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Many of you are aware of the collaboration between Wayne (cjd777) here in the U.S. and Steve (baxtor) in Australia to create a custom product to replace our aging and deteriorating upper shock mounts. The various aftermarket units which have been available during the past several years are unfortunately proving to be inferior so these guys took the bull by the horns in 2021, did plenty of research and experimenting, and came up with what many of us owners believe are the best XK8 / XKR front shock mounts on the planet right now....
Here's a Youtube video of Steve using his custom-designed mold to create a perfectly-fitting "doughnut" required for the top of the bell housing:
Hi, Wayne here.
The video is the latest in the looking for a better mouse trap and certainly looks to be a winner, as of now we have donuts top and bottom for that area, that also fill the voids in that bell. Each has to be cut to fit as there are 4 different shapes in the whole span of bells. Originals and aftermarket are not the same and we do not have the facilities to make the metal casings. When they come in, some are pretty beat up as anyone who has taken theirs off will verify.
So, what you see Steve doing may look simple enough, but the time involved to clean up a bell and do two, plus what went into the research of those plastic pieces to keep things lined up. A great deal of thanks goes to Steve who not only figured it all out, but sends his results to me.
No way am I ready to produce this new system on any scale, but I hope to learn the process and get all the equipment needed.
That being said and hope all understand, either the system we are using now or this new system, without the used cores, we don't have a fix.
We have lots of DIY guys on the Forum and I would think a good deal of them are very capable of doing there own bells, it gets a bit more tricky to make the donut that fits between the bell and the spring top hat.
Wish it was simple.
Thanks to all who have given the effort to try this.
Wayne
Hi, Wayne here.
The video is the latest in the looking for a better mouse trap and certainly looks to be a winner, as of now we have donuts top and bottom for that area, that also fill the voids in that bell. Each has to be cut to fit as there are 4 different shapes in the whole span of bells. Originals and aftermarket are not the same and we do not have the facilities to make the metal casings. When they come in, some are pretty beat up as anyone who has taken theirs off will verify.
So, what you see Steve doing may look simple enough, but the time involved to clean up a bell and do two, plus what went into the research of those plastic pieces to keep things lined up. A great deal of thanks goes to Steve who not only figured it all out, but sends his results to me.
No way am I ready to produce this new system on any scale, but I hope to learn the process and get all the equipment needed.
That being said and hope all understand, either the system we are using now or this new system, without the used cores, we don't have a fix.
We have lots of DIY guys on the Forum and I would think a good deal of them are very capable of doing there own bells, it gets a bit more tricky to make the donut that fits between the bell and the spring top hat.
Wish it was simple.
Thanks to all who have given the effort to try this.
Wayne
Thanks Jon for posting the video. Thanks Steve for the development of the procedure to cast the center busing mount. The fixed nature of it should prevent any undue wear due to no void. Now, if other members will provide some old cores for Wayne to refurbish, others can benefit from all this research. The fixtures and bushing material research are much appreciated. Wayne has the assembly system going well also.
Thanks to all who have assisted with the R&D on these needed items.
Many of you are aware of the collaboration between Wayne (cjd777) here in the U.S. and Steve (baxtor) in Australia to create a custom product to replace our aging and deteriorating upper shock mounts. The various aftermarket units which have been available during the past several years are unfortunately proving to be inferior so these guys took the bull by the horns in 2021, did plenty of research and experimenting, and came up with what many of us owners believe are the best XK8 / XKR front shock mounts on the planet right now....
Here's a Youtube video of Steve using his custom-designed mold to create a perfectly-fitting "doughnut" required for the top of the bell housing:
A big reason for posting this video is to attempt to help everyone understand just how much work / blood / sweat / tears (and money) Wayne and Steve have put into this project during the past year or so. Without their skills and determination, far too many new-yet-quickly doomed Welsh, URO, etc. upper shock mount kits would be going into these cars as their original sets all crumble into dust....
