I just ordered a poly bushing kit for the front end. I was wondering with 90k miles do the ball joints or tie-rods typicly need to be replaced as well? Is there a write up on a proper procedure? I plan on taking the front end apart and taking the pieces to a shop to have the bushings pressed out. I might buy a HF press as I could have used it many times over.....thanks for any responses!!!

 

And yes I also ordered shock mounts and bushings as well.

 

Look for torn boots. both my lowers had torn boots. Removing the arms and taking them to a shop is a good move, but the shop will likely still curse you. Cutting parts of the ball joints away with a cutoff wheel aids removal, but install is still tricky due to the oddly shaped wishbones.

Here are some pictures of pressing the new ones in

I don't have any of pressing the old ones out because I was hiding behind a plate, waiting for them to pop.


My inner tie rods had noticeable play. Tie rods are very easy to swap on an X100, even with a wife's tool set: pliers, hammer and a Crescent wrench.

 

I did my rebuild and all but the lower arm ball joint will press with a C-clamp rental tool, I used impact to speed the C-clamp. If you have done this type of thing before no real surprises. Good video covers removal of parts with hints.
Call me crazy on this one, but I went for it as the local shops wanted hundreds to do it for me even with me taking off the parts. I did the lower manually, by removing the ball from cup, drilled out the back of cup so I could insert sawzall to cut to edge of cup then used C-clamp kit to push it out. The install of new I did with a hammer driving into place. I only used hand tools, but I am sure a good drill press and a large press would have made it quicker and reduce possibility of damaging the new part.
All ended well on mine. Two good days of work to do all the work.
If brake lines are old you may want to add that to your job as you will have good access to complete.
Used HF spring compressor, and it worked well.

 

I have this harbor freight press for use at home:

20 Ton Shop Press - Hydraulic Shop Presses on Sale

Often they have coupons and sales that you really should be able to get it for $150. It's very functional for light jobs like this. I am very happy with this purchase.

I did the full suspension rebuild recently on my XJR which is incredibly similar and actually uses a lot of exactly the same parts (ball joints, steering rack, etc). The XK is simpler due to the shock differences compared to the XJ. The XJ definitely needed the work at 86k. My XKR needs a few bits soon too, and I plan to just shotgun the whole front end.

I recommend pulling the suspension parts off the car rather than using some sort of tool to try to do them on the car. It's my preferred method but I understand how annoying this is.

I definitely had to fiddle with a grinder on the ball joints to get them out of the control arms. It's hard to get a socket or similar to provide the leverage the press needs without grinding crap. I used a bench grinder and a large porter cable rotory sander with a hard grinding disc to get things where they needed to be to get the old crap out.

The outer tie rod ends are easy as can be, just like any other car. The inners require something similar to the saginaw tie rod tools. My rack itself had some leakage near where the rack couples to the steering shaft on the XJR so I pulled the whole rack and got the inners off on a bench in the house with brute force. I did seals too, but only because of the leak. Rack removal on these cars is super easy if you have to go down that rabbit hole. Much easier than my stupid Audis...

 

I did a left side front end rebuild a few months ago including upper and lower ball joints. My 03 XKR had 64,000 miles on the clock and the ball joints definitely needed replacement. The flange on the ball joint is nearly the same diameter of the A arm so as Ungn stated, be prepared to trim away the flange of the old ball joint, I used a high speed small cut off wheel. I was able to press one out using a large vise but the second one broke the vise even using heat. I highly recommend a press with the correct size collars to press out and press in. By comparison, the stabilizer link and tie rod end is easy since you are already there.

 

reading a few more of the guys posting reminded me
I used my sawzall and a bench vise to remove the flange part as needed, probably press or C-clamp style would require the same.
I really didn't find it that difficult and no where close to the $450 the local jag shop wanted to swap the ball joints and bushings if I brought the parts in to them.

I probably have some pictures posted, search my posts and PM for anything you may want extra.

Try this link to my main post
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-157509/page3/

I have some good photos of what it takes to remove some metal to prepare for press and how I removed the lowers.