I'd say it's OK to be a few degrees out of alignment. The bottom bushing can take a little imperfection. After all, it's there to flex with changes in the alignment between the lower suspension and the top mounting point.

I don't recall seeing people here worrying with jigs and perfect alignment before. Close enough will be close enough

I'd say approach the problem by eyeballing it, and don't go too far down the road of overthinking and overengineering.

But this brings up the phrase, Good enough for the girls I go out with...

 

I would recommend you replace those 4 bushings if you have the arms disconnected. They are a hard crusty mess even if they don't look that way.

I would say use the copper grease if possible because I have proven it to last after 50K miles, and it was recommended in this how to document.

 

I got mine from CARiD. I contacted the FCP and they were great but thought their would be the same. I liked them but did not reorder from them. I think I’m going with Welsh

 

One other thought on the pop rivets ... why not install a fender washer over the studs to provide clearance for the top of the rivet heads? It should prevent contact with the fender but make the assembly a 32nd of an inch or a 16th of an inch taller. Given the variance in the spring seat insulators & levelers/whatever I'm not sure it's important. Just a thought. If the rivets on the new ones I receive have raised heads I think I'll go the fender washer route.

 

Thanks. I saw that the bottom shock bushings rotate some. Mine didn't appear 'perfectly' aligned when I removed them from the car. But they do need to be close enough. It'll be painful enough to rebuild these lousy things once. I don't want to spend several days tweaking the position of the upper mount studs in order to get them re-installed properly. Triple Yuck.

Last night I 'eyeballed' things and put marks on the shocks below the lower spring mount with permanent marker as a reference point for the upper mount studs. It was the best I could think to do sans jig. They're not exact but if I don't need to be perfect they should make re-assembly a little easier. Here's hoping anyway.

 

Hmmmm, that’s not a bad idea. Let us know what you receive (pics).

 

If the top face of the mount isn't sitting flush with the underside of the fender well as the top fasteners are cinched down, there is real potential for distortion of the mount and/or the fender well, plus, the support and contact area for a high load-bearing component is drastically reduced. There's a reason those OEM mounts have flush rivets. Just sayin'......

 

The fender washers shouldn't change the plane of the top of the mounts. The "flatness" should be preserved. But you are correct that ONLY the surface are of the fender washers will be in contact with the fender when the nuts are tightened down on the mounting studs. I'm not sure this will cause any undue changes in the pressure loads applied from the top of the mounts to the fender. It will concentrate the forces at the fender washers but I'm sure they can withstand the compression loads.

I guess the question would be if the metal in the fender can withstand the compression loads being concentrated at the location of the fender washers only. You may be right in that the compressive loads with the flat rivet heads are distributed evenly across the entire top of the mount spreading them over a larger area of the metal in the fender. With the fender washers it would be concentrated on only a fraction of the fender area and this could lead to a quick tearing of the fender itself. Hmm.... This may require some more head scratching ...

 

Replace the rivets one at a time, but clap the area with vise grips before drilling out the old one.

 

So I received the EuroSpare mounts on Sunday and paid particular attention to the rivets. Sadly, the rivets do sit proud of the top plate. I thought it would be possible to drill out the rivets and replace them with smaller ones that wouldn't sit above the top plate. But ... it appears that the rivets in the new parts are much larger than the original mounts (larger diameter). There may be a countersunk/recessed hole under the head of the new parts but there's no way to tell unless I drill one out. Since the rivets appear larger than the originals I don't think it will matter. I believe EuroSpare (or maybe even Jag) has changed the design for the larger rivets but if they have it looks like a mistake. I don't have the tooling to countersink/recess the rivet heads in the new parts to accommodate the larger rivets.

I did some arithmetic regarding using fender washers. The top plate of the mounts have approximately 90 square inches of surface area that contacts the bottom of the fender. The bottom of the fender that contacts the top of the mounts is flat as a pancake. I thought there might be some recesses in the fender shape such that the entire surface area of the top plate doesn't need to contact the entire area of the fender (& that the heads of the new rivets might fit into) but I don't see any. The fender area for the mounts is dead flat. If I use fender washers the contact area between the top of the mount and the bottom of the fender is reduced to approximately 3 square inches. That's an increase of 30x of impact force between the original mounts and the fender washers. I think the fender washers are a VERY bad idea. I'm sure that a few bumps will cause the washers to punch through the fender panel and quickly tear the metal.

So I'm going to return them if FCP will allow it. I suspect they will. Now the question will be Welsh or Jag OEM. It'll be a tough decision.

 

Rick, I think you were looking for lifetime warranty, pretty sure if you touch those rivets, you can kiss that goodbye.
What you need to do is drill out one, and if you have the larger hole, use a 8-32 flat head machine screw with a like six sided nut, not a square nut. (sharp edge)
If the small 1/8 inch hole, use a 6-32 machine screw flat top and nut. Finding the 1/4 inch length is not always available, so easy enough to file or grind it down to the nut.
Both come in Phillips head and slot.

 

I agree that if I modify the parts the warranty will most likely be voided. I'm waiting on a response from FCP regarding the design change. I'll discuss drilling out a rivet and see what they think. Either I can do it w/ FCP's approval or I can ask that they do it. Maybe yes, maybe no. We'll see.

 

After reviewing all the posts and related threads I think I have a reasonable plan now of how to attack the strut removal on my XKR. What I’m not comfortable doing is the compressing of the springs (I have 2 new struts I plan on installing in addition to new shock mounts). I came across this tool - Link below (which can be rented from Auto Zone here in US (UK?) and it looks soooo much easier and safer - so now I think I’m ready to tackle the job (need to wait to end of June due to other commitments).

Link:
Thoughts?

 

I returned mine as well and FCP was very accommodating. I have now purchased Welsh mounts and will let you know what they look like when they get here.

 

omgosh... that video makes it look incredibly easy, solid...and safe.
autozone, ya say

 

AutoZone rents 2 kinds: this one and the more common version consisting of 2 pieces.

 

I've used both types. Both have upsides and downsides.

The downside for this type is the plates are thick enough and angled enough so that they don't fit easily between the coils of our springs. I had to use a small sledge hammer to get the strut off of the compressor when I was done.

In the end I'd say I do prefer this type, but only slightly.

 

So FCP Euro wasn't interested in experiments regarding the rivets on the Eurospare mounts. The reply I received says that the Eurospare mounts have always had raised rivet heads. Since this is the first set of the Eurospares that I've seen I wouldn't know. If anyone else has prior experience maybe you can set the record straight.

Images from Eurospare mounts. Sorry about the plastic wrap but I couldn't remove them from the packaging if I wanted to return them.

 

To me, that's just not right. Either the top of the mount or the metal it sits to will have to deform to accommodate the rivet heads.
OEM is flush.

This is a pic. of my old mount in a floral setting:

 

Michael and all, I just sent out a couple of my systems and for that area, I used a 1/4 inch #8 32 flat head. I had to touch the hole a couple of times with a 3/8 inch drill and the screw drew down into the hole flat with the top. The six sided nuts were rounded and after drilling the rubber slightly with a 1/4 inch drill, they held it in place and just popped it together.
The 1/4 inch were brass and stainless steel heads, a little over the top, but that's what they had on hand, no box so much higher at .26 apiece. Did buy the 100 box of nuts.
The bolts did not exceed the length of the nuts, so no sharp edge there to dig into the rubber.