rear suspension refit best sequence
 

My 73 series 1 had an all in one piece exhaust system on it with cherry bombs in the rear silencer location. When I dropped the suspension to go through it (including the entire exhaust from the engine manifold back) I decided to cut it and put connectors and muffler cement on to make it easier to service. (I'm not sure how the previous owner managed to fit that exhaust setup).

I put the rear suspension back in a few weeks ago then took it out again this weekend to plumb the exhaust back in for hopefully a final assembly. I also put some fresh URO brand 'metalastic' mounts on it.

Question: what is the best sequence for remounting the IRS?

I've cut my exhaust back to approximately the original configuration and the sequence I envisage is

- install the rear exhaust sections in place in the body
- install the short exhaust tubes inside the irs
- jack up the irs so the 4 mounts are pressed againnst the body so the holes line up for the 4 bolts on each side
- make sure the prop shaft is lined up so it can be bolted back on to the diff
- put the bolts through the mounts and body and put the nuts on
- bolt the prop shaft back on
- hook up brake line and handbrake
- install exhaust connectors and front section of exhaust

Anyone got any tips and tricks for this, particularly around getting the bolts through the mounts and body in the best sequence? I know they need to be compressed against the car before they will line up properly

Pretty much what you have listed.

Mine all had the oval flanges on the exhaust, fore and aft, and that was the best "mod" I ever did. Just made a stupid task less stupid.

The mounts to the chassis:

Some round shank screwdrivers, usually with the "philips" tip, and put on a keg.

The mates you never knew you had turn up, sooooo get them to assist align and slide those drivers thru the holes, then the bolts and nuts, BEFORE the keg is tapped, NO BEER until ALL the bits are tight, and beast is back on its wheels.

The Phillips screwdrivers work perfect. I had my 16 y/o son manning the trolley jack and armed myself with four large phillips head screwdrivers and IRS was in place in no time. Still takes a bit of persistence, a couple of extra hands would help.
(and I didn't even have to shell out to buy a couple of mates beer to help)

I picked up a stainless system off an S1 wreck with flanges both ends of the over axle pipes. So easy to work with. Worth every cent of having it fitted.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...42a58768d1.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...e796036529.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...dd66dc822d.jpg

Great pics !! This is the critical measurement for having a car without knocks, thumps etc. Notice the wide flanges on the exhaust pipe - they are touching the edge of the cage. I start here and make sure the exhaust flanges do not touch the cage ever. Before that, I install the over the axle pipes on their little hangers. Between positioning the pipes and making sure the pipe flanges (where the over the axle pipes connect to the mufflers) just in front of the cage. As well you still have to have the correct position for the rear resonator - the pipes have to pass through the holes in the rear valance , and not touch the edges of them.
Good stuff - just takes some fiddling to get it all right. my 2 cents

we used a floor jack at both ends of the axle to stab it into place. I had to drill out just a smidge of material on the new sub frame mounts to get the bolts to go through on two or three bolt holes. Rest went together great!

I'm having issues with the Uro brand subframe mounts - I have all the horizontal bolts in but the inside holes will not align so I can't get the nuts on. I trial fit the Uro mounts on the car first and the bolts went through so I'm assuming it is the weight of the subframe that is distorting them. I found the Uro mounts have a different thread size for the vertical cage attachment male threaded fastener so I didn't tighten them down yet, could be the issue. Hoping to work on this again tomorrow.
Was wondering if anyone else has had this issue with these units and if there are any work arounds. The old mounts were much easier to work with, probably because they been on the car for decades. don't want to drill the new Uro mounts
if I can avoid it...
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...7ab60427ad.jpg

I ended up enlarging some holes to get these to work. One of my old mounts was sheared off, otherwise I would probably not have bothered changing them out, to be honest. Since bolting everything up, I hear a lot more noise from the rear end than (I'm pretty sure - but it could be my imagination, I guess) I used to. I suspect the harder compound used in these mounts.

Bottom line - I'm not impressed. Seems to be the way with a lot of aftermarket parts. The Uro branded motor mounts are junk as well - I've broken two of those with normal use.

Thanks - I had a good look at them and was a bit dubious about the quality of the metalastic rubber sandwich. I might just take them off and use a set of mounts from a series III rear end I have. No point using them if they don't do the cushioning job they are supposed to be doing...

I think I'll just see if bolting up the verticals to the cage tightens up the fit so the holes align before I drop the rear end again and take them off.

Wait until you try to change the door seals.. they are way too long for a SWB S1.

Hi - I replaced the completely perished original on my 73 with URO brand about 8 or 9 years ago and they're still fine. When I bought the car the PO neglected to mention that all of the original mounts were detached - what a fun surprise the first time I lifted the car :) I was on a budget at the time so took a chance on the UROs'

Not sure if you mentioned this in your thread and the manual doesn't make an obvious point about it although it does describe it and there are pics of it..... are you attaching the front 2 mounts to the cage and the rear 2 to the body and then lifting it back into place? That's how Jag says to remove and re-install and I found that it's way easier like that than attaching all of them to the body or all of them to the cage. Have no problem getting them in myself like that with one jack.

Hi Mike

I've tried both ways with the mounts but it appears new uro's have an issue with the holes lining up on the inside edges of the car however you introduce the cage to body. I also found if I attach the mounts to body they won't line up. Maybe I got some dud ones...hope to go back into battle on this midweek

Yeah - that's a problem if they won't mount to the body when you test fit. I didn't have that issue with my URO's - maybe their making their cheap parts even cheaper than when I did it years ago.

But when you sort that give it a try attaching the front ones to the cage and the rear ones to the body before jacking it back up instead of all of them on the body or all of them on the cage - I definitely found it easier to line up the holes.

Thanks, will do. I did trial fit the uro's to the body while the suspension was down and I could get the bolts through with a bit of wiggling and encouragement. I always scrape any under seal and crud off that area first as a little lump of debris between mount and body can make the fit much harder, so that was my test fitting.
It may just be my mechanical specialization 'it wasn't broken before but it is now' - maybe I bent the mounts or something:(
Anyway I'll put the SIII ones on if I can't get them to fit. I am building a 1950 Studebaker starlite coupe which will be on jag suspension so I can use the uro's on that....