HOW TO: Replace Front Upper Suspension Bushings (VIDEO) [FAQ]
 

I replaced all four upper suspension bushings on the front of my car today. It was a learning experience, to say the least. Now that I've done it once, I'd gladly tackle it again because it's really not that hard once you know what you're doing. However, it took me all afternoon and part of the evening to learn that. I would guess I could do each side in 45 minutes to an hour now that I know how.

Here are the videos for all of you who are too impatient to read my tips below.

Video Part 1
Video Part 2

Here are the important things I learned:

• Turn the steering wheel towards the side of the car that you're working on. It gives you easier access to the ball joint connection, which you have to disconnect.
• An impact wrench makes the job sooooo much easier. I would have been cranking for hours on a ratchet.
• If you're not using the special Jaguar ball joint separator tool, then put some grease on the generic, fork-style tool. That helps to prevent the tool from damaging the rubber boot on the ball joint.
• When installing the new bushings, you really need a vice to press the bushings into the wishbone. I don't think I could have done it without the vice.
• Put a piece of soft wood, like pine, on either side of the vice. If you don't, as you're compressing the bushings you'll reach a point where the jaws of the vice are pressing on the metal inner piece. Once you've reached that point the rubber pieces don't get compressed anymore. When you remove it from the vice you'll see that the rubber pieces aren't fully seated. By using the wood, the metal piece is able jam into the wood allowing the rubber pieces to continue being compressed.
• THE BIG TIP: I bought my bushings from britishparts.co.uk. They are different than the factory bushings, AND, one side of the bushing is slightly thicker than the other side. I didn't notice the difference in thickness at first. If you install the thick sides of the bushing on the inner side of the wishbone, you'll find that it's impossible to reinsert the big washers and the alignment spacers. This particular problem kicked my ass for about 3 hours. Once I realized what I had done wrong, I turned the bushings around and was able to finish up the job relatively quickly.
• When putting the wishbone back in, it can be a little difficult to get all of the washers and spacers lined up and get the bolt through. The bolt goes through from the front, so do the back side first and use a 6 inch by 3/8ths inch socket extension to keep the washers and spacers from dropping out. Then you can push the bolt through from the front and pull the extension out once the bolt has made it through the washers.

I'll be doing the lower bushings next, but that might have to wait until next week.

Good job, thanks for your taking time and toruble for that

Good work Sam, a couple of really informative videos.

Look forward to the lowers.

Bushing R/R video
 

Great video! Since I am preparing to do the same, it's always helpful to see a "hands on" video.
Question:
1.) Any concern with the bushings not being exactly the same as original? (Metal insert vs. all rubber)
Since you mentioned you were anticipating doing the lower bushings in video, I'll wait and watch before tackling mine.
Thanks again

Yes, I was a little concerned. That's the main reason I turned over those big washers. On the old bushing the "cone" part of the washer sat down in the recess and the rim if the washer pressed against the ring of rubber around the edge of the bushing. If I had left the washers in their original orientation there would have been no support for the rubber around the edge of the bushing. I think I made the right choice, but the JTIS obviously doesn't address that issue.

EDIT: By the way, the new bushing do have a metal sleeve through the center. They just don't have the metal end plate.

Sam-
This is a great contribution to the forum...thanks!!!!

That was very interesting. Many thanks.

Well, yeah, me too. A fine contribution, Sam. Thank you.

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Nice one Sam, good video well put together:)
Thanks for sharing and they're FAQ'd I believe!

Thank you, thank you... thank you for all your hard work.

I would have loved to have this prior to doing this work, great video.

UPDATE:

I jacked the car up again this evening to fix the driver's side. If you remember in the video, I realized that the bushings had a thick side and a not so thick side. I couldn't get the alignment spacers squeezed in on the driver's side because I put the thick part on the inside of the wishbone. Well, at least that's what I thought I had done. When I took off the wishbone and measured the bushings with calipers, none of them were "thin". They were all thick. I then measured the thickness of the bushings on the other side. Two of them were ~9mm. one of them was 11mm, and the other was ~11.5mm. On the driver's side all of the bushings were between 11mm and 12mm.

So basically, the rubber pieces vary wildly in thickness. Because of that, there's no way to simply replace the bushing and know that the alignment is correct by putting the spacers back in the same location. No matter what, if you use these bushings you're going to need an alignment when you get done.

So... I used a disc sander to grind down the two inner faces of the rubber bushings. Then I was able to get all of the spacers in and I put everything back together. I have no doubt that my alignment is totally hosed right now. I'm going to go get an alignment tomorrow because Thursday I'm headed to Florida in the Jag.

If I ever have to do this again, I'm going to buy genuine Jaguar bushings. They are constructed completely differently than these aftermarket bushings, and I'm sure I could have saved several hours of time if I had used them.

It will be interesting to see what the alignment guys have to say.

Just out of interest, have you measured the inner and outer dimensions of the wishbone and carriers on both sides. Curious to see if there are major manufacturing differences in the original castings.

Great Videos Sam. Thank you for posting them. May I ad spray the threads of the bolts with a little WD40 or other spray like "Really Good ****" (that's a real spray name). This will save your threads if they are really rusty.

Again, great job!!

Mark

I just drove the car down a bumpy road to see how the suspension feels, and it's soooooo much better than it was before. I no longer feel the steering wheel shaking as I go over bumps. I also drove on a little stretch of highway and it's not pulling to either side. I'm running out of time to get the alignment done. That might just have to wait until I get back from Florida. I hate to wait because I have brand new tires, I just have too much stuff to do. :(

I'm glad that I'm not the only guy whose car repair "kicks my ass". But just push pause and think and you get to kick the car back. Did you get new ball joints since everything was off or did you just leave in the old?
When you stated that the rear tires moved when you had it in the air was the movement left to right or up and down?

It was the front tires. When I grabbed the wheel at 9 and 3 I could feel it wobbling and with the tire off I could actually see the wishbone moving back and forth in the bushing.

I didn't replace the ball joints because I was under the impression that it was extremely difficult for a home DIYer to do. Now that I've had the wishbone off, it looks pretty simple. I'll just need to rent the press from the auto parts store. Having removed and replaced the front wishbones three times now, I think I could get both sides off and back on in 60 minutes or less.

Hi Sam,

Great effort with the Video... :)

Perfect Timing.. Plnning to do the full front suspension bushes over the winter..

Can you tell me.. did you order a "poly" bush set or a "Rubber" bush set..

regards

B.

Nice video set!

Has anyone had luck with pressing out then replacing the lower ball joints rather than trashing the whole assembly?