When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
When I got my XJS it was pretty unmolested, 2 years back I tore it down to repair some corrosion, the front anti roll bar I didn't give a second thought and now I find that I cannot get the SOB back in place.
My car did not come with the keeper plates shown in the image below as C30570 and C30571, I managed to obtain some NOS ones from Dave Manners but short of drilling new holes they flat out will not fit square with the mount holes on the car, the mounting holes are offset so these things are sided and that's the problem - no way will the bush sit inside the retaining walls of the keeper. My original bushes had a notch cut out that the U bracket sat in so they couldn't go anywhere, the new bushes lack this groove so the only way to stop them walking on the roll bar is this keeper plate - the parts I have are the correct numbers for the year of my car.
Anyone else encountered this - anyone have any pics of these keeper plates in situ - I've tried every combination of position and have bashed the paint to hell on my ARB so bad I'll need to paint the SOB again - I don't know how people manage such pristine finishes on stuff when you are fighting heavy weights whilst trying to do up nuts and bolts.
This is the best I can get them to look and it is really annoying
Are you sure you're supposed to have those keeper plates? That parts diagram you're showing is for the early XJ-S. The parts diagram for the HE models, such as yours, doesn't show the presence of those plates?
Ben
I have a hazy memory that the brackets 30500/1 are handed and that the holes in them are placed asymmetrically.
Even if wrong, as PTJS said above, my car does not have them. The bush should be prevented from walking by the fact that the bush itself has lips each side that should fit outside the bracket 30500. But when I fitted some to a friend's car, the available bushes had the lips but were too narrow so I had to cut down the 30500 a bit so that the lips fitted over the edge of the bracket.
If you want to keep the plates, then redrill them!
Last edited by Greg in France; 09-04-2022 at 10:27 AM.
The bushes I was supplied have no ridges, the parts diagram is for the HE and it doesn't distinguish year so since mine had none then perhaps the redisigned bush is what's needed, the bushes I have seem to be the problem but I'm struggling to find OEM even with the usual sources and I'm tired of the lack of progress on this car so I got Super Pro Poly but they're garbage and don't fit - especially the big round ones.My old front sub mounts and ARB bushes are perished junk I'm afraid.
I've reached out to Ben @ Simply Performance to see what he can track down, I'm not proceeding with what I have so the car may need to spend another winter with no wheels - starting to get project fatigue in a big way with all the hold ups caused by ever more orders for parts can't seem to make any damn progress at the minute.
Ay - I was a member of the brown ale brigade ... this refurb is becoming more a collection of lots of jokes most of which defy prediction so you start a task with best intent and it grinds to a halt.
What I don't get is how there can be so many sources of parts diagrams and parts that 'claim' by number to be correct but when put to the test they're flat out wrong - all my part numbers come from RTC9888CE dated Audust 1987 - which is precisely what mine is ... go figure - the part in your listing Greg looks much more like my old ones other than the distortion, the part listed in that document shows C32925 for ~ARB bushes ... I'm clearly doing something wrong so I've resorted to Grant's solution and taken the top off one or two, maybe more lost count.
The link I posted is from Jaguar's website for the HE, which has different part numbers for the bushes, the U-brackets and doesn't show the presence of the keeper plates:
That is what they report - both links go to the same place by the way - either way I don't know what to trust any more - if you look at the link Greg sent it lists the items as being suitable for 1975 to 1996 so that documents not trustworthy either.
My document came from Jagur heritage - here's my front page ... which would make the stuff provided by Jaguar Heritage also unreliable - who knows what the source of truth is because I sure don't any more.
Apols, I've now amended the 2nd link to be the reference to the XJ-S HE parts area of Jaguar's website.
Greg's link is also referencing the right bush as per my revised 2nd link. When Jaguar reference an individual part, it will say XJS 75-96 but you need to reference their individual parts areas to know the exact era of XJ-S it will fit.
I'm not aware of that paper parts doc that you have, but the fact it says "XJ-S HE" and also "XJ-S V12" makes me think it's trying to cover early XJ-S and then also HE models. If you just use the 2nd link in my post, you'll get the parts diagram for the ARB for HE models. Also posting that link here:
No worries - it seems that there are conflicts in the books - even Simply are struggling and I've taken a bunch of dimensions for them - it would appear that the 'correct' part number also has a story as the ARB diameters changed, we haven't got to the bottom of the large front subframe donuts yet I've put a picture below on why they don't work - just for the record - (notwithstanding they are Poly) - we may have tracked down some OEM bushes subject to sizing but by the time they're shipped that is £170 for 4 bushes ....
totally not wide enough - yes there's a bush in there This bush has a groove around its circumference to the outer edges are clearly not intended to inside the clamp. Look at this the next time you consider not using OEM parts if available ....
