Today I installed the Welsh Urethane Shock Mounts and the lower shock bushing for the front suspension on the Silver Bullet. I had also planned to change the sway bar links.

Here are my findings:

• The Moog Problem Solver sway bar link sold by RockAuto, PN: K750225 is, sadly of too large a diameter. The result is that it would rub on the lower control arm. I sent it back for a refund and ordered the OEMs from Welsh, which should be arriving on Wednesday.
• Surprisingly, my car had nearly new upper control arm bushings. I love it when I find that some maintenance item was already taken care of. At least one of the lower control arm bushings is starting to look a little worn. I was not able to asses the ball joints, but I'll try to take a look at those tomorrow.
• The snap rings on my shocks were one bad pothole away from slipping off. They were likely to fail at any given minute, and as a consequence the springs would have slipped right down the shock onto the control arms. I was able to obtain sturdier, slightly thicker, tighter fitting snap rings at a manual transmission service shop. They gave them to me for the low low price of free. I know some would have defaulted to forking out over $800 for a pair of new shocks at that point. So as a heads up, snap rings can be found at Manual Transmission service centers if you ever need one.
• Because this is a rare car, most auto parts stores don't routinely stock parts for the XK8/R. So, if you ever find yourself needing a Bump Stop without having anticipated it, you would either have to source it online, or the parts shop would have to order it through their distributors. But, the good news is that they can be obtained much faster. Part #: 1K0412303B for the Volkswagen Jetta (05-'15), Passat, Tiguan, Rabbit, R32, Golf, and EOS, is an exact fit, and is readily available at European autoparts stores. Cost is: $9.99 each. I can confirm that this bump stop was a perfect fit when I installed it. Unfortunately, it seems to be the same exact material, which leads me to believe it is in fact the same part.

 

Glandaniel, could you say more about snap rings? I can't picture what you are referring to .

great info, thanls!!! Please Do give us a report on drivability improvement when you can.

John

 

John, in the following picture of the front shocks I circled the snap ring. It's function is to hold the spring packer in place and set the resting position of the spring and how far it can compress. On my shocks, that ring was nearly destroyed, I replaced it with a sturdier snap ring, which I have also attached to this post.





There are different kinds of snap rings, but I chose this one since it was the sturdiest one I could find that was also easier to manipulate onto the shock absorber. Now you may ask why this one is easier to manipulate? It has those two little holes to which you can fit a special plier to open them up enough to slip onto the shocks. Other types of snap rings may be more symmetrical, but they don't have this feature. Now, when choosing the snap ring, make sure that you choose one that has a slightly smaller diameter;1 or 1.5 mm less than the shock absorber itself. This way you ensure you have the tightest fit possible. Sadly I didn't measure anything since it all happened spur of the moment. The only place where I could find snap rings big enough was at the manual transmission service centers.


Fitting the snap ring is very easy. Remove the old one, (in my case they fell out), and then use your pliers to expand the new snap ring enough to slip it onto the shock. On the shock, there is a groove where the old snap ring was located. Once you slip the ring onto that groove it will not budge. Then I slipped the spring packer and slammed it hard onto the snap ring to make sure it had actually seated properly. If it had not been seated properly, the spring packer would have traveled past it and taken the ring along for the ride. Then we slipped the springs onto the shock and then compressed them to install the shock mount with the bump stop. When we decompressed all was good.

As soon as I receive the new sway bar links I will report back on drive-ability improvements. In the meantime, I'm going to figure out why my windshield washer isn't spraying any fluid.

 

There is not supposed to be any type of snap ring on the shock. The bump you are pointing to in the picture is actually part of the shock body. The spring pan (6) is supposed to sit on it directly. Something is not right if you have a snap ring in there.

 

 

My Bilsteins have the snap ring as well, not a bump.

Someone might have cut the second groove in yours. It's pretty common in the larger world of cardom. I was considering doing the same. And no, it doesn't weaken the shock folks!

 

 

I wasn't meaning to say there is anything wrong with the snap ring way of doing things in general, just that it isn't how the OEM Jaguar branded parts are made (at least I thought that was the case).

Interesting... is this maybe a difference between a Bilstein branded shocks you buy direct vs the so called Jaguar part from a dealer?

 

It could be. I wasn't able to read the part number on the shocks with the lighting I had inside the wheel well and the fact that the PN was facing the control arm.

The drive-ability report:

I installed the sway bar links in about 30 minutes time. It's an easy job. I then took the car on what was to be a short test drive. However, it ended up becoming a long spirited drive because the results were amazing. The Jag was planted and extremely stable. It felt like it would hug the road and smoothen all bumps spectacularly. The steering wheel shake I was having? Completely gone, even when driving at 90+ mph. In fact, there was no drama at high speeds. What was more impressive was when taking corners. Nearby where I live, there are about 3 of that corner. You know, the one you can't help but go a little fast in. My initial impression was that the nose dive was gone and the body roll was minimized. I could easily take those corners at about 50 mph and the Jag dealt with them with no problem. It used to be that if I kissed 35 mph the car would nose dive and oversteer.

The limiting factor in the Jags cornering quickly became evident: the seats, they have nearly no bolsters! I was slipping and sliding so much that I would back off the throttle around a corner because my body was pressing against the door card or the transmission tunnel.

Now I wish I had Recaros. If anyone with Recaros wants the charcoal (or is it just black?) colored standard seats with headrests I would be glad to trade as long as yours are charcoal colored as well.

 

Great review, I love it. Ive been in your shoes, I know exactly how you feel. As you've probably seen, I've been a strong advocate of the improvement new sway links can make.glad to hear I'm not alone :-)

Now you've sparked me to fix up my suspension (again). Gotta order new upper shock mounts (my Welah lasted 40k miles) and rear shocks (over 110k miles on them!). Your write up gave me a smile.

John