Part finally showed up so I replaced the top shock mount on the drivers side today. I check the dims tomorrow to see if it made a difference on that 1/4" I had.

Took some pics for you guys and I hope you can use them.

I Used 2 hydraulic jacks for the project along with a drill press at my shop for compressing the assembly. Do not attempt if you don't have away to compress the spring. You may be able to do it in the vehicle but I ask a tech about that.

Here's the steps I took

Step1: Jack and remove front tire.

Step 2: Loosen top center shock bolt a few turns but do not remove. Loosen 3 upper shock mount bolts.

Step 3: Cut 2 Wire ties holding abs and ground wire to A-Arm. Remove A-Arm Bolt and move arm out of the way. A-Arm bolt should slide out easily. Note placement of shims on inner sides of A-Arm. There is a thick and thin shim on each side. By the way this also how you adjust camber for wheel alignment.

Step 4: Placed 2nd jack under lower arm and raise to apply tension to arm.

Step 5: Remove lower Shock bolt and Sway Bar Link Bolt. You can use jack to rasie or lower arm for easier removal of bolts because they kick a little while trying to remove them.

Step 6: Removed upper shock bolts and assembly will slide out of car.

Make note of relationship of upper shock mount position in relation to the bottom shock mount. Also the way the spring is positioned in the car.

Step 7: Placed in my drill press and raise base until assembly was held tight then removed top shock bolt and slowly released tension on spring.

Do not under any circustances remove top shock bolt without have assembly secured at both ends. Spring is about 6" taller when free and you could seriously injur yourself. Or at least have parts fly all over

Step 8: Removed old top shock mount and replaced with new. Line up shock mount bolts with bottom of shock.

Step 9: Placed back in drill press, compressed assembly, and replaced top center shock bolt.

Step 10: Placed back in car and assembled. Make sure replace wire ties that hold ABS and Ground Cable after assembly.

Hope this helps.

I have to check to see if both sides are the same height now. I measured 15-3/8" from center to apex of wheel well when I lowered it, but have noticed this dimension changes and settles after a day of normal use.

According to the handbook they are supposed to be 15.78" in the front but they had a note about +/- .59" depending on variance in construction/assembly.

It only lets me upload 5 pics so I'll add the rest in a reply.

 

Here's the rest of the pics

 

Here are some pics of the new shock mount and one of car, sorry its not a great pic. They are fun, 130K on the engine and 170K on the rest. Apparently Engine Block was swapped after 40K because of the Nickasil. Hope I spelled that right.

 

How do you compress a spring with a drill press?

Good pictures!!

 

Great writeup, I'll FAQ the thread and get around to supersizing your pics a little later.

 

You going to do the passenger side too?

 

very ingenious, but for everyone else. I would just recommend taking it to a shop after you have them out and have them compress the springs and replace the upper mounts for you. I would charge about $20 or a case of Bud light and 5 limes

 

How do you compress a spring with a drill press?

Very Carefully

The top stays in place and the lower table moves up the rack to compress (need a good sturdy press). I have it fixtured so it can't pop out and there's a hole in the table so I can remove/tighten the shock nut. I'm sure spring compression tools would work fine but I did'nt have any at the shop. I need to get or make some though because I have to do the rears and those have to be compressed before I remove them. Not the same setup as the front.

H20, yes I'm planning to do the passenger side too but the other shock mount I ordered hasn't shown up yet. I replaced the driver first because of the alignment issue and that 1/4" difference from Pass to drvr.

I did however replace the upper A-Arm bushings today as the old ones were shot and the new ones showed up. I had found this about a month ago and was quite upset. I had replaced the control arm assemblies, upper and lower about 2 yrs ago (40K miles, Don't forget this is my daily driver).

Last year I took it in for an alignment and they found a lower ball joint went bad. I was stunned, now all the upper bushings were bad. The bushings were rusted and locked up.

I decided to make my own parts from 304 SS and Bearing Bronze to replace the bad components. They worked really well and the feel was awesome, except for the fact that on bad roads the car wandered a litlle. This was because the main rubber housing bores were wallowed out of dimension and not a part I could make myself. I am currently working on my own design for the outer housing to replace these when they go. I kept all my old control arms so I can play with them in my spare time.

I checked the dims this morning and the driver side was still 1/4" shorter than passenger. I really didn't gain anything by changing the shock mount, It was dirtier and looked a lttle more compressed but assembled was only 1/8" different then the new when I measured. This is because when assembled the shock is what determines the height of the assembly. A damaged shock mount may give a rougher ride and rattle but won't change the ride height. The spring will take up the difference since it is compressed in the assembly. So my conclusion is either the bushings are worn enough that they are causing the problem with the camber or the spring is the culprit. My only option then is to make a shim to correct it or replace the springs. I'm hoping my problem was in the upper A-Arm bushings. I check dims again in the morning. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

 

Nice one Brutal. I need to revise that one statement. I need to get some spring compression tools to the rear or a case of Bud Light.

 

Here's a coupe pic's of what the new bushings look like. The ones that came with the assemblies I had prior were the same but had graphite in all those little dimples you see in the yellow plastic bearing faces. These had a red grease and not the graphite, I'm not sure why the change but I Loaded these up with grease to make sure I don't have the same problem as before.

