I really would like a great pictorial for taking down the rear end of this beautiful XJS. After sitting for four years in the grass. I should drop the rear and rebuild. Short of that, Young John would at least like to get the rear brakes functioning again. The more I look at it, I can see at least ten bolts, drive shaft, brake lines, etc.
Can I realistically get the calipers off without removing the whole rear?
The bottom plate is off allowing a certain amount of freedom to work. but still tight.

Peace
Neil

 

Remove calipers without dropping the whole rear end? It can be done, yes. Not easy, but 100% doable.

If you need rotors, though, they won't come off unless the car is elevated very high....higher than most would be comfortable with. This is becuase the lower arms must be allowed to drop wayyyyy down to allow the rotors to come out.

The summary version of dropping the entire rear subframe is:

-disconnect driveshaft
-disconnect brake hose and cables
-remove rear exhaust
-unbolt trailing arms and uncouple from underbody
-remove four "vee" mounts
-lower away on a floor jack!

Cheers
DD

 

Yeh I can see all that, what a drag.

 

The conventional wisdom is to drop the rear end and, time and budget permitting, "do everything": calipers, pads, rotors, replace and leaky seals, replace worn bushings and cracked mounts, etc etc

This is a couple weekends worth of work for a first timer but you can then forget about "going back in" for a couple decades :-)

If you're *sure* that you only want/need to replace the calipers then it's a toss-up whether not to drop the rear end.

Cheers
DD

 

I have the rear pulled out of my 87-XJ6 which should be pretty much the same as what you have. I can take some photos of it and post them if you like to give you an idea of what you can't see with it in the car?

 

you can do the rear calipers without pulling the rear end off, i did it last winter.

its a cuss and aspirin filled job but you can get it done pretty easily alone.
lemme see if i can find a link.

read the whole thing if you want but most of the important stuff is on the second page, it turns into a sort of write-up halfway through.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...s-48471/page2/

 

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Hi Neil,

I am in the middle of a rear end rebuild right now. As far as I am concerned if the rear has not been out or you are unsure drop it pull it down and check and replace everything that is needed.

Do it right do it ONCE, you will never touch it again.

I was just going to replace the shocks. I have ended up rebuilding the hubs as one needed the bearings done, as it turned out my drive shaft uni's were very tight these have been done as well.

I have gone a little overboard now with a rebuilt diff with 4.09 gears mated to 4L60E. Everything had been sandblasted and powdercoated - should outlast me now.

I tried uploading photos but it just fails no helpful messages I'll try again tomorrow.

cheers
Warren

 

For those offering pictures, fantastic.
I really am leaning toward pulling the whole rear down, but young John is mad with anticipation to drive this thing.
He has driven it around the block half a dozen times to make sure temps and things of that nature are good. So far everything checks out great.
The trailing arms are one thing I'm concerned about getting off as I read the post about these pesky things.
Thanks guys.
Peace
Neil

 

Best of luck Neil/John.

Nice assist there Sidescrollin.

 

With experience the whole rear end comes out in less than 1/2 hour with a lift. 3/4 of an hour on the floor. One “trick” I use is the trailing arm is usually stuck on the body. I have a big reasonably sharp chisel and put the edge between the bushing and the body plate. Using a decent sized fist mall I’ll hit it hard and it will pop right off, ( you did unbolt it first didn’t you??)
Then I use an Engine hoist to lift it up on the bench. Where working on it is a breeze.

One thing to always do, drop the lower A arm off. A design flaw is the roller bearings in those bushings have all of the cars weight on only 4-5 needle bearings. If those lower grease fittings aren't religously greased with every oil change. Those needle bearings will have flat spots. Then if some of the bushing aren’t badly worn you can just replace the needle bearings with flat spots.
To find which are flat just roll them across a piece of glass. Most will be fine. Except a few bad ones on each bushing. Replace just those and the bushings if damaged.
The difference is slight but you will notice a little rear end steering at high speed or crossing railroad tracks at an angle.

 

I know that some jobs take longer than I envisage, but I would hope the Thread owner has managed to drop the cage after 13 years!

Paul

 

Hi Thuffner3

Removing the Cage and Refurbing it is one of my Favorite Jobs as when its 'done and dusted' the 'Payoff' is amazing!

But it's a Jag and so there will be pain

In the UK we have the 'Rust Bug' to contend with, which is why I always drop the Cage as you can bet there will be bolts that just won't come undone without an Impact Wrench and or a FBH

And while you may be able to do the Calipers on there own, if the Rotors are in Bad Shape, then its best to do it all or not at all, although in the event that mechanical stuff is not really your thing, or maybe that you are just pushed for time

You can buy a rebuilt IRS for about 3 Grand and then sell the old one on ebay

Removing the Trailing Arms is very easy and you can Make a Slide Hammer to do this out of Scraps you have hanging around, as I am not a Fan of the Hammer and Chisel method (although that does work)

One of the things you need to make is a 'Hand Brake Wrangler' that will save you Hours of Pain and Suffering!

Its all here in my Step by Step Guide, including 'Shedloads of Photos'

Removing and Reurbing the Cage of my XJS V12