So for a quick recap of what conditions I found in suspension. The rear upper bushing is the one that had worst failure, preventative replacement of uppers should be done due to high load area on a slightly undersized bushing. Ball joints where in pretty good shape for age and if a person could have slipped a boot on them as they started to rot they would still be usable today, the broken boots had accelerated wear. I don't think you could have separated the lower ball joints without damaging them. Top shocks mounts obviously not engineered to last for 20 years, if not replaced already they need to be in a car of this age. Lower shock bushing worth an inspection at every reason to have the tire off, as it is another heavy load area if you are still original shocks.
Full day of wrenching today.

 

Tex, Have a good day and be safe.
Thanks for the info as we spend (wasted) at lot of time getting the plates right.
Not only that but we paid $40 more for just the kit.
Do they know how big Jon89 is??? (6'8") Gentle Giant. LOL
You must be pleased with all your efforts, as we are all enjoying your the journey.\


Wayne

 

Pressed in new shock bottom bushing. Edges where very sharp so chamfered the side I was going to press from during surface clean up. Used my 30mm 1/2 socket to press that happened to be a perfect size, just had to take time to neatly tuck the rubber into socket while aligning for press. Brunch break....

New one looks good.




One old was had lots of slack, this one was still in decent shape except rubber was all gone and contamination would have killed it soon.

 

Welsh should put their Poly Shock mounts on their website for $160 shipped (and not just the standard ones or just the poly "kits")

Good find. I didn't even think to check E-bay and ordered direct from Welsh for more.

 

So when I went out to work after lunch and I changed my mind realizing I had more room to work on engine mounts if I did them now. Right side top nut off in 10 minutes with taking off air cleaner, left side top nut made me take a break and read some threads again. Then just when I thought I had an excuse to buy more tools I went back to the tool box again and stood looking at what I had drawer after drawer, and there it was staring back at me like...hey stupid here I am. I had bought this wrench out of desperation some 15-20 years ago when faced with a difficult location. Worked like a charm, since I have the steering rack out I was working from below and able to use leverage against the body and like cutting butter it was loose in about 30 seconds after trying to figure it out for over an hour. Dropped on the HF engine support and lifted the engine enough to get both mounts out, oddly I had to lift another 1/2 inch to get the new ones in. So now my engine sits at least that much higher, which probably added to the reason why I have some nice curb rash on the oil pan. I had previously dropped the steering rack so I have a total of about 4 hours this afternoon to do engine mounts, both sway bar bushings, and hang the struts. When I installed the engine mounts I finger tightened the nut on while engine was lifted. Oh one word on lowering the engine on to mounts, before you are completely loose on support lift make sure you are aligned on the bottom engine mount bolts, took mine off and had to reinstall to get bolt in.

Then I owed the wife some time.... as she has been feeling neglected so I took off early and bargain for 12-4 tomorrow for car time.


S shaped wrench did the trick with 19/32 being just about the same as the 15mm nut, the way the engine bracket is made I couldn't get a ratchet on it. Tried everything else I had...Murphy's Law




HF engine mount worked like a charm. See support bracket closest to head light. Looking at install of support lift the fender lip has some space between it and inner fender, so I used a piece of metal bracket I had leftover to fill the gap, don't know if it is really needed but made sense.




Well both mounts were toast the left side was really hard to see failure when in the car. I bet this is the reason I felt shake when foot on break and in gear.


May try my hand at the power steering rack and cooler hose tomorrow.

 

Tex,
Your descriptions of this front end rebuild are excellent. I need to do my front shock mounts and reading your writeup and looking at the pictures is getting me motivated to jump back on the car Thanks much

 

See Tex, I told you "you are making this look to easy". LOL
Job well done.


Wayne

 

Hi Rich,
Thanks for the comment, I found forums are a great way to learn all kinds of stuff and sharing is what makes it work for all. I read all I can find and put the best bits of information together to come up with a best how to.

