specific problem, which part of is how to remove without all the special tools.
D

 

avt007, where did you find the fulcrum bearings? I can't locate them at the usual online sources.

 

I bought them from the Jag dealer. The seal is attached to the bearing so I don't know if you can get them from a bearing supplier. The price was reasonable for everything except the spacer washers. They were ridiculous so I used the old ones.

 

Update- 254,000 km, and the other side is acting up. Once I get the XJR sorted, the XJ8 gets some TLC.

 

Hello Rob...I must have missread your post also, as i thought they were wheel bearings ;o)
So, you are referring to the lower hub carrier bearings?

FYI...you can remove the hub carrier from the output shaft with a standard
bolt on centre screw operated hub puller after removing the shaft bolt...which must be renewed.
Saves a lot of grief if you have access to a press and while carrier is off aff at that sort of mileage,
it would be prudent to replace wheel bearings and check condition of UJ's ;o]

 

It was the lower bearings that allow the hub to pivot on the arm. I couldn't remove the hub because the brake cable was seized.