Now I need a place in DFW to press out the Front wheel bearings from the hubs and the lower ball joint from the lower control arms.

Also going to order new bilstein shocks (lower bushing gone), H&R springs, Poly spring perches, as these are original and crumbling The front rotors were originals and very thin, so I'll be adding new ones of those, too.

The car is 100% rust free and and came apart with almost no effort. Even the ABS sensor nuts came off with only a few taps of a chisel.

My plan is to get all of the howls and clunks out of the front end before moving to the rear, then after the rear suspension is sorted, order the JS LS1/T56 swap kit.

I was going to put my LS1/T56 in one of my miatas, but the Jag swap seems to be is a lot less involved - Replacing a DOHC V8 with a LS1 should be easier than replacing a 1.6L 4 cylinder with an LS1.

 

Sounds like fun. Good luck.

Keep us posted and please add pictures as you progress.

 

I probably should have took some pictures of it before I tore it apart. It is such a pretty car.

 

If you haven't found a place, 2nd Opinion Auto Center did my ball joints. Good guys.

 

There has been an LS1 "conversion" in the Dallas craigslist for some time now. I wonder how good a job that was.

 

Oh I would LOVE to get my hands on a LS1 Miata swap that has been done correctly. The power. Most that show up on Clist are half cooked cluster f's

 

Most miata's on CList are cluster's, period. But I still can't help myself and buy them.

My first one for an LS1 swap was a mariner blue '91 for $850, but then I found a 3X nicer '90 mariner blue for $1,300, but the idea of doing a $11,000 (about $10K in just parts) conversion on a $1,300 car doesn't compute, just yet... but putting $7500 into a $4500 car that originally sold for $70,000, seems to make more sense for a car I'm going to keep forever, so the Jag will be the LS1 swap guinea pig.

Besides, I put a CL $400 1.6L into my $850 Miata and drive it every other day to work. My $1300 miata will likely get an LS1 the day after my son moves out of the house. (like my dad started on his 427 Cobra kit car the day after I got a job and moved to Texas)

My Parts are starting to arrive. Got my Front Spring Perch/Shock mounts from Welsh Enterprises. They seem to have the best deal $178/pair ready to install, which seems cheaper than all of the "poly" kits.

I don't see the point of the Poly. Maybe if the kits were $100 USD I'd get all DIY, but paying more for more work and little gain is a big meh.

 

I think that was a wrecked, rebuilt title convertible. I don't sell car's very often, but I try to avoid buying cars that are hard to sell. Wrecked and convertible aren't two words you like to see in the same sentence.

There are so many clean title running/driving XK8's out there that for my first one, I didn't want to buy a non running project. Maybe when I learn more about them I'll tackle a project, but even then the body would have to be straight/rust free.

 

Thanks for the Tip! They are one the way to the Pick-n-pull. I know that area well.

When I get the other side pulled apart, I'll give them a call. The weekend is supposed to be fabulous garage weather.

 

Got my H&R springs today. Ordered them Sunday night, received them Thursday. Not too bad.

My New front rotors, Bilsteins, Boots and bumpstops, and wheel bearings should arrive tomorrow, just in time for the weekend.

I realized I bought everything to make new shock assemblies so it should be easy to duplicate the originals and have them go in on the first go. My Wishbone bushings don't come until next week and I still need to press out the balljoints and wheel bearings, so it will likely be another weekend until it is back on the road.

 

I'm going to start posting picture soon, I promise. Rented a ball joint remover and spring compressor from autozone. The spring compressor works fine, the Balljoint remover stalled out.

Went to Harbor Freight and bought a 20 Ton Press for $160. That is the stuff.

Pressed out the Lower ball joints, the hubs and the bearings. The lower ball joints took many tons. I'm glad I got the 20 Ton press.

One outer bearing race came out with the last hub - Bad deal. I need to post a "how to" on how to deal with this to avoid scrapping the hub. I basically cut three slots in the race with a angle grinder cut off wheel and then pulled it off with a pulley puller.

Everything is apart now. Should be together by next weekend... just waiting for the ball joints From England. I guess nobody does the Lower ball joints in the US?

 

Pressed in the Lower Ball Joints - man they are tough.

I'm used to stamped sheet metal lower control arms and not Steel Forgings When Pressing in/out Lower ball joints. I can see why my Ball joints hadto come from the UK, nobody in the US wants to tackle these.

The Pressing out seemed to take a lot of 20 ton press going in took less force but way more finesse.

here is the Arm on the press I used a 4x4 and various wood blocks to level:



The Secret to pressing the ball joint in is keeping the inboard side from going up, so a 7/16" metal bar does that. Smaller than 3/8" will bend.



I used various bits from the old pressed out wheel bearings to protect the new ball joint during installation. This is a bearing race ring on the ball joint:


This is a cylinder from an autozone loan-a-tool ball joint press, but one size is too big, the other too small...


And then you stack the Disks from the Kit...


But that was sketchy because the diameter was too big, so I just used an entire wheel bearing, instead. The cups from the ball joint kit worked great on a partially broken bearing:




Note the Crushing of the 4X4 that took place during the pressing.

all done:

 

downgrading?

 

I'd like to think of it a simplifying.


My Heads/Cam LS1 makes about 390 RWHP in the Camaro, where the 4L probably makes less than 260 RWHP.


Other than a 150 shot of Nitrous, I'm not sure how I would make 390 RWHP with my 4L, and I would still have an auto trans.


The T56 swap itself is what makes it all worth while.

 

I have a friend that supercharged his wife's Miata after he bought her a new car. It only had 15000 miles on it so he didn't do any engine mods. it gave him an additional 100 horsepower and added 36 lbs. to the front. He did the whole thing for about 5K. Unfortunately I'm 6'3" 250 lbs. so I don't even begin to fit in a Miata or I would have done this myself.

 

Wow, congrats! I appreciate the frustration you went thru on that! After purchasing a press myself, the removal of the bushings and ball joints were somewhat easy, but pressing in the new ones...bushings went in allright, but I gave up after attempting the ball joints several times, even after freezing them overnight!

 

My Hub nut socket arrived from England Yesterday and I'm back on the road. It's great having a silent front end... No howls, no clunks, no rattles, no creaks.

I looks like the driver side inner tie rod may be bad (lots of play), but the car still tracks and drives straight, even without an alignment. Must be the caster.

New brakes work silently. The ABS light went out. no pulling to the left or right, I think I had success. Put my tools away and swept the garage to celebrate.

Here are some pictures.

Finally out of the garage and into the light, next to the Donor Camaro vZ28.



Fender Height is 14.5" before any major settling/foam compression. Its actually a little taller than the stock springs/mounts:


Was finally able to take some pictures:

 

Being in one piece lasted about 12 hours. I tore the rear suspension out today. Ordered new rear shocks and spring isolators, and new inner/outer tie rods to finish the front. The rear rotors and pads were original and done, so I ordered new.

Again, I love having a rust free car. Things go so much easier without rust induced setbacks.

 

You just couldn't leave it alone

 

Not when it is this easy to tear apart.


I saw your videos on tie rod play. Was it the inner tie rod ends allowing the spindle movement?


My driver side has play like the video, but my passenger side is still tight.


I bought new tie rods anyway, because I figured it couldn't hurt, but if this fixes the issue, I will install them sooner rather than later.