 

you dont need spring tools for the rear. A lift(jacks) you unbolt the lower control arm, sway bar links, and shocks, lower the control arm down and using a pry bar push the arn down and the spring just about falls out. The harder part is getting the spring and shock back in place and the spring seated in the rubber cusion in the lower control arm. And the upper mount does change ride height and pulls down too much negative camber. Just not as much as you think due to the leveraging of the control arms and suspension. totally shot gone ones pick up the front about .5", yours werent there yet, but they go quickly from collapsed to gone

 

Thanks Brutal,

I'm suprised mine weren't gone. I've had it for 70K and I know nothing was done to the fronts before.

Any idea why it's still a 1/4" down compared to passenger or do you think the bushings are causing that?

I don't have the one for the passener yet but should have next week.

 

I have seen very few cars that are even side to side, if youre a 1/4" down I wouldnt be concerned, unless youre an engineer, then you should know full well about manufacturing tolerances...
besides dirvers side springs useally show the first signs of sag since that side carries more weight. (depending on the size of you vs your wife or passenger, if you even have passengers much)
but the passenger side bushings and shocks are useally the first to go since the right side of most roads have the potholes and uneven surfaces

 

What is the rear ride heights? If they're uneven, that'll influence the front offset slightly.

 

OK, couple things.

New bushings in and here are the final dims.

Before anything installed

Pass Rear 15-3/4" Driver Rear 15-3/4"
Pass Frnt 14-15/16 Driver Frnt 14-5/8"

After installing Driver top shock mount and new Upper arm Bushings

Rears stayed the same

Pass Front 15-1/16" Driver Front 14-13/16

JTIS heights: Front 15.78" Rear 15.94"
Those are for Curb heights with all fluids and a full tank of gas.
All figures asume +/- 15mm (0.59") anticipated build variance and condition.

Brutal, I understand that there may be variances from side to side but I have checked the heights in the past and they were the same if not very close. The reason I mention that 1/4" was due to the alignment issue where they couldn'dt get the camber back in spec on the drivers side. As I've said originally it is probably time for new springs. I did make a 1/4" shim today to place above the driver side to see if it would help. It's a steel shim 6" OD x 3-7/8" ID with three holes to line up with the current mount. The bolts on the top are plenty long so I figured that was the best place and it will fully support the upper. I figured since I was adding the shims to the back to get those into speck, it probably won't hurt on the front. Let me know what you think.

Thanks again for all the help.

 

Well youre probobly corrwect, youre getting old(the car) and probobly do have sagging, its a gravity thing, but any good plastic surgeon can fix that..
Oh soory wrong forum. Either get new springs or shim would be fine, there no adjustment for camber/caster in front of xk8 without useing eccentric bolts, and those only give a minimal amount. The rear camber is adjusted with axle shims, but i never recommend or do this as most all jags are barely out of what jaguar considers "in spec" besides a little negative camber is not gonna hurt anything, especially on a sports car. It just gives you a little more speed through a corner before you lose grip

 

You can rent spring compressors from Advance and maybe autozone. I have a nice set that I use on Jeep springs that should work. What ever tool you use, be careful with the spring while it is compressed.

I would recommend removing the caliper form the knuckle as you were stressing your brake hose.

 

Thanks Silver, I noticed that the brake hose would get stressed.

I added the shim to the front today and the car pulled less on the way home. I'll check the dim's in the morning. Still waiting for the part to finish the front passenger top shock mount before I go for an alignment.

I took a look at the rear and I am defintately going to use a spring compression tool. No offense Brutal but I did what you said about removing the arm bolt, etc. and it looked like the arm is up against the main rear frame assembly. I think the compression tool is a better way for me as you have much better equipment. Plus I have no idea on how I would get everything back together without compressing the spring. Also I though you were the one that recommended adding the 6.5mm shim in the rear along with the new upper mount to get the rears back into spec?
I'd preffer to get it back in tolerance cause I expect that the negative camber would wear out the rubber quicker. Not that I would'nt mind not sliding out so easily .

Good news though, I have some 5/8 threaded rod and some extra steel at the shop so I'll make up a spring compression tool set tomorrow to do the rears. I just figured I'd make one as I work on my old mustang that my nephew has now. The XK8 was my suitable replacement for it when I sold it to him. Also work on my brothers Mustang from time to time and I know it's a good tool to have in the arsenal. I had a quick one I made and used in the past but won't work for coil over systems.

 

I did the shim kit in the rear on my suspension repairs from the dealer, i've stated it several times on the forums here. Maybe that is what you were remembering.

 

BRUTAL

Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: SUGAR LAND TEXAS
Posts: 1,985



with those front camber and caster settings I bet you have to turn on the right turn signal to signal a lane change when you let go of the steering wheel. Did you replace the front upper strut mounts? cause those are big issues with collapsed bushings..... I wouldnt worry about those rear camber settings unless you get around 2degrees neg. You still have front end issue though. For the rear at 170k I would replace the shocks, and upper mount bushings and add the thickest packing in the spring seat to offset 170k worth of use. Or you can replace springs, but the formentioned is cheaper.....by far...if memery serves me the eccentric bolts allow only about .2+/- adjustment

that's what I was refering to H20

Not that I'm griping or anything. I appreciate any help that Brutal gives me.