I've put a couple hundred miles on my '97 XK8. So far, my only issue has been the surprising ease with which the chin spoiler rubs, and the occasional rubbing sound when going over a bump. I think the latter could be wheel rubbing on wheel well liner, but it could also be spoiler contact.

Browsing other threads on this forum, I have been thinking front shock mounts may be my root issue. I measured from center of the wheel hub to the top of the wheel well. I'm above the 14.5 inch threshold mentioned in this post ( 14 7/8 and 14 3/4), but mounts seem like the best place to start since I definitely get rubbing sounds.

I took pictures of the top of the mounts, and they look fresher than some of the pictures I have seen of old mounts. Do these look like replacements? Is the pinch on one side a symptom of failure, or just bad installation?






I guess next step is pulling the wheel well liners out to inspect the mounts from below.

Regards,
Tom

 

It looks like the rubber at the top of shock have collapsed on one side. It very hard to see the top mount when i pulled my shocks the mounts had started to fall to pieces.How many miles on car, i had 68000.

 

Tom, It looks like they are the newer poly type mounts with a bad installation on the pinched one. Check the shock itself and see if it looks new. The bottom bushing is real junk on the originals, but the cost nears the price of a new shock. This would give you a 1/2 or so. New springs my be in you future, but the mounts look fine as far as material goes.


Wayne

 

Thanks. 72,000 miles on my car. Time to pull the wheel well liners when the rain stops.

Tom

 

Thanks. Good news if the shock mounts are updated. Time to check the shocks.

Tom

 

I'm starting to think about this project a bit more. There is a substantial cost for the shock busing. It looks like about 50% of the price of a new shock with bushing.

My next question is what other bushings should I replace as a matter of course if I am going to have all of the suspension taken apart? Does anyone sell a kit with all those parts together?

I will admit that I have underestimated bushing science up to now. I am surprised that one of the control arms has both an $18 and a $38 bushing. I assumed greater standardization and symmetry.

Regards,
Tom

 

You know this is a Jaguar you are talking about, right?

Upper wishbone bushings, shock gaiter and bump stops are candidates to replace. Check your ball joints while you're in there. Have to remove most of them anyway, so save yourself the labor later.

BTW, you don't need to pull the wheel well liners to do the front suspension work mentioned so far.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, and the good news about the liners. I never have much luck with those plastic fasteners.

Tom

 

Not trying to give you more work but at 72000 you need to check wheel bearings as well. They are at the end of their life cycle. I completely stripped the front suspension and paid local indi shop 200.00 to press in new ball joint , bushings and wheel bearings now have a completely new front end. Its not cheap to do but at least you have years of trouble free motoring in that department.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. Thoroughness would make sense.

Tom

 

I bought new shocks as well as bushings for the upper A-arm over the summer, but held on to them until after vacation. When I dove into the work, I discovered that the black urethane bushings in my upper shock mounts were deteriorated, so I ordered new shock mounts. Spring compressors were also hard to fit between the coils so I knew I wanted to get a shop to do the compressing for me. At some point in this process, it seemed like a good idea to me to just go all new on the shock assembly (new coils, pans and pads to go with the shocks and top mounts) so I could just swap out quickly, instead of leaving my car jacked up while running around town with the shocks.

I finally got all the parts together and took them for assembly. I was really surprised to see the difference in the thickness of the top mounts. One side of one mount is about 3.77 mm thinner than its partner at the same point, relative to the top end of the coil spring.




On the plus side, the completed assemblies are the same height:



But I am not happy with that one mount.

Tom

 

I would not be happy either. You should take it off and send it back for a replacement.

Yeah, I know it's a PITA, but it will not get better with a ton of British metal sitting on it.

 

I'm working that out now. Having the old assemblies in place while I assemble the new ones does give me some flexibility.

Tom

 

I have learned a little bit. I think I an still missing something.

The compressed post of the bushing is at the point where the coil ends. Apparently the end off the steering is not tapered to make a relatively flat surface. At the bottom end the spring rests on a plastic spacer on a metal pan. On the top end of the spring, the bottom layer of the new shock mounts is fairly malleable plastic. I assumed it would be metal.