A BIG thanks to Wayne and Steve for the many hours (and the money) they've putting into developing a much better mount. It was interesting watching Wayne actually make one. Have a set in my 06 and am quite pleased w the results and prompt delivery. The basically new URO's in my 03 are already starting to fail. Too bad there's no way to ID these as custom "Made By Wayne" mounts when they're installed. Gold attach bolts or something.
Another item to remember, the Worn CORES are necessary to continue to rebuild replacements. Without the Metal CORES, there is nothing to refurbish. Save the old worn out metal cores ( Clam shells & metal serrated spacer with hole) so they can re-used with the new cushions Wayne & Steve have researched and can fabricate.
Add my name to the list of happy customers of Wayne's mounts, after installing Welsh mounts on our '03 XK8, which began to fail in less than a couple of thousand miles!
+1 on the need for cores. I am also in need of some cores so if any Aussies can help just PM me and we might be able to arrange something.
One of my problems throughout this project has been that l have never actually had a failed mount. I replaced my originals with welsh mounts more than 4 years ago mostly so l could check their condition, and recently replaced the welsh poly with one of my own. Nothing wrong with any of them as shown by the pics.
This makes testing difficult, particularly since my XKR is not a daily driver. Reaching out to Wayne was the only way to get any meaningful testing done, big thank you to Wayne for all his work and also to his guinea pigs. My original and welsh poly bushes as removed from my car.
Resurrecting this thread with latest in our quest for a new mousetrap. AKA a front mount that lasts more than a few thousand clicks.
I kept hearing about the differences in the front mount steel pressings between different brands but didn't have first hand knowledge of it so l purchased a Euro mount for my research.
There is in fact quite a big difference, so much so that the bushes l was making to suit OEM and Welsh mounts would not fit in a Euro steelwork without some handiwork. This is one reason for all the effort Wayne needs to put into turning his mounts around. A big part of the problem is a lot of owners needing new mounts can't identify which brand they have fitted, which means mounts need to be sent in and bushes custom fitted.
l now have a Euro specific bottom bush which, when paired with my upper bush gives a drop in fit. By including 2 different bottom bushes and a top bush in one package it should suit all the different mounts out there. Just ditch the one you don't need. What would the level of interest be for a kit?
Just a side note on the Euro mount quality (or lack of) my poly spring pad weighs in at 230 grams to the Euro pad at 90. That's not much body doing a lot of work on the front of our cars.
I doubt if many folks would be willing to mail the unused pieces back to Steve in Australia. They may be willing to mail them to Wayne here in North Carolina, though....
Today my son and I removed the front struts to replace Shocks, Springs and top mounts.
The top mounts I am sending off to (Baxter) here in Oz to do his thing.
Here are some pics of what we removed and as expected the Strut mounts were way past their use by date.
Steve will post info himself on this refurbishment and I will post pics of it all going back together. Complete with the new and improved top strut mount.
Good luck with these Steve.
Would be nice if someone had a complete part for sale like Welsh does. I wouldn't mind having to DIY the bush and make it myself but that would require the car to be off the road for a while which isn't possible as a daily driver.
Would be nice if someone had a complete part for sale like Welsh does. I wouldn't mind having to DIY the bush and make it myself but that would require the car to be off the road for a while which isn't possible as a daily driver.
It would indeed be nice, however the steel pressings required don't seem to be obtainable new and used cores are not only hard to locate but even when found involve freight costs in two directions.
l can do drop in bush sets to suit most mounts out there which would enable a DIYer to complete the job in a day.
I've just started to research these bushes after replacing my shock mounts with Euro one on my 98 XK8 Convertible. Literally after perhaps 100km, the centre rod is drifting to the side. I still have my original mounts and have dismantled one to find basically dust.
I would be interested in rebuilding my original mounts with these poly ones so if kits are being made, I would definitely like to give them a go. I'm in Sydney, Australia so no issue with locality.
It's so good to see that we have so many keen enthusiasts willing to spend their time fixing up the idiosyncrasies on these cars.
Custom Front Shock Mount Bushing Process....