I took many more photos along the way just to help me if I ever buy another one and need to do this again, be happy to share more photos if you have a question. Not to say I am old and forgetful, but I will admit that if it were 2 years later I would probably read my own post and review all pics to reduce my what fits the press cups. If I were going to do just my top mounts, and hadn't done the top bushings in the last 5 years or more than 30K miles I would change them while I had them out. Easy swap once out and the rear one must take a lot of pressure during braking. Once it starts to break down water enters and rust begins which makes the job much harder later. I would also change the bump stop, of course mine where 19 years old but had lost 1/3 of height.
I used the HF spring tool just because after shopping it seemed to offer a little more safety factor over the little two separate style tool. It was a bit of a pain to use but I was not worried about loosing my head when spring was compressed.

I wish I had a reference point to the shock tops mine where shot when I purchase the car, so I have no idea what the ride with oem style are like. My guess at doing shock top and upper wishbone bushings would be about 3 hours max if you don't run into stuck upper wishbone. Look closely at bolt between the two bushings, you should ensure it is clean prior to starting the removal of bolt. You should be able to spin and polish the bolt with sand paper once nut is off. I think it is the rust on the bolt that makes it a hard job for some.

Well going to try to figure out the steering rack today, I have a gates kit that is for 99-02 that is supposed to also be the right seals for my 97. I am thinking it is just the top seal as it wasn't gushing fluid but wet enough to be a dip after test drive. Guess worst case I will be ordering a rebuilt unit for a next weekend install. Will try to get to PS cooler hose and reservoir to pump hose to complete all new hoses.

 

I can vouch for the fact that all new shocks and shock mount bushings vastly improve the handling and comfort on my wife's 2006 XK8. Wayne and I did the rear shock job in October 2014 and the front shock job in January 2016. The car just turned 100,000 miles two days ago. It rides and handles much better than it did when we acquired it in February 2012 at 36,000 miles. It is my wife's daily driver, and she loves it just as much now as she did the night it rolled off the transport truck bringing it to her from Florida....

 

Hi Guys,
Well I got the new PS cooler hose in and the one from the reservoir to pump.

I unbolted the reservoir so it had some slack, plastic take care not to break. That little hose from tank to pump was a piece of work. Must have been original and hard as a rock, I couldn't separate from the pump without cutting it off, was just about to move to swear words when I reached from my pvc cutter and cut out the reservoir tank free giving me some room to work.
The cooler hose was easier than I would have guessed, I used a 3/8 fuel line disconnect to separate it from the metal line in seconds took longer to walk to tool box. Two rubber insulators in some squeeze clamps behind the grill can be handled from under car, you can use a finger to pull down on clamp and push up metal line on pretty obvious R&R where hose goes past radiator on both side. Mine has been leaking for year it looks like.
Started hanging the wishbones got both lowers and one upper in place when I ran out of time. The lowers are now much tighter fit than when removing, with just enough clearance to get them pushed in. The one upper I put in of course made me want to quit as the bolt wanted to hang on second bushing set pushing the long metal sleeve inside the bushing. Very tight tolerances on these. Getting close to getting her wheels back on....Exciting.
I cleaned the steering rack getting ready to rebuild, and came to the conclusion that it wasn't that wet around the pinion and it might have just still been dripping from some little recesses around the top of pinion. When I changed the pump to rack hose it was spraying like crazy and fluid was every where, I just did a drive a couple of blocks and returned to house. I am going to bolt it back in and pressure it up before breaking it. At least now I should be able to see exactly where it is leaking from. Swapped out the tie rod ends to some nice new ones, and cleaned up the rack mount threads.

Just in case if anyone has fixed a slow leak at pinion please feel free to give me some advice on this one. I have a Gates rebuild kit for 99-02 that is suppose to be the right kit and looking at the package it seems like lots of parts to me. I was hoping to just reseal the pinion and fix my problem, if it still exists.

Oh one quick thought...My parts boxes are all empty, what to buy next

 

Finally got out of the office early enough to work a couple of hours and Murphy's Law stuck....again. The old ball joints all had 12mm 1.5 thread and of course my new ones were different. Not an easy find 12mm 1.75 locking pinch head flange nuts. After two auto parts stores and Ace being no go I found them at Home Depot except not flange so I went with some washers. Got both knuckles hung in about 30 minutes, using a clamp on the uppers to get the bolt part of ball to grab and not spin and on the bottom used leverage between lower wishbone and knuckle to force some pressure, then bumped it with the impact. Time to put a jack under the wishbone and push it up a little then torque up the wishbones bushings. Back to the steering rack next, trying to convince myself I should change the pinion gear bushing while it is out.


sprayed a little paint on things to inhibit the rust, every bushing is now completely tight with no movement.