Ben
I fitted the poly subframe (six shot) bushes, during my unsuccessful tweaking to the front end to get rid of my steering shimmy (later cured by a new diff) but they did work well, though not as compliant as real metalastik six shots. Iordered ones of a lower shore than standard. If you do use them, then you have to insert the poly bushes into the metal outers recuperated from the OEM bushes. This is not easy but it is doable provided you cut down the lip at one end and lubricate the thing before using a vice to push the poly into the old bush's outer steel tube. In a thread, at the start of which I thought I had fixed the problem (see here) https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...shimmy-209068/
I wrote as follows: Latest update: As the weather after the winter began to warm up, my shimmy problem returned to a degree. I decided to buy some poly six shots from Superflex. These are solid poly and far less compliant than the OEM bushes as now available. I removed the modified OEMs and found that they had lost quite a bit of the rigidity I had put into them by filling the holes, for whatever reason. To fit the Superflex bushes the procedure is:
burn or cut out the rubber from the steel outer tube on the old bushes. The polys have to be pressed into that tube.
the polys have a "cotton reel" shape and the steel outer tube fits nicely between the raised ends of the "reels".
I actually ground down the raised end on one end of the polys to make the bush easier to press into the steel outer, using silicone grease to help the process. A large vice is fine for this job. Once in place the lack of the raised part has no effect on bush performance as they are squeezed in place by the huge bolt and washers.
The OEM bushes have a steel inner bonded to the rubber, and a further steel inner that slides into that (13 in the diagram). The polys have no steel inner bonded in, but they do need the removable OEM tube to be pressed into them, again using silicone lube.
Last edited by Greg in France; 09-05-2022 at 06:59 AM.
I hadn't thought of that so that is probably what they intend - yeh right not happening - I am not prepared to start messing about grinding out rubber and engage in bodgery or other such things when it comes to steering, brakes or suspension - actually I don't like that for any task hence I won't proceed with this job now until I have acceptable parts. At near £40 each though the ARB bushes are painful on the wallet as they're the same price as the large donuts !!
A black hole can't consume light near as fast as this car consumes £'s ..... and it isn't even on the road wouldn't mind if I thought I was close to the end of it but I still have the rear end, paint and then the interior to sort out ....
Ben
The JCP price for their ARB bushes is nowhere near 40 quid.
The metalastic six shots are at Manners, try Jack Weston there, as they have genuine metalastik but not in Jaguar packaging.
Hmmm interesting - I can see that now - perhaps I had too much of Grants stress relief onboard when I looked - forced to confess I was well lubricated ....
When I got my XJS it was pretty unmolested, 2 years back I tore it down to repair some corrosion, the front anti roll bar I didn't give a second thought and now I find that I cannot get the SOB back in place.
My car did not come with the keeper plates shown in the image below as C30570 and C30571, I managed to obtain some NOS ones from Dave Manners but short of drilling new holes they flat out will not fit square with the mount holes on the car, the mounting holes are offset so these things are sided and that's the problem - no way will the bush sit inside the retaining walls of the keeper. My original bushes had a notch cut out that the U bracket sat in so they couldn't go anywhere, the new bushes lack this groove so the only way to stop them walking on the roll bar is this keeper plate - the parts I have are the correct numbers for the year of my car.
.........
Anyone else encountered this - anyone have any pics of these keeper plates in situ - I've tried every combination of position and have bashed the paint to hell on my ARB so bad I'll need to paint the SOB again - I don't know how people manage such pristine finishes on stuff when you are fighting heavy weights whilst trying to do up nuts and bolts.
This is the best I can get them to look and it is really annoying
Fits the bush but looks c**p
I was going to say earlier but got distracted, that mine are like this, and I was under the impression all XJs of this era were the same.
I'm not as particular as some people about what it looks like Under the car, mine came like this so that's how I put them back.
(';')
That's real interesting and also revealing, I really appreciate that pic because I was going nuts trying to align things - so it seems I'm not so nuts after all - just shows you. It is almost like the plate is an afterthought - I would love to know what they were thinking when they designed it this way.
That's real interesting and also revealing, I really appreciate that pic because I was going nuts trying to align things - so it seems I'm not so nuts after all - just shows you. It is almost like the plate is an afterthought - I would love to know what they were thinking when they designed it this way.
The same thing they were thinking when they came up with the transmission mount you have to remove to change the tranny fluid.
That's the same mentality that doesn't put a drain on the auto boxes to force people to change the filters - auto trannies on cars are the dumbest things - how hard would it be to design an external replaceable filter, or even a transmission that didn't use a two part bottom fill plug as a level indicator good luck pumping oil into that sucker without the proper adapter - enjoy the shower - or the dipstick free engine or tranny. That 'collision' bracket won't be going back on my mount, I figure if anything hits the car hard enough to make that useful the car is toast anyhow.
I have some different bushes due tomorrow, will probably arrive along with the hate mail from the bank as I just bought a set of solid gold headlight wiper arms - at least they should be for the price but these things aren't so common you can be choosy - so seeing how brittle they seem to get I'll be hunting down another set - to go with the insanely expensive blades I managed to source (DAC2488).
09-04-2022, 08:16 AM
Front ARB brackets and keepers - won't fit ...
