well i managed to finish the project .

 

5/8 all thread rod,Makeshift spring tool.

 

I hope this is long enough? I used a grade 8 hex bolt. 5/16

 

Jimmy i dont think you have enough room up inside the upper mount to get the nut in there that you have on the end. The jag tool as no nut. Just a drift pin. So youde have to cut the head off that bolt, remove the nut and the grade 8 bolt youre using. I just measured the jag tool and the long bar is 3/4"(youll be fine with yours) the drift pin is 1/4" diameter andd 1 1/4" long. And whats that on the bottom? A 2 1/2# weight

 

yes you like that i finally found use for it ..lol well i didi go to home depot and there was tension pins but didnt know how i was going to have it stay in the hole i drilled..gonna have to make another hole i guess.you think maybe I should just screw the bolt all the way through?and just use the side with out the bolt head?Just so the bolt is secured in the rod

 

Yes,like this jim.

 

Like pd regans pic is perfect , but not your description

 

okay I just busted the nut..I was trying to screw it in further but I guess I am going to have to get a longer one anyway that one seemed to be way too short anyhow. does it have to be a grade 8 bolt just asking I have a plethora of bolts in my garage or do I just buy the tension pin and force them in rod after I have drilled a hole?

 

How long a length of threaded rod? Thx.

 

I did 24 inches.

 

I ASSUME YOURE TALKING ABOUT YOUR "PIN" BOLT? i WOULD USE A GRADE 8. THAT SUPPORTING ALL THE SPRING FORCE AT THE TOP AND IF IT BENDS IT COULD RELEASE THE TOOL FROM THE TOP. YOURE WORRIED ABOUT SAFTY, THATS THE ONE AREA I WOULD SKIMP ON THE TOOL. I MEEN A GRADE 8 BOLT IS ONLY A COUPLE BUCKS. AND YOU WANT = AMOUNTS OF THE PIN STICKING OUT BOTH SIDES OF THE ALLTHREAD SO ITS CENTERED.

 

This article is not so much about carrying out the job asmaking and using the spring compressor tool. See attachment for PDF file onspring removal.
MANUFACTURE OFSPRING COMPRESSOR TOOL JAGUAR XJ8

I made the spring compressor out of a 1 metre long 20mmthreaded rod. I bought this from ALLBUILT products in Farnborough for about£6.00. I also bought two 10 mm threaded rods and nuts to suit the threadedrods.

I drilled a 5/16 hole about 20 mm from the end of the20mm rod. I was quite careful with this using a pillar drill so that the holewas at 90 degrees to the rod and central. I also drilled the hole in stagesstarting with a 1/8 drill working up to the 5/16th drill. This wasin order to prevent any cracking around the hole. This would be the weakestpoint and you would not be able to see it once it was installed on thesuspension assembly. If there was any cracking, then the rod could break atthis critical point. The final drilling I just did lightly in order for the5/16th pin to be a tight fit. For the cross pin, I used the shank ofa 5/16 drill cut down to 30mm long. I knew that the material of the drill istough. Somewhere I saw that someone recommended a roll pin. This sounds a bitfragile, but I believe that the proper Jaguar tool has a roll pin. The 20 mm rod I cut to 550 mm, but I did notcut the rod to length until I had drilled the hole and was satisfied with theresult.

I got two 20 mm nuts and assembled them lightly on therod with a gap of a few millimetre but the flats aligned. I then tack weldedthe nuts together at a couple of points. At this stage I made sure that thenuts (now joined together) were free to run on the rod. I removed the two nutsand welded them together all the way round and then ground off the excess. Thereason for the nuts welded together was to spread the load over the two nutsand also have a larger surface for the spanner to work on. You could use asingle nut here

I then mounted the new “nut” in a vice and ran thetreaded rod up and down the nut until it was turning smoothly. I applied Molygrease to the thread whilst doing this.