 

Hi All,
I benched the steering rack and took off the centering dust cap, and it was all dry around the shaft so I decided to reinstall and give it a try. Looks good so far with quick engine start test. I did a string wheel alignment to find they must have been out with way to much toe when I bought it, probably from alignment with all the worn parts. Lucky for me the center of the wheel had left tire on perfect line with fraction of tow in, so removed over toe from left side.

Completed the balance of things under the wheel well and dropped her back on her wheels. I am happy to report I have a very even side to side 15 1/2 inch measure center to wheel arch, SWEET. Moral of this story is don't be too quick to think springs must be sagging because I without a doubt got over an inch of lift with the rebuild, most coming from top shock mount.

When purchased I had a known slow leak on right front chrome revolver, funny it was one of the better looking of my tired old wheels. Did a soap test to find it bubbling in 8 spots, marked all. Took my wheel down to the local Wally World and they fixed me up for under $10 with a fresh valve stem. After removing tire I took wheel out to the parking lot for a tail gate party. Using a screw driver to knock off the heaviest of the corrosion and loose chrome where the bead of tire sits, then used some 220 grit sand paper and a fiber wheel on my cordless drill, and had a fairly smooth surface. I asked them to give it a coat of bead sealant prior to mounting tire, another issue repaired with no more bubbles. Gave the two front wheels some quick face lift while they where off. Used brake clean with a small brush, some red compound on a rag followed by some wax to help seal. Can't remove a big ole spot of corrosion, but wow what a difference.

Happy I got to the bottom of my cardboard boxes that I placed all my nuts and bolts in as I took them off with no extra parts
Will be giving it all one more good review to be sure everything looks good and some degreasing from old PS quick connect leak and take her out for a drive today. Will add a photo later when I get some decent light.


Biggest surprise so far was the engine mounts being bad and dropping the entire engine over 1/2 inch, from underneath looking at where it now sits I would say if you are noticing any scrapes on the lower pan you better take a look at mounts.


I got a new toy in the mail this week, a borescope that will work with some android phones or any laptop that will use usb camera. For a little over $15 bucks on ebay, I think we all need one of these things. It will come in handy for my next job which is looking around the firewall side of engine for my oil leaks.

 

Fixed low beam head light bulb that was out and a rear side marker bulb. Off to get her inspected in the morning. Used my borescope on the head light work, wow what a difference being able to see what you are doing and being able to inspect the final work. Had my laptop sitting beside me and holding camera cable in position I was able to watch the laptop while I worked in a blind and dark place. I will post a video so you can see quality if I can get youtube to let me. Here is a still frame from the video


Absolutely amazing difference doing something like this. A must have tool for the price

 

Well had some fun since last post.
Had several days in a row of rain so I took the car down to the local car wash and remove all the loose clear coat, now about 95% clean on hood and trunk top surface.
Inspected and licensed so did some 60mph runs and all feels good in the front suspension.

Picked up some oem lug nuts so everything is properly getting tight.

Found small leaks around water pump and water outlet pipe so purchase both and the short hose to thermostat for installation tomorrow. Going to do a full flush and fresh coolant. Should be safe for short drive at that point. Gathering parts for valve cover leaks and new secondary tensioner swap if not already done when I get in there.

 

Water pump and pipe went well. All is fixed. I had two issues, the water pipe was probably cracking due to age and both my motor mounts were broken allowing way to much stress with movement. The water pump was one of the newer style with only a paper gasket no O-Ring and the outlet part was all metal and not finished well. Not sure what name brand it was looked like several I have seen on posts, plastic blades looked good. Not really sure anything was wrong with it except the middle paper gasket was wet when running although it could have been the leaking outlet pipe.

