You poor *******s and winter weather, rust looks terrible! Yah mine still isn't in right yet. Going back after it this weekend as I will be installing H&R lowering springs, Powerflex front bushings (all) & rear sway bar.

 

Its just surface rust as I had to remove most of he paint to get the arm back in.

Have subsequently cleaned and undersealed after fitting new Koni adjustable shocks and Poly A Frame bushes.








My H&R springs have now been on order for 4 months and still haven't arrived!!

 

Mine show up on Monday. I was leaning toward doing Koni's but they're back-orderded forever here.

 

That's really interesting that your 96 had the monotube/truss as some have suggested some X300s ended up getting the integrated X308 style differential brace either as warantee work or??

And on that note, it seems I've accidentally stirred up a little debate in the X308 section about whether this brace supplants an anti-roll bar or not:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ay-bar-159021/


So, now that two of you have had the monotube installed with the Powerflex bushings since last summer, any update on ride quality (good/bad), noise (poly squeaking?) or observations on why the top bushings were so hard to get the bolts aligned?

Any "lessons learned" now that you have experience and perspective that would have made installation easier, better, etc?

The weather is turning nice, so I'll probably be ordering my bushings and installing mine soon. So any tips will be much appreciated.

.

 

It's also interesting to note that I suspect the problems some are having with installation are due to the flanges on the Powerflex bushings that add another ~.5 cm (gross estimation based on photos) to the width of each mounting eye, which then requires the upper mounting flanges to be pried/spread apart. This is not only difficult, but probably also misaligns the bolt holes a bit, hence the trouble getting the bolt back in.

If comparing the Powerflex bushings with the OEM bushings, one will see that the OEM bushings have their "rubber" material recessed/flush with the face of the eye instead, which makes inserting the monostrut not require the spreading of the mounting bracket.

Also if you look at the Powerflex bushing, it isn't clear why the flange is needed. If that flange were removed, the poly bushing would fit into the eye much like the OEM and not cause these fitment issues. So I wonder if this is a minor design flaw or error?

I sent Powerflex USA a question asking them if perhaps there is an opportunity to improve the fit of these bushings given the experience reported here.


.

 

Most if it straight forward, perhaps you could shave/cut the bushing down for the rear upper part. I ended up having to run a smaller bolt/nut through it as the misalignment stripped the threads. I love having it and all of my 3-4 shift clunk is gone, dramatically. The car also is tighter. I have Koni's now to match the H&R springs. I'm adding the V12 rear spring shims to lift the rear end a bit. Word to the wise, if you use H&R springs on a an XJL, it will sag a little bite more than a regular XJ. My suspicion is that the larger shims will lift her up just enough. I also have a rear sway bar to add to the car I just haven't carved out the time to get back under it.

 

OK, I received a reply from Powerflex and they agree the fitment of their bushings in the upper brackets looks tight. So they have asked us some questions. If anyone can answer the following questions from Powerflex it would be much appreciated. Let's do our best to get back to them ASAP if at all possible since they are showing interest in looking into the issue.

I have a monotube in the garage still fitted with the OEM bushings, so I went out and put a micrometer on the width of each of the four "eyes" (measurement requested below) and then measured the width(length) of the metal sleeve in the bushing itself.

Width of bushing eye: 35mm
Width of bushing inner sleeve/tube: 41mm

Let me know if you find these consistent with your monotube stock bushing measurements.

We now just need to provide a measurement of the inner width of the upper mounting brackets stock, before they are stretched. My guess is that it should be 41-42mm, but let's verify.

And she wondered if anyone had any issues with the length of their inner bushing tube/sleeve, I suspect too long or too short would be of interest to them to hear. What I'm suspecting is that the entire Powerflex assembly including bushing and sleeve are just a few mm too wide, but we'll need to help them understand if the oversize issue is just the bushing, sleeve, or both.



Thanks!

 

I just installed a monostrut from a low mileage X308 into my 94 xj40 VDP.

Bushings were comfort bushings afaik and the monostrut and bushes were in as new condition. (S. California car)

It was a fairly straightforward job requiring the judicious use of the pry bar to get it all in and bolted up. The only fastenings we removed (yes there were 2 of us thank god!) were the four dogbone bolts.
We had a heckuva time getting the last upper bolt to line up, as it seemed OOL by about 1/8".

Dismissing suggestions for grinding a taper into the bolt threads we decided to try and move the bushing/monostrut end into alignment with the pry bar.

Leveraging was a bit of a problem at first, but we finally figured out a good way to do it.

After installing the lower bolts on the diff we started the driver's side upper bolt then moved to the passenger side to fit the last bolt.

Using a square iron block (actually we used the base of a cast iron shaft from a spare axle stand) and butting it up to the bracket outer locating bolt, it gave us just the right amount of room to slip in the pry bar and pry/push the bolt and bushing over the 1/8" to get the thread started - once that was done, it was pretty much meat and potatoes to finish up.

Took us quite a while to figure it out, but once we had the iron block, easy!

cheers

Larry

 

Hey there!

just wanted to clarify in your refurbishing method for the monostrut, did you remove the old powder coating ontop of the strut or just prime and paint over it? Just looking for some advice to do on mine thanks 👍