Hi all,

Just striped down the whole front suspension due to worn lower wishbone ball joints and a front ride height about one and a half inches too low. I won't go into a step by step guide but will tell you about the problems I encountered and how I overcame them.

The first issue was removing the lower wishbone bolts. Jaguar for what ever reason have fitted the bolts so their removal is blocked before you can fully remove them. The rear bolt is blocked by the steering rack bellows but I had already read on this forum you need to drop the rack slightly to gain clearance.

O.K. impact driver on rack bolts, nothing. Heat bolts and surrounding subframe, no go. Get breaker bar on bolts, bolts on the point of shearing. Oh dear how to get out the wishbone bolt?

I put the steering on full lock to fully compress the bellows and got a friend to tap the end of the bolt whilst I compressed the bellows as much as possible and success, the bolt came out without damaging the bellows.

Now onto the front wishbone bolt but it hit the oil cooler pipe, no problem, remove pipe bracket and gain additional clearance. Bolt came out a bit further then was blocked by the subframe mounting bracket. Much swearing and cursing about Jaguar took place but I managed to remove the bolt by friend twisting the wishbone up and down until bolt came free.

Next issue was the ball joint removal. I have a 10 ton hydraulic press and I don't think I could of completed the job without it. The upper wishbone ball joints were quite easy to remove. I used an angle grinder to cut away two sides of the ball joint lip so that it can be pressed out and applied heat for 2 or 3 minutes. Using a suitable sized socket, I pressed the ball joints out with about 3-5 tons of pressure and it took about 5 tons to seat the new ones.

Great, now thoroughly pleased with my progress, onto the lower ball joints. I once again cut off two edges of the ball joint lip to allow it to be pressed out from above, heated it up and the applied pressure with the press. 5 tons nothing, O.K. lets try some more, 10 tons nothing! Right lets give it more heat and nothing. Cooled it down then heated again, nothing. After 4 attempts, there was a loud bang and the ball joint was free! The new ones also took about 5 tons to fully seat.

The lower wish bone bushes were a pain in the a**e as well. I used the press to push out the metal centre piece, then burnt the crap out of the rubber inset and used a hacksaw to saw through the outer casing. Once the casing is split, it's an easy job to chisel it out.

Anything that not clear, please feel free to ask any questions.

 

I got the Lower Wishbone Bolts past the steering bellows multiple times and when I finally got the suspension all together, I found out the inner tierods were bad (so the bellows had to come off, anyway)

Pop the clip and the bellow slides off in seconds and now there is a lot of room to slide the wishbone bolt past. Used a large zip tie to secure it back after replacing the tie rod. No worries about the wishbone bolt head tearing the bellows and the steering rack stays mounted.

I think we can all agree that the Lower Balljoints are special. We should have "Jag LBJ Remover" patches for our jackets.

 

Hi Ungn,

That's a great idea of moving the rack bellows out of the way, I didn't even think of that! I wonder why JTIS shows that the rack has to be completely dropped? It wouldn't be to make more money out of us, would it ? Surely not Ha, Ha.

 

Did you go with powerflex bushes or just the rubber. Putting it all back together is also quite fun.

 

I used Jaguar rubber bushes. I thought about fitting poly bushes but have no experience of them so decided against it. Some people rave about them but others say they give a harsh ride.

Apart from fitting the new bushes and ball joints, I have yet to begin the reassembly as i'm waiting on delivery of new springs and a few other bits and pieces. Putting it all back together can't be as bad as doing the ball joints!

 

The only thing I found tricky with the install is sliding the lowers into place. The Subframe has a little edge (from the "as cast" to machined surfaces) that can catch the Lower wishbone bushings.


If you have three hands (2 to hold the wishbone and one to manipulate the bushings into the slots) it is easy. Since I only have 2 hands, I used a dremel tool to remove the edge on the subframe that the bushings catch on, and the arms slide right in place.

 

looks like I'll have to get my ready and willing neighbour to provide a 2nd pair of hands. The bottom wishbone is quite heavy when bolted together and I can imagine it's a bit tricky to get back on your own.

 

Especially if you are lazy like me and only jack the car up enough to get a minimum height jackstand under the body.


Everything was great until I realized how awkward your body has to contort to push the arms in while sitting on the floor and also not have the ability to droop the lower arm enough to ease install... and with the suspension completely off and the body on jackstands, its hard to raise it higher.


When I do lowers again, I'm going to jack the car up as high as I can get it before disassembly.

 

I'm getting to the age when my body seriously objects to contorting! Like you, I only jack the car up high enough to fit the stands on their lowest setting.

I have also got to the stage in life when after starting a job on the car, wishing I hadn't bothered and start delaying tactics before forcing myself to finish it.

 

Oh it can! The poly fit a heck of a lot tighter and took quite a bit of fitting. The ride isn't any harsher, it is simply more crisp handling wise with a bit more road feel translated to the car. Most people complain about noise but they didn't install properly imho as I've never experienced any noise with a single poly bush I've installed.

 

I just did a front polybush (purple powerflex) and the ride is definitely not harsh, and that's on 20" rims.

The lower wishbones are a lot easier to get in if you follow the JTIS order of putting the bolts in, which iirc is the rear one first. The rear bolt is tapered so it helps line everything up.

A rubber mallet and a not-so-rubber lump hammer prove to be quite handy.

I spent an age trying to get the rear to line up with the front bolt in place and after doing it the other way around it was straightforward.

The wishbones may be a bit harder to get in (use lots of grease and precision instruments described above), but the bushes don't need to be pressed in, which is a big win. And they will probably never need to be changed again, another win!