In my garage, I have a box of “round things” that I haveaccumulated over the years. I found two suitable bits cut one part at an angleto align with the spring pan. You could maybe use 1 inch internal diametersteel pipe for this. The other part was conical to allow for movement. Youcould possibly dispense with the conical part. The finished tool can be seen inphoto A.

In photo D, you can see the angle of the conical part tothe angled contact part, during the removal process. This shows how it isimportant to get this part of the tool correct. If you feel that you are notable to able to make such a tool, then I wonder if you should be tackling thistask at all.

Anyone who thinks that they can just use a couple ofwashers under the nut would be foolhardy. The pan does not come down evenly andthere would be a tremendous side strain on the nut against the pan. I wouldimagine that a lot of force would be required to turn the nut. You need to havethe correct angle to mate with the pan. I would dismiss any suggestions thatyou can get around using such a tool, by straps or supporting by a jack. I havea pit in my garage and many tools and I still had my heart in my mouth for thefirst spring removal.

I cut the 10mm threaded rod into five pieces of 200 mmlong. I then cut another piece 155mm long to be used in the outermost holeposition. The outermost rod will foul the compressor tool if too long. These willbe the guide pins, Jaguar only uses two pins, but I opted to use six. The ideabehind this was that if the spring compressor tool or suspension turret structure failed(it has happened apparently), then the guide rods would take the strainof the road spring.




Once I had taken up the spring tension with the springcompressor, (I did this with the weight of the car on the front suspension) Ithen slackened off the spring pan bolts ONE AT A TIME a few turns each.I worked them a bit to ensure that they were easy to turn and retightened them.I used a 24 inch I/2 drive swivel bar and had trouble undoing the bolts. Thesebolts have a stepped locating pin and were assembled by Jaguar using loctite.They are extremely hard to turn, Make sure that the socket is firmly engaged onthe bolt head. If you damage the heads at this stage you will have a lot oftrouble and they will not be cheap to replace. Note that the securing boltshave 13mm A/F heads but are a 10mm bolt (i.e. 10mm bolt that would normallyhave a 17mm A/F head). I can only imagine that this small head was used byJaguar to reduce unsprung weight.

Once I was happy that all six bolts were able to turneasily, then removed each bolt in turn and replaced it with one of the 10mmguide rods. I assembled several washers and a nut on the 10mm threaded rod andran the nut up until there was a small gap between the spring pan and each setof washers and nut. The washers allow you to get better access to the nut heads.Photo B shows the tools installed prior to starting the removal process. As Ibacked off the nut on the spring compressor tool, I also backed off the nuts onthe guide rods. I did this until the whole pan and spring could be removed.

Note: When installed and whilst in the removal process,the road spring is bowed outwards in the middle. I could see that any drasticmovement could allow the spring to jump out and the guide rods should hopefullyprevent this. Photo C shows how the spring is not central to the springcompressor tool.

Replacement is the reversal, but first the pan and springis located in position with the guide rods through the holes in the pan andthen nuts are fitted on the guide rods. This will take the weight of the panand spring while you insert the spring compressor tool. This is different tothe Jaguar document in that the proper Jaguar guide pins do not appear to havea screw thread for the length of the rod.

When you tighten up the spring with the compressor tool,the spring pan will eventually make contact with the lower wishbone at onepoint first. At this stage, you will need to jack up the front of the springpan with a bottle jack as the pan will be lower at the front. There istremendous pressure on the compressor tool and is better to give it some assistancehere. You can see in photo E by the exposed length of the guide rods, that thespring pan is lower at the front and also at the outer point. This however, mayhave been due to my inaccurate cutting of the angle

One thing that i was concerned with was the threads onthe 20mm rod damaging the holes in the spring pan. During the removal process,I continually tapped/jiggled the spring pan to ensure that there was no hook upon the threads. The proper Jaguar toolhas no threads.

Before installing the spring compressor tool, I put twonuts on the end of the spring compressor rod locked together. I then put a mole(visegrip) wrench on this. The idea was that any rotation of the rod would beshown by the mole wrench moving. This would mean that the locating pin hadmoved out of position.

