I succeeded in pulling the IRS and now I need to pull it apart for cleaning and rejuevnating. I am looking for a teardown order. Does anyone have a step by step order for the teardown. I just want to not take something off in the wrong order. I fact, I can recall a video once where someone said make sure to loose bolt x before doing this other thing because you can't move it later. Don't recall the exacts but that's what I'm concerned about.

 

How far do you intend to strip the subframe? Lower control arm and all, diff out?
Are you renewing the UJs?

 

There is nothing as far as I know for dismantling order, but you need to be careful when removing the drive shafts and brake discs. Shims are used here for (1) centering the discs in the calipers, and (2) for setting the camber of the rear wheels. Make sure you collect these, measure them, and keep carefully with a record of where they were on the assembly. There is nothing considered dangerous or hazardous on the rear suspension unlike the front, where you have the very powerful front springs retained by the lower wishbone spring pan. The rear springs, (four of them) are mounted concentric to the dampers (shocks), and retained like motorcycle damper/spring units, and can just be unbolted from the assembly. If you're fitting new dampers, you'll need a pair of spring compressors of the type sold for this purpose to releas the lower collets retaining the springs. These are easy to use, I've done it a few times in the past on an XJ6 I once owned.

 

Hi All

Thanks for the tips. I have removed the IRS and started Stripping it down. I took it out originally because the E-Brake wasn't holding and wouldn't pass inspection. I thought it must be frozen. Now with it out I can see the E-Brake Pads have plenty of meat on them and it looks like the problem was that oil was all over the rotors. While I have it out I plan to just disassemble the whole thing, clean it and renew it. The oil seems to be coming from 1) Grease joints in the U-Joints(?) and 2) the side seals of the diff. Perhaps a bit on the front seal and also there seems to be a lot on that vertical overflow pipe thing in the back (though it does have its cap still on-so I don't know how that would leak?).

Anyway, question of the day here is how to break the wishbone loose from the body of the cage. I have the fulcrum shafts out. They came out easily actually. I think there should be nothing else holding them in except friction, but before I start prying to remove them, I thought I'd ask whether there is anything else holding the wishbone in. Like set screws or something? I looked at the parts diagram and also the dissassembly instructions in the manual but I can't make heads or tails of the instructions. I have the cage right side up and the tie plate is still on with all its bolts in.

The thing is heavy of course and I don't want to over force anything.

 

Take the tie plate off and they should pull out easily.

Dave

 

Thanks Dave @LT1 jaguar .

LOL, of course, I have it on a bench with the tie plate side down. So some follow ups. Any idea how much the Pumpkin weighs? I know "a lot" but perhaps a guess? 50 lbs? 100Lbs? I'd kind of like to get an idea before I try to manhandle it and turn it over.

Then I assume I should take off the Calipers and everything I can before trying that? Do you agree?

Also there are four bolts on the top of the cage that look like they secure the pumpkin. I would assume if I take these out the Pumpkin will become "unstable". So, 1) Flip, 2) remove Tie plate; 3) Flip 4) Remove Wishbone?

Do you suggest a different order?

 

Can’t tel you the weight, but best guess around 100 lbs easily!

I did figure out a really easy way to reinstall it though, with a 2x 2 piece of plywood and and enough 2x 4 between the casters and plywood to allow my floor jack to slide in , place cage on your little home made rolling platform, roll under car and align best you can, then slide jack underneath and jack into place , took all of about 30 mins to get it back in!!

 

I can only think one step that has to be "in order". The front shocks have to be removed before you can remove the bolt holding the trailing link/stabilizer link, you'll see.
Here's a picture of me "rolling" the cage with my engine hoist and ratchet straps. This was the only way I could do it by myself.

The order of dismantle/mantle is pretty open, just take lots of pictures for reference keep track of the parts. I'm with Darren on the weight, if it's not 100#, it's very damn close. An engine hoist is a wonderful thing.

