Moving on to the Next Thing Wrong with my XK8 revival project, investigating a clunk; I removed the top cap and very quickly found a bad strut mount on the driver's side, clear as day. It was pretty much disintegrated. Passenger side doesn't look too far behind, either - so I decided to replace them both.

So, I took the wheels off - and noticed heat discoloration on the driver's rotor, very difficult to turn, = seized caliper. So that'll need to be replaced.

As I am pulling the strut, the bottom bushing more or less falls apart in my hand - so let's get a bushing. No, don't be dumb, these look to be factory, so let's get a strut. But they must be done in pairs, so...

Ordered:
1x caliper
2x struts
2x mounts

... but now I wonder about the control arm bushings... maybe I shouldn't look too close... hah! I should probably stop keeping a tally of the $$ ....

 

Depends on how deep you want to dive.

Unless you're one of the lucky ones and can finagle the shocks out without removing the upper wishbone, then you'll have to dismantle the bushings to do so, thus a good time to check/replace them.

Lower control arm bushings aren't too painful but you will need a press and, strictly speaking, a pair of 'special tools' to push the new ones in properly.

Then there's the top & bottom ball joints...

Check the roll/sway bar bushings and drop links while you have it all in pieces.


Curious:- what have you chosen for the upper shock mounts?

 

This was ultimately the way I went. In fact, it seems fairly straight forward, and personally I prefer this to the risk of snagging hoses / lines via the other method. By the time I went to the passenger side, I didn't bother removing the wheel well at all.

The only one I could find was URO. I do NOT prefer URO, but, via Amazon, RockAuto, FCP Euro, and Ebay, it is all I could find.

On the subject of bushing inspection, upon removal (where I did remove the upper wishbone on both sides) I can say the bushings are thankfully in fairly good condition. No tears or cracks, very solid.

The ball joints are also very tight and feel to be in good order.

 

There is a better option for shock mounts. Contact members: cjd777 (Wayne) and Baxtor.

 

Yes, absolutely contact one of them. Baxtor recast my original shock mounts with polyurethane and they are brilliant. My non OEM foam style mounts lasted literally a few hundred kilometres before the centres moved significantly towards the edges.

 

Wayne (USA) and Baxtor (Australia) are the only way to go for replacement shock mounts....

 

OK I've contacted Wayne and will follow up with him.

I'll install the URO mounts for the short term, and plan for longer-term fitting the ones from Wayne, if he can provide them.

Thanks for the advice!

 

Save your original mounts as Wayne or Baxter will need them to build your new mounts.

 

^^ To be specific, Wayne needs both of your shock mount bell housings in order to custom-make your new shock mounts. There are at least four different styles of bell housings in these cars (each is shaped a bit differently from the others), so that is why the new shock mounts must be custom-made / custom-fit....

 

One thing I wanted to mention - for anyone else who goes the route I did, removing the upper arm instead of fiddling around with the wheel well; I discovered the hard way that there appear to be shims used on the inner part of the bushing against the mounting bracket. I believe if these are incorrectly reinstalled, it could have an effect on the tracking / alignment.

The driver's side, they popped out and scattered to hell and breakfast, so I'll have to guess where they go.

On the passenger's side, I carefully removed them and set them aside for proper reinstallation.

(These are separate from and in addition to the cupped bushing washers we normally expect to see)

 

Yeah, that often happens. Wayne and I matched those washer shims up as best we could after they went flying on the front driver's side as we were installing new front shocks back in early 2016. Frankly, I'm not so sure their specific order would really make that much of a difference regarding alignment....

 

Those shims affect caster. Per the JTIS, if caster is altered, camber and toe will also be affected. There's a specific order to them, see this section of the JTIS for reference:




:

 

Be aware there is a typo in that bottom placement chart for ROW, Left side front. Should be 1 x thick and 1 X thin.
The total on any one fulcrum shaft is 2 each of thick and thin.

 

Perfect - this matches what I set aside on the passenger side. So it seems all I have to do is REVERSE that on the driver's side (front gets thick&thin) and we're good. Thank you again!