Now that I have ramps and can gain access to under the car i have found the following things.

1) Transmission oil leak - can't get a spanner to it to tighten it, maybe a crows foot spanner?
Also on the other side is a thing - linkage - thing that is leaking... no picture but will get one next time up on the ramps.
Any ideas?



2) Front Suspension bush - failed - how easy to change?
What bush is this?
Should I change both?

 

Well done.

Trans leaks are mostly the pan gasket, and that linkage is the selector shaft, and yes, there is a seal there, and is accessable from INSIDE the transmission with the selector shaft removed, FUN.

The pan gaskets are crap, and I do not use a gasket, just a good bead of Hi-Temp RTV, and ensure the pan is flat, most are NOT, especially around the bolt holes.

That "collision Bracket" on the rear needs to be remove to get the pan off, and I leave them off, so next time the pan simply drops like any other transmission pan.

Another leaker that can be blamed on the pan gasket is the Vac Modulator, RH side towards the front, and fluid from that units o/ring will run around the top ledge and drip off wherever it feels like it.
That bush looks like the lower inner wishbone bush, and the spring needs to come OUT to replace them, and there a 4 per car, and GENUINE Metalastic are the ONLY bush I will ever use here, AND the correct pre-load of said bushes is CRITICAL to long life. Greg in France has a write on this, and well worth the read, or PM him, he dont bite, much.


Lots of beer in your future me thinks.

 

The pipe join of the trans oil cooler is leaking too (the lower of the two small bore pipes coming out of the casing). Looks like the other was gunked up to stop it leaking, so undo the annular nut, see what sort of join seal there is in there (eg brass olive, O ring or what) and redo it.

I think Grant, the Great XJS Prophet of the Southern Cross, had a beer too many (sorry O Mighty One) as that knackered bush is the six shot bush that holds the front of the subframe to the body. It can be changed without drama but the wheels must be off the ground. Do one at a time; undo that huge bolt, loosen the circular clamp going round the bush (a touch hard to get to the top hexagon of the clamp bolt), knock out the bolt, then the old bush, insert new one NOT forgetting the tube that is inside the old bush which must go into the new one.

 

OH BUGGA, too much coffee, must sort this drink choice out a tad better.

That is one seriously knackered 6 shot by the way.

I reckon all the other rubber bushes will be in similar shape, so maybe the lower wishbone bushes are next.

 

I would put poly in the six shot, you can get them from Superpro. All my poly bushes are Superpro and they DO NOT squeak. Poly in the six shot and rack will sharpen up the steering immensely.

 

What is the six shot?

 

Its a style of front mount bushing that looks like it has 6 spokes, other manufacturers all accomplish the same end result more or less, I went with SuperFlex poly on most of my car, much more responsive than OEM.

https://www.superflex.co.uk/proddeta...od=SF211-1005K

 

Great I will order these today, good info
What is the best way to have both front wheels off the ground at the same time?

Jack up each side and put the car on blocks, would be nice to have the blocks under the jacking points... any tips?

 

Duke, this is what I did:
Loosen the wheel nuts
Jack up the car under the spring pan and place a jackstand under the suspension EACH side so the subframe is level
Remove wheels, otherwise access is restricted
Remove and replace one side at a time
On my polys (superflex) you have to re-use the outer steel sleeve, cut out the inner and then burn off the rubber residue,
You must keep and re-use the removeable sleeve in the centre of the old bush.
The new bush must be pushed into the recycled outer sleeve: you get a sachet of lube with the new bushes, lube the sleeve and the bush, place the sleeve and the bush in a press or a vice, a bit of wood over the bush free end, and press it in. I ground down the lip on one end of the bush to make it easier to press in - I think it would have torn the bush if not. When the pressed-in bush is level with the far end of the sleeve, remove it from the vice and whack it in the last few mm with a hide hammer or a lump hammer using a wood block
Then push the inner sleeve into the bush and you are good to go.
I recommend using a wider washer than the OEM one (18mm hole is perfect but wider metal part) so the poly is gripped by the washer over more of its area.
Replace and tighten the huge bolt and the outer bracket that holds the bush to the subframe.

 

Greg, found this online also what are your thoughts?
Every thing you have said works but they say the convertable bushes are differnt, so do i need to have washers to take up the gap?

From Jag site:

The front subframe forward mount bushings for the coupe are part number C30314.




