Hello all!

As many of us are, I am also looking at rebuilding the front and rear suspension on the 97 coupe. The ride height is bottomed out, it's rubbing the passenger tire over some bumps and rides like poo. I have priced out the parts from Rock Auto as well as a few other sources and come in around $900 (front / rear shocks, bushings, ball joints, wheel bearings and rear parts as well) which isn't unreasonable. Doing the work in the driveway solves the labour cost so that makes it more palatable to get it done now (especially before I destroy the new tires).

The twist here is that I think I have found another option and I wanted to see what the thoughts here would be...

Locally there is a 99 'vert that the owner has given up on (failed transmission, original timing gear, failing top hoses) but in a fun plus, the whole front and most of the rear suspension has been rebuilt in the last year (less than 5k on it). He used mostly OEM+ or Jag parts so sadly the top mounts are the foam and not Welch but "beggars" etc. By bringing this one home, it would mean that mine lives on through some elective surgery / sorcery.

Cannibal Pros:
Massive labour savings (no bushings to reload, front struts are already built, no figuring out how to install wheel bearings, no ball joints to press)
Almost new parts (certainly better than the 22 year old ones in mine)
Massive time savings
Eventual parts car to help others with bits and pieces.
No spring compressor or ball joint tools. Given my record, that means I might just walk away dirty instead of nursing a head wound.

Cannibal Cons:
Sad beige 'vert is sad.
It will take awhile to recoup some of the purchase cost parting it out.

Besides the obvious ("it needs to be saved", "its only money") arguments, are there any major flaws in this plan? Like:

• Looking at the assembly drawings there seems to be a larger front wheel bearing specced for the 99 versus the 97 (but the carrier is the same part number?)
• Different front spring rates from 'vert to coupe? (miles are within 10k on each car so I am thinking wear / age might solve some of this?)
• possible alignment issues?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

Jaguar did beef up the front wheel bearings around 99. It's a worthwhile swop to take the whole hub assembly across. See this post by GordoGatCar:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...3/#post1877417

I understand that the springs are different coupe/vert - presumably to accommodate the weight difference - but I don't know what effect that would have in practice

It's a good idea to have the wheel alignment checked after any significant work on the suspension.

 

I believe '99 is also when they introduced the larger front brake rotors (305mm to 325mm). Unsure about the calipers (same ones pushed out, or new models?). In other words, this may not be as much a swap as it seems at first. There seems to be some good upgrade potential, but the flip side is that you are dealing with 2 sets of (incompatible?) parts, and if a donor part is "bad", you may have to buy it separately anyway. Think of rebuilding calipers, possibly different brake lines, or ABS sensors. Is rust going to complicate this further?

Best of luck, keep us posted.