Hi again,

I am wondering about lowering my XJ6C. My 73 XJ6 four door sits much lower and I prefer that look. It is 27 inches from the ground to the top of the headlight and my coupe sits 29 inches to the same point. Does the 73 have different springs? spindles? or are the springs just shot? I can source a set of Series 1 springs from a local junkyard and am wondering if they will drop the front 2 inches. I would also like to drop the rear to keep the look level. Any suggestions on how to do the rear?

Thanks,

Steve

73 XJ6 federal,
76 XJ6C federal

 

Does the coupe have KYB shock by any chance?

Anyway....to drop the front you can add spacers to the lower spring plate. That will effectively drop the car in the front. I also have a set of series 1 springs for sale and ready to ship. The rear is not as easy to drop, you will probably have to remove the springs and cut them or weld up new attachment points on the rear lower control arm.

 

ICS,


Thanks, for your reply. I did some more measuring and found that the on both the 73 and the 76, the center of the front wheels are 12.5 inches. However, on the 73, the bottom of the control arm is 4.75 inches from the ground and on the 76 it is 6.5 inches off the ground. This suggests that the spindle is higher on the steering knuckle on the 73? I googled around and searched this forum and could not find anyone saying that this is the case. Have you ever heard of an aftermarket dropped spindle for the XJ6?


Thanks,


Steve

 

Bump for Steve. I'd be interested to see people's thoughts on this also

 

I checked the parts book for both the series 1 and series 2 XJ6. It showed the same part number for the spindles. I also found dimensions in the service manual and they also appeared the same. I too, have noticed a wide variation in real world XJ ride height but have attributed it to gas pressure shocks

 

Might be worth a shot
Jaguar XJ 6 Ser 1,2,3 6 Cyl 68-86 Lowered King Springs | eBay
No experience with these myself.

 

Steve,
My car is 1976, has stock OEM spindles & carriers. The center of the front tire, General Altimax, 215/60/15, is 11 inches from the floor. The top of the outer headlight retaining ring of the is 25 inches off the floor. I haven't measured the control arm clearance.

When we did the front suspension earlier this year, there were no spacers on the spring pans. Perhaps the springs were shortened by the PO, but the car sits level and isn't higher in the rear.
(';')

 

wow!

Thanks for all the input. I must be measuring something wrong or making a bad assumption somewhere here. This should be the front end geometry (simplified)....



The height of the lower control arm should be a fixed distance from the stub axle. How can I get 2 different measurements? The spindle has an unsprung connection to the lower control arm. Jaguar Voodooo?

Thanks,

Steve

 

Yeah, appears to be a conundrum?


The lower end of the coil spring rides in a pan bolted to the underside of the lower control arm. Packs (shims) may have been inserted under the spring. result, greater space between upper and lower arms. Car body now higher.


A somewhat common way to lower the body is to add spacers (shims) between the lower control arm and the pan in which the coil rides. Upper arm goes downas does the body.


I suggest that you add the upper control arm to your interesting drawing and visualize the relation of the arms to the body. And the effect of changes.


The front coils have a heavy load. Over time, they sag. Body goes down.
The look "cool". Installing a fresh set of coils and the nose goes up. At times, way too much.


Carl

 

True but that's not what you are measuring. You are measuring the distance from a point on the LCA the the road surface which will vary greatly depending on the movement of the suspension, spring sag, bushing deflection, etc...

No reason to over complicate this...Someone once said..."That which we don't understand is indistinguishable from magic" or voodoo in this case. If you want the car lower, remove the springs & remove any spacers. The factory fitted nylon spacers to the top and bottom of the springs, in some cases there are many of them. If it still needs to be lower then other more involved steps need to be taken such as spring plate spacers, replacement or proper spring cutting. If you have gas KYB shocks they are highly pressurized and will add lift to the front end. You could replace them with a lower pressure shock.

 

ICS,

What I am measuring is the relationship of the stub axle to the ground and the LCA to the ground. If you subtract the distance of the LCA to ground from the distance of stub axle to ground then you should end up with the distance of the LCA to stub axle. Since the steering knuckle (which carries the stub axle) is bolted directly to the LCA via a balljoint, this "difference" should be the same for all XJ6s with the same steering knuckle. I would expect some difference do to castor/camber adjustments, ball joint wear etc., but not 1.75 inches... But you are also correct that I am way overthinking this. I was trying to understand the suspension better so that I could have some level of confidence that the actions I take will in fact drop the car, and drop the car the desired amount without a lot of trial and error. However, it seems that once again Jaguar has some how defied simple logic. It looks like trial and error will be the way to go, and along the way I will probably have an "AHAA!" moment where all this will make sense.

Thanks for your help,

Steve

 

found it?

Looking thru a British Leyland XJ6-Sovereign manual (E188/4)and found a diagram showing the difference between pre-74 and post 74 upper, lower wisbone/stub axle carrier. Not a big difference but there is a difference. This probably explains the ride height difference. So if you want a lower stance on the front end of your S2 or S3, swapping out the wishbones and stub axle carrier from a S1 may do the trick...

Thanks again,

Steve

 

here's the diagrams...








Thanks,

Steve

 

The reason I gave you my tire size is because that DIRECTLY effects the height of the car.

To compare various tire profiles and sizes, look at TireRack.com. I think they're a sponsor.
(';')