I have done this before but I do not recall it being such a pain on an XK8.
The front bolt for the lower arm will not clear things enough to come all of the way out. The rear just requires clearing the steering rack arm.
I searched this forum for an answer but have not yet found what I am looking for but I am sure it is here somewhere.
Now it started raining on me!!
What am I missing as far as getting the front bushing bolt to come out enough to remove the arm?
Tthanks

 

The rear requires dropping the rack and pinion. The front, if I recall correctly, doesn’t require anything. The nut faces the front of the car, and the bolt comes out towards the rear. Barring improper install if the subframe has been dropped before, check to see if the oil cooler lines are not impeding access. They can safely and gently be repositioned. Their bracket is flexible.

 

It was tight, IIRC, with the front crossmember bush bracket, but it should come out. This thread of Higgins' may help:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...5/#post2001880

 

Front most pivot bolt nut to rear Gian.
Bolt inserts from front of car, but it's easy enough to move the bracket that restricts the removal of bolt.

Not a good pic but nut can be seen toward rear.

 

You may have solved the mystery.
The front bolt comes out towards the front on the passenger side and the cooler lines and other things do not seem to be able to be moved out of the way enough to get the bolt out. From a suspension geometry standpoint, it should make no difference if it goes on from the front or rear but installing it from the rear sure would make it easier.
In face, I wonder why the rear bushing bolt was not supposed to be installed from the front so as not to have to lower the steering rack.
See anything wrong with my thinking?

 

Maybe easy on the drivers side but have had no success on the passenger side so far.

 

It is not possible to simply turn bolt around. Both bolts are shouldered and hole diameter in each of the crossmember brackets are different size.
l have never had a problem removing them once the body mount brackets are removed.

 

I did this last year on my 98 XK8 Convertible. From memory, I disconnected the tie rods and by moving the steering all the way to each side was able to slide the bolts out. I had to depress the steering gaiters to clear each bolt but it was relatively easy.

 

And now my ball joint splitter broke!!

 

Some of those ball joints are seriously heavy duty. When I did my bearing 20 years ago I also broke mine and had to buy another beefier one designed for trucks. It's come in handy a few times over the years as big SUVs have become more commonplace.

 

Correct, that's how you do it.

 

Semi-relevant... I just replaced the steering rack on my miata. Made an absolute dog's breakfast of removing the outer tie rod ends on the miata the first time I dropped the rack, which is very similar to the jag except its teeny tiny.

As a result, the second time I simply separated the INNER tie rod ends from the rack. The other benefit is you retain your alignment (almost) intact.

So if all you need to do is more the tie rods/rack out of the way enough, consider just separating the inner rods from the rack itself instead. This is me saying that without eyeballing access to those on the jag however, might not be possible to get a wrench on them on the jag but worth a look to bypass separating the tie rod end conical pieces entirely.

The irony is I just put power steering back on my Miata and then the power steering pump on my jag started pouring out fluid, so I'm doing a power steering pump on the jag next weekend LOL. Having two sporty cars you DIY on is OK as long as you only break one at a time.