Having completed the job, I now realise that this form ofspring compressor tool is far better that the standard claw type that fits ontothe springs (such as you would use on the rear). With the proper tool this is astraight forward job and easier than removing the rear springs.

Note: After I had used the tool for removing the springson both sides, I noticed that the cross pin was now a loose fit in the hole. Irealised that I could have easily knocked the pin partially out whilstinstalling the tool and this could have caused the tool to fail. In hindsight Ithink that I should made sure that I had made a proper interference hole or putthe pin in with araldite or loctite to stop it slipping out. Perhaps the rollpin really is best for the job?

Most of my knowledge has come from forums etc, but I havepieced everything together and hopefully this will help others when carryingout this task.

 

If your talking about replacing the front coils its actualy pretty easy without a spring compression tool. Keeping the lower control arm supported with a hydraulic jack simply leave the baljoint attached and remove the rear control arm bushing bolts. Then lower the jack and the spring slids out. Do in reverse to put back in.

 

Welcome to the forum kmm and thanks for the tip. When you have time, please visit the new member area and introduce yourself:

New Member Area - Intro a MUST - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum

 

Interesting ... but can you be more detailed? It has a certain logical appeal to it but what about the spring pan bolts? And why remove the rear control arm bolts at all?

 

Reference keeping the lower control arm supported with a hydraulic jack and allowing the spring to slide out.

Have you actually done this. I have read somewhere else that someone is
permanently in a wheelchair after the spring leapt out at him. My tool(s) took quite a few hours to make, but this is the only way to go as far as I am concerned.
If you look at my photo E, you can see that the spring has still got 5 to 7 cms to go until de-compressed. The spring has to be compressed about 15 to 16 cms. I cannot see how this would happen with the ball joint still attached. When I was putting the spring back on, It was tight just getting the spring pan on and puting the nuts onto the guide rods.
You would probably have to hammer out the rear control arm bushing bolts. I would not wish to be doing this with that spring that close to my face. My work was done in a pit. A different story with the front jacked up and lying on your back.

 

No way would I advise anyone to try this method. A person would be risking extreme injury or death.

The angle of the spring pan relative to a jack will shoot a hydraulic jack (bottle or floor jack) right out from under it as soon as the control arm bolts are removed and the spring could come flying out.

 

Yes. Perhaps I should have added do not attempt this by merely jacking and removing the rear control arm bushing bolts.

The thought of doing this horrifies me. The weight of the spring alone could cause injury if it was dropped. As a projectile, I shudder to think about it?

I will say it again, with the proper tool, this job is not so bad. The hardest part in fact being the removal of the spring pan bolts

 

Hello Commwhale and others....reading some comments on here is enough to send cold shivers up the spine regards make shift spring compressors.....UUUUUGGGHH!!
Commwhale youir complete and accurate desription of the spring compressor, it's design, manufacture and use IS THE ONLY WAY TO GO.....PERIOD!!

One can never be too light hearted about the kinetic energy compressed into a front road spring.....IT WILL KILL YOU!
As these springs are not straight but curved slightly and their natuaral working position is in a curved plain.


Commwhales method very closely mimmics the 'factory method' and is really the only way to go.

The thought of someone employing a threaded bolt in place of a proper roll pin is lunacy!
Considering that the stress is being applied laterally on that thread which is always the weakest point.
DO NOT use cheap silver threaded rod which is untreated.
Use hardened 3/4" fine threaded rod and the correct roll pin.
If anything is going to shear, it will be near the thread.

I don't think some people really grasp the importance of doing this correctly.....it's your life.

 

Commwhale...a quick word on 'roll pins'
These are designed to carry loads far better than a shaved down drill bit.
A drill bit is far too brittle and will shatter under load.
A roll pin has more maleabillity and will bend before it breaks....that's why the factory uses one.
Far easier to replace a roll pin than an arm ;o]