When these bushings have failed, there are usually tears visible in the rubber. There may even be chunks missing. On Kirby Palm's '83, a mount with torn rubber caused a loud clicking sound when first starting to move in reverse gear. It didn't sound like rubber at all, it sounded like a metallic click.

The bushings for the convertible are part number CBC5736. The difference appears to be in the length of the steel sleeve in the center of the bushing. Cusick reports that the sleeve protrudes 1/4" on one side and 3/8" on the other side on the coupe bushing shown above. Todd Repass sent this photo of a bushing from a convertible:



On this bushing the center sleeve protrudes about 3/8" on one side but only 1/8" on the other.

The replacement poly bushings appear to be cleverly designed to replace the C30314 items. Where the OEM bushing has a metal sleeve around the circumference where it is clamped securely in place so it cannot move, these bushings have lips on either side that surround the clamp to locate them securely. They are also bulged in the center so that they fill the space allotted and cannot slide back and forth on the mounting bolt. If the openings where these bushings are installed is different between the coupe and convertible, they might not fit snugly in some installations. Be aware that such bushingsmust fit snugly; if installation leaves a gap on one side, you need to fill that gap with something to locate the bushing securely. Anything washer-shaped with a hole the same size as the hole in the bushing should do it, although plastic would be less likely to cause a rattle than metal.

 

No idea about the difference. But, FWIW, the subframes are identical, and in my case at least, the outer steel sleeve is a must or the bushing could not be tight in the subframe clamp, and I do not believe you can safely fit a poly directly into the subframe circular clamp without the outer sleeve. I could always be wrong, of course.
Neither do I believe the mounts' differences matter much, if at all. The huge bolt clamps up the bushes tightly, regardless of the overhangs' lengths. The purpose of the wider washers is to ensure the poly bush cannot slide about on the inner steel sleeve, as unlike the OEM item it is not bonded to the bush material. Maybe this is an unnecessary precaution and the OEM washer that holds the sleeve will be OK, it just seemed to me that one washer doing that and stabilising the poly bush side to side would be a good plan.
But remember, I only fitted polys to eliminate a steering shimmy caused by the OEM bushes being too compliant; if your car does not have this problem, use the OEM bushes.

 

The Superflex bushes I bought had the lips a you mention, but they were NOT wide enough to fit into the subframe clamps with the lips being outboard of the ends of the clamps. They were a perfect width for the recycled steel outer sleeve. Neither in my case at least, would the subframe clamp tighten on the bushes without their being in the outer sleeve, as the bush diameter is set for the sleeve inner diameter, and is not large enough for the clamp's inner diameter even when fully tightened.
The quotation from the Great Palm's book does not give an accurate guide to fitting the Superflex bushes, about any others, I have no idea.

 

I am with Greg 100%.

I have fitted way too many 6 shot bushes, and no difference as mentioned, albeit mine were ALL OE Metalastic bushes, BUT, they aint what they were back in day either.

ALSO

The "V" mounts at the other end of the cradle, Metalastic only, but the batch on offer about 5 years ago, might as well have left the old broken ones in there, they were that bad. One set lasted 3 weeks, MY car, and cracked as bad as the old units. A set I did 18 months ago, sweet as a nut, and that S2 is still just fine.

SO

Poly has come ahead in leaps and bounds in the last 10 years, and more so in the last 5, and what was once considered "no go" is now "do fit".

We have had Poly at work for the last 30 odd years, in various Brands and Specs, and some of the early stuff was crap, no question, but now, as I said, many more manufacturers on board, and different compliant Poly available, no issues at all.

Also, Poly manufacturers are clever little people, as they make their bits to SOMETIMES to be "multi fit", and a classic is the front arm bushes for Camry, the Poly does Camry AND Lexus, although the 2 OE parts numbers (both Toyota), are different, and all and sundry CLAIM they will NOT interchange, well, they do, done it, smart marketing, and $$ wise people.

Doers versus theorists, also kicks in, and I will leave that at that, time for a snort of Port me thinks.

 

In doing the refurb on my present Series III I was faced with a lot of "while I'm at it" decisions...as we all are. I elected to not replace a lot of original parts (like vee mounts) that, years ago, I would have replaced without a second thought. If it wasn't broken, I didn't fix it.

In equal measure my decisions were based on budget and unknown parts quality. I didn't want to spend money needlessly. And there are just too many "iffy" quality parts out there.

Cheers
DD