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To stop the 'centre' drifting out of line, make sure that the spring ends are in line with the hub/wheel.
so with the road wheel removed, looking at the spring the spring ends, top and bottom should be facing you.
If they are not, they will naturally try to get to this position, and so make the centre drift.
Hope this helps, and is your problem 👍
To stop the 'centre' drifting out of line, make sure that the spring ends are in line with the hub/wheel.
so with the road wheel removed, looking at the spring the spring ends, top and bottom should be facing you.
If they are not, they will naturally try to get to this position, and so make the centre drift.
Hope this helps, and is your problem 👍
Thanks for that! I'll have a look at those. Interesting that the good book only talks about lining up the bottom shock hole with one of the top studs and nothing about the spring ends.
Cheers Phil
To stop the 'centre' drifting out of line, make sure that the spring ends are in line with the hub/wheel.
so with the road wheel removed, looking at the spring the spring ends, top and bottom should be facing you.
If they are not, they will naturally try to get to this position, and so make the centre drift.
Hope this helps, and is your problem 👍
Snake oil.
I noticed that appeared recently on Facebook group. The video referenced was just a random dude speaking generally about coil over spring clocking. It had nothing to do with the jaguar x100 top mount which is a stand out problem child, made worse by the cheap aftermarket paper mache replacements owners are now fitting.
Your car, your choice but the jag off centre issue has more to do with crap quality top mounts than it does with spring coil termination placement.
Non parallel spring seats may well exert a sideways force on the shock but won't always be balanced by the same placement of spring ends.
Enthusiasts?? No, no. These guys are crazed and determined.........in a good way. Wayne, if you PM me your address i will send my OEM top to you at my expence, not that it'll cost that much. That's my donation to the cause. TM
Snake oil.
I noticed that appeared recently on Facebook group. The video referenced was just a random dude speaking generally about coil over spring clocking. It had nothing to do with the jaguar x100 top mount which is a stand out problem child, made worse by the cheap aftermarket paper mache replacements owners are now fitting.
Your car, your choice but the jag off centre issue has more to do with crap quality top mounts than it does with spring coil termination placement.
Non parallel spring seats may well exert a sideways force on the shock but won't always be balanced by the same placement of spring ends.
Snake oil 🤔 it could be?,
it's simple to do and I know that both of my front springs are in this position,
best of all it's free 😀 👍
But yes, Quality components will certainly help to achieve a best outcome 👍
lt's down to luck of the draw to an extent l think Super. I think you got lucky as l did.
All the time l have been working on these mount issues l have never had a problem myself (that's been one of my "problems")
My car started out with original jag mounts which l replaced with Welsh poly which l then replaced with my own. Any of those removed could be put back on right now and be perfectly serviceable.
First move l make is paint marker on every part of the assembly so my spring clocking now is what it was back then, just pulled one front wheel for look see, spring tips 180 degrees out to yours.
There may be sideways forces exerted by the spring even when static, probably magnified when working, but l think they are random and not tied to coil termination.
We can try to balance the egg on a stick or we can put the egg in a cup with a half decent top mount.
Steve and all.
I did not want to get into a debate on things that may or may not appear to have anything to do with the final system.
As Steve has pointed out, his spring is in complete 180 to what was advised to be the answer. Guess what, I have been telling my customer's for the past few months to have that solid area at the top to be on the outside. Why? Well, being involved in lots of installations and not all go well and through trail and error, mostly Kelly, Nick and Gain we have come across a few things that helped keep the mount center or moving to one side. In one case we turned the shock 180 and moved the top as far as needed to get the three studs on top to line up. The spring ended up with the solid area to the outside. No movement till this day. Only in the last few months did this small observation become part of my advise on the install.
I'm guessing here but our strut does not go straight up and down, it's cocked to the inside and if the stronger part (lets just say for this observation) of the spring is aligned to the off set, just a chance it will have a better chance on keeping the deflection in line with the suspension.
Also never tightening the strut unit until it's been put in a neutral position by rolling it around a few times before torqueing to specs.
so far, all of this is working as it should. I know, a little over the top, but I'll stick to it. Hope it helps all get that extra little bit of height, which was observed, but not sure what was done was the cause, maybe it just didn't settle as well the as other way.
Maybe I've have spent too much time with this one part and need to move on, Thanks to all.
Wayne
Today I received my refurbished Top Strut Mounts from forum member Baxtor.
Talk about a new mouse trap. These mounts are a vast improvement over even the stock Jaguar part.
Here is what I sent Baxtor to cast his magic upon.
As you can see these were collapsed and the mount material, virtually nothing there.
I sent these to Baxtor just over a week ago and received them back today along with replacement top spring mounts
Here is what I received back,
This of course is the underside and as you can see "A new mouse trap"
Compared to the original mounts and replacement products available such as URO and genuine Jaguar, these in my opinion are superior.
A few other pics to give you some idea of dimensions etc.
