Replaced my original top hats with a set from Welsh in 2019.



Recently saw these on the ground under the car



Did some investigating today.





Pics are upside down but you get the idea. Both new top hats have begun disintegrating. I can only think I did not install them properly and now will have to do it again. It was a couple of years ago so I don’t remember the details. Bummed.

 

Neil, have just thrown a couple of box loads of those away. All showing the exact kind of deterioration, check some of the threads I have dealing with this.
I hate to see you waste your time, you can make what I did if you can, if not give me a PM.

 

Not necessarily. They have had some bad press latterly, as Wayne notes:- e.g.:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...2/#post2247707

 

The quality of the Welsh mounts has definitely taken a nose dive. I had two sets of them fail within the year.

 

So maybe not installer (me) error. This makes me feel slightly better but still left with an essentially worthless set of top hats that now need to be replace after about 2 1/5 years and maybe 3000 miles. And lets not forget these things are not a easy to replace. I did two threads about my suspension adventures back in 2019 and was hoping to not have to revisit this area of the car for many years to come. I’m a one-and-done type who much prefers to do it right the first time even if it costs more. Back then these things were supposed to be quite the improvement over the OEM parts. This is a total fail in my book.

 

Remember you from a couple of years back when I was putting a lot of time into the XK.

I saw your pictures on the earlier thread. Mine look exactly the same. They have crumbled into dozens of chunks per side. Almost like they dried out and rotted. Have you decided to go with OEM? What’s the latest thinking on this?

I bought my XKR about 3 years ago and worked hard on it for a year to make it a reliable and fun driver.
Then I bought an old 911 and have spent the last year working hard on it too and have been kind of out of the loop on the X100 Jags. Now playing catch up.

Love driving my Jag and have no plans to sell it. So that means its got to be fixed again.

 

I believe the protrusion of the mounting stud heads and the rivets (rivets to a larger extent) on the mount at the very place the spring pad sits is enough to puncture and start the tearing of the poly leading to the failure shown.
Recesses cast into the pad should eleviat that problem. Testing of this design is ongoing with Wayne's help.

 

I did just read the thread about the new parts Wayne and a few others are testing. Any timeline on when these may become available? Is he making new parts from a different material or modifying something already out there? Either way I’m in when the time comes.

 

No one to better answer that question than Wayne himself. Send a PM to member cjd777.

 

Got it! I did not realize as I read through that cjd777 and Wayne were one and the same.

 

I continue to believe that Welsh changed material suppliers and/or component fabricators sometime during 2016, meaning that any of their upper shock mounts ordered after the first couple of months of 2016 are susceptible to this premature failure. Wayne's custom-made design continues to prove that it is now the best available on the market today....

 

in that case, what is to prevent one from drilling a small divot into the stock factory part or the aftermarket part at the place(s) where the stud heads / rivets would otherwise make contact ?

Then no contact would be happening to precipitate the pad failure.

Z

 

That is logical but when I was 'working' with my welsh units I recognized the material was so flexible and my somewhat limited experience with plastics leads me to believe that once the outer skin is broken on these mounts the inside material rapidly deteriorates. I don't recall at what exact temp but I also noted that these units will melt @ 275 degrees(f) and start to lose their form @ 250. I centered and packed mine with some 300 degree+ rtv. This might keep them centered, who knows.
Although I have these 'new' welsh units installed in my xk8 when I put it back on the road (transmission+seal work) I will install wayne's units as I don't need the headache of knowing I'd be doing it again in several years if I retained the welsh units.
wj

 

At this point I’d be tempted to try and break the skin a little. It couldn’t turn out much worse.

Z

PS I hope to see Wayne’s replacement top bushings available in quantity soon.

Now they are sold only as an exchange basis, right

?

 

^^ That is correct. Without owners' cores being sent to him, Wayne has no other way of obtaining them. He is completely dependent upon folks sending in their cores and that is not likely to change....

 

Z, I'm hoping to get some returns soon and if so I will end up with a few I can make up. That being said, I would still need the return to have those in stock to be able to supply one quickly for someone who is replacing a daily driver, Right now I have a new box of bushing that finally came in, so will make up all I have and be ready for a 2 day turn around fitting.
I wish is was just a matter of replacing the parts, but if you followed the threads, all are cut from other bushings and not all are the same. That really is why I don't want to sale a kit.
At the moment I'm keeping up with the demand, so not being pushed and still playing golf. If it turns out to be another job, I'll let someone else have it. LOL