Hello all,

I received rebuilt mounts from Wayne today.

I'm planning to take it up to my local shop to have them mounted with new shocks, existing springs.

As far as I know, the only thing to look out for is to make sure one of the studs is in line with the side-to-side of the lower mount, in other words, so that the thru bolt at the bottom is exactly perpendicular to one of the three bolts (which mounts to the inner part of the tower.)

Is this correct? And is there anything else to watch out for when reassembling these? I have the old springs seated on the new shocks in the same position as the old ones were.

TIA!

-Jim

 

I found the exact alignment is a little off the exact perpendicular to one but the spherical bottom bush has enough movement to make it close enough.
The only other thing to watch for is, if you have CATS dampers you should rotate damper shaft to align the pins of the socket in top of shaft to match plug.

 

Hi Jim, probably redundant but the bottom of the assembly is the lower shock mount. It can only face 2 ways, each mirror images of the other. IOW the hole for the bolt will run/point front to rear or rear to front.

Easy enough.

Now the trick you must watch out for is the orientation of the 3 protruding bolts on the shock mount. They must be oriented to fit in their respective holes in the firewall - when - that shock mount mentioned in paragraph 1 above is pointed the right way.

The last thing you need is to have released spring tensioners and realize they don't line up! (I'll hear you scream in frustration over here in NJ).

Next heads up
That white plastic spring orientation device below the spring is fragile - don't break it!

Next:
The bolt that goes through top of A arm (through the bushings and castor spacers). Before you put it back:

Grab a 3/4 inch drill.
Chuck it open enough to grab the threaded end.
Grab some metal polish and or a 1,000 grit piece of sand paper.
Turn drill on, fold and press sandpaper over the non threaded portion of bolt. Add some metal polish.
It'll shine like a mirror, but its not about looks - It'll make removing it about 1,000x's easier next job in a year or 2 or 3!

Next: (reassembly)
Have the chart handy for which castor shim goes where. (Its here on our site). Lost 1 or 2 of them? Grab your caliper - a 3/4 inch galvanized washer is an exact size as 2 of the shims = ez replacement. I forget which pair but I do know that I posted it on here if you need that.

Aligning those shims so you can push the bolt through them: before you insert bolt, grab a short thin small phillips head screwdriver. Insert it into bolt hole. Move it in circles (it presses against the inner edge of the shim nudging it in place) - now slide bolt in.

Can't think of anything else.

John

 

l add a good smearing of copper or nickel antisieze to that top fulcrum bolt.

 

I've looked for an exact diagram of the clocking degrees for the studs in relation to the bottom bushing, but turned up nothing.

Does anyone know the exact orientation, or materials on it? This is the 1997 XK8 (without self-leveling suspension.)

If not I can go with the 90 degrees, but I'd rather be spot-on if at all possible. I don't have compression tools at home, so once I leave the shop, that's it... plus I have read that it's a complete PITA to compress them once they're in the towers

 

Jim, Did you not get my PM
Let the strut assembly hang from the top and if not aligned for the bottom bolt, spray some WD40 or such on the top and bottom spring area, let sit a bit, then put a large screwdriver or bar in the bushings and turn it. With the strut extended there is not that much force on the mounted area. Don't do it dry.

 

Yes I got that, I was just reaching out in case there was such a diagram somewhere with the exact measurements. But I gather there is not.

I will follow your procedure, and have the shop mount them at 90 degrees as a starting point.

Thanks again for all of your help, and for these excellent mount rebuids!

 

Most accurate l have found is rod through lower spherical lined parallel to steel ruler on side through two mount studs as shown in rough pic.

LH side shown, arrow points front and each side is mirror image.
(note line through studs is staggered.)

 

Edit: looks like i answered too fast. This is redundant same / similar answers above.

An idea: Put a 24inch steel bar through the lower shock mount.

Lay assembly on bench, that rod keeps shock mount oriented. Take a look at hole position in firewall wrt imaginary line front to rear of car. One of the stud holes is at 12o'clock position. Mirror that in stud position on your bench.

FWIW, if one messed up a bit too much, the shock mount will/can be rotated a degree or two with an air hammer motivating the rotation. But you shouldn't need that with above trick. The holes in firewall/shock mount aren't real tight.

John

 

Thanks for these excellent mounts! I finally got everything assembled today. I left the assembly a bit loose, pulled it out and steered around a bit in the driveway, then tightened everything down.

I have a very slight pull to the right, noticeable on the freeway, but this is no big deal and may very likely be related to any number of factors - so I may take it in for an alignment soon.

But all said, the suspension feels pretty good. The only thing I'm unsure of, it seems just a bit jiggly over bumps at speed, but nothing bad. Like the shocks aren't really buffering properly. I'm not sure if that's just because the shocks need to be broken in a bit or something like that. They are the Bilstein ones, the only I could find available for this car. Anyway, I'll go over all the components again tomorrow and make sure everything's still snugged down to torque spec.

Cheers, and thanks for all the advice!

EDIT: Also of note, final tweaking of the shock assembly was very easy, with WD-40 on the spring mating surfaces and a long screwdriver in the bottom mount. I only needed to turn them maybe 2 or 3 degrees per side to get the hole lined up perfectly horizontal.

 

Well done Jim.
As you have done so well, get the car aligned, you have changed so much, what are the odds it's still correct.