In summary I have new Bilstein B4 shocks I picked up from FCP Euro in the USA for 60% of what I would have had to pay here in Australia. Check them out for their price.
New Springs, Bump stops and of course the NEW design (mouse traps) top struts from Baxter.
I cannot fault in anyway Baxtor's Strut mounts they really are the way to go.
I will start a new thread on the results when we put it all back together with the definitive results, but I know my ride height will be up to specs and the handling will be up to par.
Thank you Baxtor.
Last edited by The Deacon; Feb 28, 2023 at 03:07 AM.
Today I received my refurbished Top Strut Mounts from forum member Baxtor.
Talk about a new mouse trap. These mounts are a vast improvement over even the stock Jaguar part.
Here is what I sent Baxtor to cast his majic upon.
As you can see these were collapsed and the mount material, virtually nothing there.
I sent these to Baxtor just over a week ago and received them back today along with replacement top spring mounts
Here is what I received back,
This of course is the underside and as you can see "A new mouse trap"
Compared to the original mounts and replacement products available such as URO and genuine Jaguar, these in my opinion are superior.
A few other pics to give you some idea of dimensions etc.
In summary I have new Bilstein B4 shocks I picked up from FCP Euro in the USA for 60% of what I would have had to pay here in Australia. Check them out for their price.
New Springs, Bump stops and of course the NEW design (mouse traps) top struts from Baxter.
I cannot fault in anyway Baxtor's Strut mounts they really are the way to go.
I will start an new thread on the results when we put it all back together with the definitive results, but I know my ride height will be up to specs and the handling will be up to par.
Thank you Baxtor.
Mine are on the way back to me too. Having seen the video of baxtor's cast poly shock mounts, it had to be the best way forward.
Good luck with your installation. Looking forward to doing mine too.
Wayne, New to the XK8 and will be doing the mounts as well as new shocks. 2001 XK8 Convertible I picked up for the wife and we love it. Going in I knew the mounts were needing to be replaced. My question for you I'd like to wait for winter, it will not be driven. Are you still just doing cores? I'd prefer not to loose driving time with the nice weather. The yellow mounts do seem to only be a temp fix so i'd like to wait for yours. Not sure if they totally fail or if its just a ride and tire wear issue.
Pm me with your time schedule and I will do my best to have a core on hand.
If you are getting a fender rub, it's right at too late, other than that a bad clicking or inner tire wear is also a good indicator with off center in the shock stem at the top.
Be glad to help.
Only a couple, but have had then not pay attention to a few instructions, like getting 5 threads showing on a normally XK8 system on the top shock nut. Results the shock will bang the inner parts all to hell because the washer was not completely down on the shelf.
If you are in Charlotte, and the car drives, come up here and we will do it. Might want to wait until we could feel our hands. LOL Going to be cold for about a week.
Might need shocks or even springs, good way to check, measure from the center of the wheel to the top edge of the fender curve and if you get anything under 15 inches, good chance the springs have sagged. The lower shock bushings are famous for wear and good ones are almost half the price of a new shock, so a no brainer if you are paying someone to replace one in a old shock. Right now, they run $108 each for the front from Rockauto.
After doing mine, a bump sound showed up, and the sway bar bushings needed attention, so another area to look at. Sway bar ends are easy enough to replace and check, put your hand on the top of the link and have someone pull up and push down on the fender from the wheel well, it you will feel it clicking if it's in need of replacement.
Be glad to help in any way, you or someone doing the job for you.
@cjd777 sounds like a good way to get introduced to the XK8 community!
Currently measuring 14.5" from center of wheel to wheel arch.
I'll check the other bushings tomorrow.
Seth, that is low, unless you have lowering springs. If the rear is setting up high, this would indicate that the front has a problem. Lots of places to get new springs, generally run around $180 to $200. I don't want to tell you to throw a bunch of parts at the car, so, best right now, drive the car here and let's go over the car front and rear. So, you won't get sticker shock, there are a lot of parts included in just a shock mount replacement, maybe shocks, $245 a pair, mounts $225 pair, bump stops $50 pair and the already mentioned springs. If just mounts and bump stops, not too bad. Now, the front sway bar mounts $65 pair and sway bar links $75. Don't want to get into A arm bushings and ball joints, let's hope all is good there.
Is that scary enough. LOL, just as info but some times previous owners don't look after cars like we do.
I'm in Spencer, about 40 miles north on I85, we'll talk later when you can get some idea when you would like to come up.
Yeah I knew what I was getting into with a 20 year old Jag, but my wife has one rule, my vehicles must be used. Overall she feels well loved, but there is some deferred maintenance to take care of. Definitely the suspension, and I can feel the transmission needs a service. Oh and the headlights so some strange flicking thing that I haven't nailed down.
Anyway, a thorough going-over is a good starting point. Let's plan for a visit when this weather passes through, maybe in a week or so.