Dave

 

Hi, just the pumpkin without the brake calipers is somewhere around 100lbs, maybe more. Do you have the half shafts already removed ? If not I'd remove them before unbolting the pumpkin from the cage.
Also have you drained all the gear oil, if not it will run out the vent tube making a stinky mess when you tip the diff on it's side ( the cap is actually just a screen / vent ). Ask me how I know !

I would suggest tipping the unit back and forth just enough to put a piece of 2x4 under the tie plate near the front and back allowing access to the 6 bolts holding the tie plate to the cage. The wishbones would most likely be loose enough at this point to slide out.You can then remove the 4 bolts holding the cage to the pumpkin allowing the cage to be lifted off the pumpkin + brake caliper + tie plate. Calipers next then finally tilt pumpkin onto nose and remove tie plate. tilt back flat before removing the wishbone attach brackets, keeping close watch on where all the shims between the brackets and pumpkin come from !

Cheers,
Brian

 

Have you carefully kept the spacer on each of the outer drive shafts, (the splined stub axle that goes into the hub carrier) ? You need to keep this with its original hub carrier. These spacers are there for setting the correct bearing clearance. When I fitted new hub bearings in the late 80s, I found I didn't need new spacers of a different thickness. The bearing makers make their bearings very accurately, and my theory is the spacers are to compensate for inaccurate machining of the hub carriers, so were made in various thicknesses. I can't remember the exact bearing clearance but it's quite small like about 1.5-2 thou.

 

Hi Folks
Thanks for all the tips. I'm learning as I am going. I got the wishbones out. I turns out that they came out fairly easily with a few taps of a small light hammer. I also got the parking brakes out and took all the brake lines off. So at present the cage is stripped of everything except the pumpkin and brake calipers and the tie plate is still on. @Fraser Mitchell I don't plan on taking the hubs apart, they seem to be in great shape and I took out the hub with the half shafts.

Next issue is removing the brake caliper. I know these brakes had been replaced before i bought the car 4 years ago and it has had light use since. So pads are great and the calipers are in good shape. Whomever did the work did not put the safety wire back on the caliper bolts and I tried to move these 5/8 bolts with wrenches but they didn't move. I had three different wrenches I have starting with the lightest one and ending with a very heavy (but short) ancient cast iron (or steel-but definitely cast) wrench and they wouldn't budge. The space to do this with the cage in its current state is very small and rather than shatter or bend a wrench I stopped for the night.

My plan is to remove the calipers take the rotors off and then unbolt the tie plate from above then rotate the cage off the pumpkin leaving the pumpkin and the tie plate.

The question for the brain trust is now, how to remove those caliper bolts without shattering wrenches. No way to get a socket on them. I fear use of red locktite but don't know if that was used.

BTW, an engine hoist would be great, but I don't have one. That's why I wanted to know about its weight and I am trying to remove everything I can before tackling it.

 

Muttony
Use a blowtorch or an induction heater coil on the bolts. Even the strongest loctite (the green stuff) will come undone at about 450 °C.
The parking brake (emergency brake to you!) is a desperately weak point on the classic Jaguar rear axle. The attached suggests a reliable way to get it strong and long lasting.

 

Thanks @Greg in France The only part of the bolt I could get heat on is the bolt head. Is that what you are suggesting to heat? Won't that cause the bolt to expand making it more difficult to remove? What about twisting the head off as weakend by heat. Can you provide a little more detail on your suggestion?

 

Difficult and a bit I agree! But heat on the bolthead is all you can do if it just will not budge. It does not need to be red hot, just get the flame on th bolthead for a good bit and give it time to get down the threaded part, then try the spanner, if it has been loctited this will help a great deal. It will be obvious if it will turn, well before the strain needed to twist off the head.

 

Great news. Managed to get the calipers off. I sprayed some PB Blaster and used a longer wrench and the bolts came away more easily than I expected.