Question About Upper Shock Mounts
 

Greetings,

It seems my 2002 XKR is going to need another set ot these bushings as it's squeaking and clunking again. I replaced them in 2019 and only 13,000 miles ago with a Welsh Poly set. With this set, the rubber has not turned to dust like the original set did, but rather the rubber is still pliable but is breaking up. I included a picture of a few pieces of one bushing, and was wondering if anyone else had these particular bushings fail in such a short amount of time. I contacted Welsh, and they really weren't helpful in an explanation on this, and in fact no longer offer the Polly bushings for sale. The only option that they have and that was highly recommended is by Eurospare. I also see that Parts Geek carries this brand as well. Therefore I also wanted to get opinions on to whether you thought this was a decent brand, or is there another brand that's preferred? The bottom line is that I am willing to pay up front for a good quality set, in order to minimize the number of times I have to change these out.

Thak you,


Rob
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...d6f925ec6e.jpg

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...mounts-279665/

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...rating-281966/

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-later-253039/

Wow and thank you. Even after my web searches, this is the first time that I've heard of Wayne's mounts. I will definitely send him a message in hopes of getting a pair.


Rob

can't get any better than a set from Wayne @cjd777 or Steve @baxtor

​​And Wayne - I didn't forget, just got back into town so getting the carcasses shipped this week

Thanks Steve, for the good comments and to know it will be on the way shortly.
Hope you had a great time and didn't rain, that's all we have had here.

My Wayne mounts are going on today. Shipping back my set to him for rebuild this week.

Thanks Mike, glad to see you got someone to put them on.
Hope Mitch's new baby is well and he is back to work.

Trip was great - rained one or 2 days, went to see our daughter graduate from Univ of Utah, got her MBA, still able to get in some great hiking

Wonderful Steve, you don't have to look for beautiful scenery there, it's already waiting on you to look.

The Wayne mounts went on yesterday. Already feel an improved more stable ride and they raised the front stance by over an inch! Measuring 15.75” now from center to wheel well.

Old mounts on their way back to Wayne for rebuilding. I’d recommend anyone in the states needing front mounts to send @cjd777 a message for a set of your own.

Thanks Wayne!

Well done. Wayne (here in North Carolina) and Steve (in Australia) have their custom front upper shock mounts for these cars down to a science. Kudos to both of them for taking such good care of all of us....

Hi Guys,

I'm reopening this thread for some assistance. Wayne, I'm trying to remove my shock mounts and get them into mail to you by tomorrow before I leave town for a week and a half. I have one side off. The spring compress sufficiently to where the upper mount is completely loose and can be spun by hand. But for the life of me, I cannot get this thing removed from the shock shaft. From what I've seen in videos, it looks like once the tension is off of it, it just pulls straight up. But again, even though my entire unit is loose, I just can't lift it up from the shock shaft. Even trying to hammer it down with a hammer and a brass punch does nothing. Is there something simple that I'm missing here? Thanks for any help with this and I appreciate it. FYI, these are not the factory mounts, but rather a set of the Welsh Enterprises poly units that I replaced myself about 7 years ago.


Rob
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...984fbf70cf.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...37db6a6ebe.jpg

The mount "washer" (the disc in the top between the two bushes) is stuck tight on the damper shaft, many are much too tight, l always ream them a little and l know Wayne does also.
As to getting it off l suggest a press working on top of shaft with mount supported. Pounding is not being effective due to the bushes.
If you need more working space it is possible to compress the spring enough to lift the whole spring assembly including the lower spring seat, remove circlip on damper body and then drop assembly down. The top mount can then be disassembled more easily and a bearing puller used to remove washer.

Thank you Baxtor. When you say the disk is too tight on the shaft, or you mean the remaining portion of the rubber bushing is just stuck too tight to the metal shock shaft? And so therefore is it the rubber that I would try to ream out a bit further?
Regarding the press, I actually don't have one, and so if a press is actually recommended, I would likely need to take these to a shop. The first time I did this, I rented the spring compressor tool from the local parts house. I got it done, but that seemed a bit on the scary side if something were to fail, and since that time, I've ended up with the hydraulic spring compressor, which actually seemed to work much better as far as taking the pressure off.

Rob, send you a PM on how to get it off.
I have to ream out to size a bunch of the Welsh ones.

Wayne will sort you out.
The reaming out l mention was not meant as something you can do to remove it, it is something that routinely needs doing before reassembly.

Thank you everyone for the replies, and Wayne did message me with the solution for getting these off.

I hope I'm not hijacking a thread. But if I started a new one - I think "Question About Upper Shock Mounts" might have been the title :)

My 2002 XK8 had new struts and mounts a few years ago. I noticed today that the left side looks a bit off. I haven't noticed this before, so it might have been like that when returned from the shop, or it could be a recent development. Does this look like impending failure?

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...f0a052c19e.jpg
Left Side Wonky

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...5211132e92.jpg
Right Side Centered

Comments welcome!

Thanks, Dave

Your damper shaft is 15mm diameter, it passes through a hole in the bottom of your top mount of about 25mm. This gives you 5mm lateral movement before metal to metal contact.
Par for the course with the URO mounts l am afraid, if you want a permanent fix message either CJD777 or myself.

DaveAllen, no hijack considered and this thread has been extremely useful for me as I've learned a lot more about these strut mounts over the last couple of weeks than I have ever known. And I discovered that even the so called high quality aftermarket mounts start to deteriorate over a relatively short amount of time. At the time when I ordered my Welsh Enterprises poly mounts, they were considered to be I believe the best aftermarket alternatives, but they only lasted about 13,000 miles before needing replacement.

Baxtor, out of curiosity what is the reason that even fairly new replacements seem to fail? Just poor quality rubber, or perhaps some other reason?