In the process of replacing the front shock bushings and jounce bumper in my '92, I managed to bend the right front right shock rod... I figured I'd be slick and replace the bushings and bumper without removing the lower mounting bolt from the shock to make it a quick and easy job. Turns out in the process of jacking up the knuckle, I ended up wedging the top of the strut rod against the body, which put a nice bend in it. Now the shock wants to hang up after about 1/2 of the rod's length is compressed. There was a little oil seeping from the shock rod opening, so I think the seal is busted as well. I guess it's time for new stocks. The original Boge's on the car were in really good shape too. Live and learn...

So much for that job. The new pair of Sachs I purchased come with new jounce bumpers AND bushings. They'll be here next week, and I'll be taking pictures of the job to make a little write up on shock replacement...

Nick

 

Perfect time for some Bilstein shocks

 

Jaguar XJ40 Front Shock Replacement How-To


Break lug nuts free while the car is still on the ground.

Jack up the car, and support the body on stands.

Remove the wheel, marking the relationship between the wheel and lug stud.

Place a jack under the spring pan or lower ball joint, and raise it just enough to keep the suspension from dropping any lower than it already is.

Remove the shock upper mounting nut. You may need to remove items to gain access, depending on your model year, and which side of the car you are working on. My 1992 required removing the nut securing the coolant expansion tank, which could then be rotated away to gain access to the nut.

Using an adjustable wrench, or similar tool, grasp the flats on the top of the strut rod to keep it from rotating while you loosen the securing nut. On my vehicle, I was able to use a deep socket to get the nut loosened about a third of the way. If you jack up the suspension too much, you’ll take the weight off of the top mount, which will usually make it harder to remove, as everything will want to spin on you.






Remove the nut, washer, buffer (bushing), and cup washer and set aside. Your new shock may or may not come with these parts. My Sachs Super Touring shocks came with all of these parts.




Before you can access the lower shock mount nut and bolt, you’ll have to remove the sway bar end link nut, and swing the link out of the way. On my car, I loosened the nut almost the end of the bolt, and tapped the nut with a hammer to slide the bolt back through its hole. I then removed the nut and pried the bottom of the link towards the end of the bolt to free it. The link can then rotate up and out of the way. You don’t need to remove the bolt.








Now you can access the lower shock mount bolt. Remove the nut and bolt.




Manually compress the shock down, and remove it from the vehicle. This is easier said than done if your shocks are pretty healthy like mine were. If your shocks are shot, they probably are begging to come out, and will take a while to extend back (if they can even extend on their own anymore…)




Once the shock is out, be sure to keep the washers if you need them.
You can take the time to clean up the road grime and/or shock oil that gets sprayed everywhere (as you can see in the pictures of my car) and check the condition of the bushing on the lower mounting area, as well as the mounting surface at the top.




Get your hardware together on your new shock, if it doesn’t already come with it.

It might be a fight getting the new units in. I compressed mine on the floor and held it compressed while inserting the shock between the upper wishbone, and down into position over the bottom mount. I had to compress it down again to get the strut rod through the hole in the body.




Install the lower mount nut and bolt. I found that using a screwdriver to pry inside the opposite end of the bushing helped to align things when inserting the bolt. Tighten the nut to 50 foot pounds.






You can swing the sway bar end link back down onto the bolt. I lightly used a hammer to tap it back on while pulling down on the sway bar to get the end link aligned. Install the washer and nut, and tighten to 44 foot pounds.






Install the top mount hardware (cup washer, buffer, flat washer, and nut) using and adjustable wrench to keep the shaft from rotation while you tighten. This is probably the most time consuming step in the whole process. A ratcheting wrench would be very useful here. Make sure these are completely tightened. With the bottom of the suspension only being supported by the jack, there should be no space between the bottom set of hardware (cup washer and buffer) and the body when looking through the wheel well. Make sure the top nut is tightened to 30 foot pounds. This may be difficult to measure unless you have a torque spanner.






If you needed to remove anything to gain access to the top mounts, reinstall it.

Replace the wheel, matching the mark that you made when removing it. Tighten the lug nuts hand tight.

Lower the jack from the suspension, jack the car up off the stands and remove them.

Lower the tires to the ground and torque the lug nuts to the proper spec. For my car, which has alloy wheels, it is 75 foot pounds.

Take the car for a drive with the climate control and radio off, and enjoy the silence.

Hope this helps!
Nick

 

I am about to do this. Thanks for the great write up with pics!

 

Very nice write up and with pictures. +1

I just did this on my XJ with the added benefit of having a lift and compressed air. I couldn't imagine doing this stuff without one anymore.

 

Well I finally replaced the front shocks today with spanking new Sachs 170 121 super tourers - also replaced the lower shock bushings, sway bar bushes and the sway bar links which were totally hooped.
I thought I'd see some improvement but I wasn't prepared for such a DRASTIC change - she rides like a new car! The shocks were original Boge with 116K on them, I guess they'd seen better days.

The hardest part of the job was renewing the lower bushes but with a borrowed bushing removal/install tool and a couple of sockets and a good long breaker bar, it went pretty smoothly (once I figured out how the darn thing worked!)

Anyway, very happy!

ATB

Larry

 

Congratulations, Larry! Isn't it amazing how sensitive these cars are to having everything in the suspension operating properly? Well done, and enjoy the nice ride!

Cheers,

Don

 

Hi,

I need to get new shocks to my Kitten, it did not pass the yearly inspection because of the left side front shock is shot. The question is that what are the best I can get to it, I did look into getting Bilstein B6 Sport shocks.

Does anyone have any suggestions on are the Bilsteins the beast option or is there other good options?

Kay

 

Honestly it's a matter of preference, generally look into life length. You can pay a lot of money for some higher grade "performance" struts that you most likely won't fully utilize and they could last just as long as a cheaper alternative. Just do your homework, look up posts on here of brands that people have used on here, make sure and look all the way through each posts in case someone went back and posted a negative experience with their new part. Also, I get on Amazon and see how well products are reviewed. Don't just go by what the brands website says, most are of great quality, in the end they're there to sell you parts. I just installed KYB struts on my rear and am going back to look at them soon because they're not performing like my previous shocks were. I want to see if it's installation error or did the product just not meet expectations.
I'm not a mechanic by far and don't claim to be one, I'm learning so I'm looking at the vets of this site and others for their past experiences with parts, brands, methods, and sources. This isn't much help to your question, just more of an approach for any further connected to this one or similar. Good day.

 

Hi Kay,

The original shocks on your '91 were probably made by the German company Boge, which is now part of the large German conglomerate ZF. I tried Bilsteins on our '88 but found them too harsh, so I went back to Boges, which restored the great blend of handling and smooth ride.

When I was replacing the rear shocks on our '93, I shopped around and found a good deal on a pair by Sachs, which is another German company also owned by ZF. The Sachs have performed beautifully.

Some members have reported good results with Bilsteins, KYB and Monroe, but if you prefer the smooth ride the Jaguar engineers intended, I would suggest you at least try to find Boge or Sachs shocks and compare the prices to other options.

Cheers,

Don