Hi everyone - I finally got my XJ6 back on the road from an engine rebuild...glad to finally be able to drive this thing. Question, now that I am driving the car for the first time..


I have a repetitive scraping noise that seems to be coming from the center of the car...I can hear it through the floor, even with the windows down...but only when i'm moving and turning left. If I turn right, it goes away...but definitely sounds like it's coming from the middle of the car...not a front suspension thing, and i'm not feeling vibration in the steering wheel.


The auto trans mount was replaced as well, while things were out...


I did an initial check underneath and didn't see any signs of rubbing, but will take another look. Any ideas on what else I might check?


My next item to look at is a loud clunk I hear when hitting certain bumps...it's not real consistent, but i'll get a good 'clunk' every so often from the rear seat area. I'm going to check the upper suspension bumpers, just to see what those are looking at...


Pete

 

Hi Pete,

The first thing that comes to mind is the transmission heat shield or an exhaust heat shield. Could one of those be contacting the driveshaft U-joint?


If the procedure in Haynes was followed, are you aware that the Haynes instructions for reassembling the transmission mount components contains an error?


The most common source of a knock or clunk that sounds like it comes from the rear seat is a rear shock shaft contacting the steel upper mounting plate because the "top hat" or guide bush has deteriorated and is allowing metal-to-metal contact. The top hat bush is part 14 in the diagram below:



Unfortunately, the only way to check the top hat bushes is to remove the shock/spring assembly, compress the spring, remove the top nuts and separate the components. If you decide to do that, you will want to also replace the large foam "donut" spring isolator bushing (Part 5) and the two cylindrical foam bushings, Parts 13 and 15.

Here's the link to the parts diagram with part identifications:

Damper and Spring-Rear - Parts For XJ6 (2.9, 3.2, 3.6, 4.0) from (V)500001 to (V)667828 | Jaguar Classic Parts UK

And here are links to photos showing the process of replacing the rear shock bushings (and shocks). Unfortunately I forgot to include a photo of the new top hat bushings and my old ones were so deteriorated you can't even tell their original shape:

http://www.jag-lovers.org/snaps/snap...?id=1295224219
http://www.jag-lovers.org/snaps/snap...?id=1295225605

Cheers,

Don

 

Don - thanks for all the detail! A couple things came to mind...


1) My exhaust seems to be hanging a bit low in the front section, where the single pipe connects the mid section to the pipe coming off the engine. Although it's not causing a rubbing in that area, I do notice the hanger for the trans (the one off the transmission, and the bracket off the bell housing) aren't meeting up). I don't see where it would be fouling, but perhaps the angle is causing an issue farther back...


2) The Haynes manual - I actually followed the manual to reassemble that center joint..you're saying that's incorrect? I'll do some searching to see if I can find out where the error was in the Haynes book...interesting


3) Suspension is another whole ball of fun, as you illustrated . I'll see what happens when I take care of #1/#2 before digging too deeply.


Thanks!
Pete

 

Hi Pete,

See this post from the Jag-Lovers forum, one of many reports there over the years:

JagFORUM Logon


Cheers,

Don

 

Ok, so I have #2 taken care of (swapped the order of the bump stop)...so now I no longer have a noise turning left... just have a thump over bumps. Getting closer That strap that hangs from the transmission to the center section of the exhaust...that's still not quite close enough to connect... close, but not quite there.. I'm not quite sure how that could be off, unless I somehow bent the exhaust a bit. Haven't pulled that off before on previous projects, but there's always a first time for everything...


Pulled the spare tire and jack from the back, just to make sure those weren't bouncing around... didn't seem to do the trick. I may have to take the plunge and bring the car in to have the rear suspension pulled and checked out. After rebuilding the engine and doing 101 other things, i'm sort of at that point where it's a 90+ degree day and I'm not wanting to spin my wheels on the rear suspension disassembly at the moment... Maybe I just need a cold spell me to convince me to give it a go..!


Pete