Hi All,

While doing brakes I noticed a torn upper ball joint boot.

Since she has close to 100k miles, I figure that rather than doing a part at a time I have ordered all new ball joints, control arm bushings, tie rod ends, sway bar links, sway bar bushing, shocks and related bushings, etc. I also have the factory spring tool coming.

two questions.

1) Is there a good comprehensive write up. I have found bits and pieces but nothing comprehensive and some seem to be hack jobs.

2) Should I be doing v-blocks / motor mounts or anything else at the same time. Or, is taking these on just doubling the time and headache?

Thanks,

Mike

 

One suggestion while you're in there : brake hoses. Mine had quite a few cracks in them, where the bend is sharpest near the caliper. Changed them when I did the lower balljoints.

 

It depends on how in depth you're going. If you're doing any of the subframe bushings at all, or anything more than just shock and sway bushings/links, then you might as well look at the Vee's and Motor Mounts. It is a lot more involved than just the shocks, so that depends on how far you're already going. But have everything on hand to do, it's better to have extra parts and return them, than get everything apart and realized you need something else (In my case it was the motor mounts when I did my Vee's - I didn't have them, so.. yeah).

 

So, I finally got the compressor tool in so am back to getting ready for this job.

I am still not sure of best overall approach or sequence of disassembly / re-assembly so am hopeful that someone who has done this might offer guidance.

As noted, I plan to rebuild both upper and lower control arms, new bushing, ball joints, end links, shocks. What comes off before / after using the spring compressor. I have read that car has to be lifted fairly high for spring compressor to fit. How high is that actually?

Finally, Is it easier or harder to just remove the entire subframe to do this? I have a 4 post lift but I am guessing the subframe would be too wide to drop on a four post?

Thanks,

Mike

 

If you do the V-mount, which I did and suggest, you will need to drop the sub-frame a few inches to replace. BUT, I wouldn't drop it to do other things.

I did all the bushings and joints you are planning and if I was to do again here is what

I'd do:

First, remove tie rod to allow movement and pop lower ball joint. Can lower rotor and hub on jack and lower car just a touch to separate.
Pop upper ball joint and pull whole hub out. With hub out then you have more access to everything else.
--I replaced wheel bearings here--

Remove the spring and shock.
Then pull and replace lower control arm and end link. Then the upper control arm---Here if possible best time to do V-mount. UC was in the way for me and made it much more difficult.
With both control arms off car it will be much easier to grind/cut away to replace. Bushings and joints on mine needed almost every tool in the box. Torch, air hammer, punch, pry-bar, grinder, etc.

assemble lower CA, Upper CA, then hub slide hub in.
Spring, upper shock bushings and shock last.
End link and tie rod is last part. Sway bar bushings at anytime.

Getting CA bushings out and ball joints off, and access to V-mount, were all a huge hassle, focus on these parts first. Good luck!

 

You'll need to remove the bolts securing the steering rack to the car as well. The rack can stay hooked up but you'll need some room to get at the hardware at the rear of the lower wishbone...

 

Thanks, that is very helpful.

So, did you hook up the spring compressor after you pull the hub out but before removing spring and shock?

At what point did you remove bolts from steering rack as someone else mentioned?

How high did front of car need to be lifted?

Am thinking maybe I should do the V-blocks while I am at it ...
Did you replace the torx bolts when you did the v-blocks?

Any tricks to dropping the subframe just a few inches, sounds like you were able to slide the new mounts in which I hear is the challenge?

Thanks again.

 

For my homemade spring compressors the old girl needed to be ~15" in the air (jack stand height under the front cross member. I'm not sure about the real Jag tool.
I had all the ball joints disconnected and hub removed before I took pressure off the wishbones by compressing the spring. I remember this giving me a little more room to work plus I didn't have to support the hub to keep it out of my way.
You'll need the shocks out before you install the spring compressor (obvious I know) and the steering rack bolts just need to be undone ahead of removing the nuts at the rear of the lower wishbone.
I didn't remove the entire lower wishbone, just the part with the ball joint so I could have it removed and replaced at a machine shop. My ball joint tool had no luck making the lowers budge, the uppers were done in my driveway. Because I left the front of the lower wishbone I really just used the compressor to take some of the spring load so they stayed in the car as did the lower wishbone pivot bolt which looks like a PITA to remove.
I would expect that you can reuse any bolt that you don't bugger the head on when removing it but if you find thread locker you may want to clean the threads and reapply fresh stuff when you reassemble.
Others have remove the springs and wishbones so you may want to wait for a reply from someone that's gone that route. The sub frame is deeper than I've dived into so far on my cat.

 

The car does have to be raised way up to use the spring compressor. Doing the passenger side my car was tipped enough that gas was coming back out the filler neck.
You don't need to remove the sub-frame and unless you can see the rear have torn you likely don't need to change them. The front V's you can change by only loosening the rear bolts and letting the subframe arc down from the rear bolts.
For sequence the JTIS is very helpful and there are detailed posts in this forum. the spring compressor must be installed before you remove the shock. As you remove each bolt holding the lower shock pan install long studs in their place so the shock pan slides done those studs as you release the spring compressor. These studs are critical for re-assembly
Be very careful of the spring.

 

Thanks for all the messages. I think I have a pretty good sense for how to approach.

I sure wish I had not sold my midrise lift, sounds like it would have been ideal for this job.

 

Good luck. I hope it all works out for you.
In reading this thread, if I ever have to have this done, I will take it to my "guy". If I would try doing this, I would be in WAY over my head!

Please let us know how this all works out.

 

Ha, I really do not want to tackle this either!

Other than the dealer there are not any independent Jag guys I trust. (I live near Collegeville / Limerick, PA). Open to suggestions if anyone knows a good shop.

There is one independent specialist nearby who also does major restorations. Unfortunately, I had some bad experiences there back in the days of my SIII XJ6. They replaced my fuel tank but either left out or did not properly install seals. The dealer had to redo it although in this case the independent covered the cost. Later I had a "no start" which he could not figure out after two weeks. I stopped by one day and pointed out that the distributor was off 90 degrees from the other in his shop. Twisted the distributor and she started right up. He then had the nerve to charge me for the many hours he spent diagnosing the problem. It still ran awful, he set the timing without clamping off the vacuum hose.