Decided to spend my 4th replacing the stock upper shock mounts with the Welsh set I bought back in March.
Today I was test fitting everything and found the shock rod is too big for the hole in the new upper mount.



The hole looks identical to the old original but is obviously a bit smaller so the shock rod will not pass through the upper
mount. What am I missing? Tried to call Welsh but closed for the holiday and possibly til Monday.

 

Do you have the adaptive shocks? Perhaps they are slightly larger....

 

+1, mine always fit, though I did have to use a pipe clamp to seat the mount in the spring.

John

 

I do have adaptive but there is no differentiation for that on the Welsh website.

Got back on their website and it says they will be open tomorrow so I will contact them then.

 

Communicating with Welsh they are working on the issue.
Can anyone confirm this shock is an OEM Adaptive damper for XKR? At first I thought AC Delco but might be Adaptive Control Damper. It also says JAGUAR and Bilstein and Made in Germany on it.

 

If that's an electrical plug on top then it's the adaptive shock. When you are finally able to reassemble do not rotate the shaft of the shock while tightening.

 

I put the shock in the freezer for a couple of hours and left the top mount out in the sun. Compressed the spring then
grabbed the cold shock and put the top on and tapped it with a rubber hammer and it slipped on. Problem solved.

And yes there is an electrical connector on top. I have the top nut hand threaded for now and will torque it
after I finish the other side and the car is on the ground.

 

BTW my hat is off to those of you that have done this in the past. It is a PITA. Youtube videos
make it look so simple but almost none of it has gone easy. The two sided spring compressors you
borrow from AutoZone do actually work but nothing about it is easy. I had to compress and then release mine 4 times
to get them in just exactly the right spot on the springs. Otherwise they rub on the bottom or the nut binds on top. If I ever were to do this again (unlikely) I would buy one of those wall mounted spring compressors that some of you have. And by the time you pay for one of those I bet you could take the whole strut and new top mount to a shop and have them do the swap then reinstall for cheaper.

In fact I still have to do the other side so I may do just that.

 

Funracer, I know what you mean. That's why I always borrow 2 compressor packs every time. So I'm cranking 4 at once. I can never seem to position them efficiently with just the one pair.

Hey dont forget to align the mounts 3 protruding bolts with the orientation of the stock's bolt hole. What I mean is: the shock can only mount 2 ways (bolt enters 1 side or other) . Once that's oriented, the 3 shock mount bolts must be in position to enter the holes. I neglected this my 1st time = decompress. You'll probably only make that mistake once!

John

 

Wayne (cjd777) and I also used three or four spring compressors when we replaced the shocks and shock mounts on my wife's 2006 XK8 back in October 2014 (rear) and January 2016 (front). It does require the proper positioning of the assembly with the spring compressors attached in order to slide everything back into place, but Wayne has the magic touch of being able to do that rather quickly....

 

Using an air ratchet with two deep well sockets and leaving the deep well sockets on the spring compressor helps a lot.

 

The adaptive shocks are made by bilstein for Jaguar. They're quite an expensive item (I just replaced all 4) and they're not readily available everywhere. Once you've done that and changed all the bushes and ball joints it's nice to drive on brand new suspension!

 

This was a huge help. I started cranking 3 at once but when I got them about half way down I added the forth
and it worked so much easier than just using two. It also feels much more secure and safer than using one on each side.

 

Glad it helps!!!

John