Did I miss a piece in the new shock assemblies? I confess that the subtleties off the Jaguar suspension have been a challenge for me.

Tom

 

Hi Tom,

Want to help but I'm just not exactly clear on a couple of things:

"The compressed post of the bushing is at the point where the coil ends. Apparently the end off the steering is not tapered to make a relatively flat surface. "

Could you please say a little more about these 2 sentences?

When you say "bushing" do you mean upper shock mount? I'm not exactly sure which "bushing" you are referring to. Gosh I can't even picture any bushings in the front shock/spring assembly.

I'm not sure what "end off steering" means, maybe this is a typo? Maybe I'm about to learn something - Let us know.

Thanks,

John

 

John:

Thanks for piping up. I think I posted that from my phone, and autocorrect was not my friend.

I would edit that post, but the edit button is gone. Let me try again:Hopefully this is more descriptive than the acid dream in my earlier post.

In pictures in a post by DpezXK8, you can see the construction of the shock mount. When I say bushing/rubber donut, I mean the top right of the three circles in the first of his pictures. The malleable bottom layer is the bottom circle in the same picture.

Here is a picture that I hope does a better job of showing the top end of the spring digging into that bottom layer at the point where the bushing/rubber donut is compressed.


I really appreciate your help!
Tom

 

Tom, Great description thanks. I have to admit this one is tough for me without the darn thing in front of me, if it wasn't raining cats and dogs up here I'd go look right now for you.

Let me think out loud: The spring's bottom mount is that plastic ring in the metal pan. This plastic ring has a protruding "stop" that the very end of the bottom spring coil presses up against. This forces the spring into a static position with respect to the bottom mount.

After I wrote all that I'm trying to think how that helps - maybe a strike sorry. Anyway this tells me the spring can only be in one of two orientations depending on which way you mount the shock in the lower bolt (IOW which side faces forward)

To the best of my memory, the upper shockmount assembly need only be orientated on top of the spring so the vertical 3 bolts pass through the holes in the fender (aka wing). These 3 bolts are symetrical so there is no right/wrong orientation. Given that it's all adding up to your assembly is A - OK, this is how it should be.

Didn't answer your concern so let's float the question: is there a piece that mounts between the upper shock mount and the top of the spring that orients to the spring's end like on the bottom, and / or provides a hard surface to spread the pressure out more equally on the upper shock mount?

Hope no one falls asleep reading this out-loud thinking .

 

Thanks!

I think my question boils down to this:
Is it normal for thickness to vary so much for the bushing/rubber donut when the shock/spring/mount assembly is complete?

Follow up would be:
If it is not normal, is this a problem with the bushing/rubber donut, or the top end of the spring?

The reason this gives me pause is because I am trying to get to the point where my tires don't brush the wheel well liner, and for some folks the thickness of the shock mount assembly has made the difference. I just have more flexibility to work this out before these assemblies go onto the car.

Thanks!

Tom

 

Your shock mount is correct, but the springs are either sagging or they have been replaced with lowering springs.

You can make plastic spacers up to 3/8" thick to place on top of the shock mounts.

 

Tom,

I just looked at my "old" (replaced at 80Kmiles) shock mounts. What you called maleable is, on mine, hard enough that I could almost mistake it for metal. I looked at the imprint made from the spring over 80k miles - the imprint couldn't be more than 1/16 of an inch deep, probably closer to 1/32 inches.

I eyeballed the "compression" of the inner ring (yellow) - nothing shows, the top and bottom surfaces are parellel. Granted they are not under pressure but I'd think one would see evidence of mis alignment if they did dig in like you said.

My phone died so I have to charge it for 20 or 30 minutes to take a picture. As a courtesy I will photograph the mount so you can look at it. As a side note I did see that there is a small groove cut into what we are calling the bottom or maleable ring. In fact now that I know where to look I see it in the photo you posted. Looks like they ignored that pre-etched groove when they assembled mine. The spring made the 1/32 inch deep groove I described in the first paragraph.

Check back in 1/2 hour I'll post a photo or two in case they can help you out.