The PO had a water pump put on not that long ago by some mechanics she seemed to think were good, I won't say the shop name but offer some advice about doing this yourself or letting someone else do it for you.

Here is the bad part of letting someone else work on your car. They didn't use new gaskets on the water pipe and made a mess with all the sealant they used on the water pump and pipe. There was pieces in hanging on in the water passages of both WP and Pipe. You can also see pieces stuck to the blades of the old water pipe, so it probably circulated some in the system, who knows where it all is stuck.

So I absolutely hate finding stuff like this, I don't know if it is my luck or people just don't take pride it the work they do. It drives me crazy that someone pays a good price for parts and labor only to get sub-par work.

If you find a good mechanic that does work at a decent price, be sure to say thanks and tip him. Let him know you value the work he does.

No matter who does the work look closely at what they have done as there are usually signs like in my case where sealant was mashed out of every joint.

So dull putting knife to scrape all the sealant, and a pulled some out by finger inside the block side. Scotch brite all the surfaces to get them clean to sight and finger.

I like to use some of the old coolant as a lube on all the hoses and O-ring in this case. Cleaned inner surfaces of hoses as well with scotch brite to be sure surface was clean and smooth.

The new AC Delco pump looks like the install described in the JTIS and in my opinion is a better mating surface style than the one I removed.

Outlet pipe was a perfect fit and the new gaskets in it made a great fit.



The white you see on impeller are bits of sealant that must have circulated in the system.




The block side also had sealant in the water passage.




The new one that has a fiber part protruding that had an O-Ring that sealed like the original. Nice metal gasket with a rubberized ring around the two outer passages.

 

Next up all the gaskets for the cam cover, and new secondary tensioners just in case they are original, are all on order for next mechanic session. Got to stop the occasional oil drip on the exhaust.

Took the car out for the first long drive, running really smooth and so much fun to cruise through the country side with the top down. Very pleased with the car so far. What a great car for the price, be it a steal of a price like mine is turning out to be or paying a decent price for one that is already a real creme puff. I am hooked...

 

I did the secondary tensioners today as I found they were the first gen tensioners. I had oil leaks from cam covers on both sides so geared up with all the parts to take care of things once I had them opened up.

Here is what I found on the tensioners, on both sides the spring side had lost the plastic shoe some time ago and had some fair chain marks wearing into them. One tensioner would not spring and seemed to be stuck at full extension. The other one seems like the spring was broken or at minimum weakened some how. Both had very minor cracks starting.

As many on the forum have said the moral of the story is if they haven't been changed they need to be. Funny thing is there were no signs of rough idle or noise from chains.

I used the tie wrap method of removing and reinstalling the exhaust cam, and it works. Thanks to those that have posted the method and offered there experiences.

Although it a minor things I could add a couple of comments on the method. I did not need to remove the expansion tank or loose any coolant. A handy thing to show up with are some twist ties, had some left over from trash bags and they work great to hold back the wiring as you disconnect things, a quick twist to windshield wiper or other hose keeps them out of the way. I was able to get all the bolts out using 1/4 drive swivel, and extensions just take your time on the few in bad spots, 1/4 ratchet directly at shock towers.

Final result is all is running good and I just need to figure out a fix for the coil covers as my valve covers no longer have the nut fitting in place.

 

You will need to remove the oil pan and check the intake screen for the pump, the plastic bits will be residing there.

 

I had read that at some point about plastic ending up in oil pan. Lucky me I already have a newer pan I bought for the car. PO had both engine mounts bad long enough to have about 1/2 inch drop in engine, this lead to more scratches on the pan near oil plug. Some were so bad that I worried another good hit to spill oil so it was the first thing I bought for the car. Now I need to buy the gasket and get ready for my next oil change. PO had just changed the oil so trying to get past all the work that may be contaminating the oil before doing that swap. Funny you mention it as the used pan came in with a small piece of the plastic still inside from the donor car, it may have been what ended its life.

 

With the help from suggestions from some guys on another post last night I glued the brass nuts for the coil covers back into the valve covers with JB weld. Used a nut a little larger than the bolt so only 4 threads would insert into nut, along with some anti-seize allowed me to apply glue and then turn the nut into valve cover and still be able to remove the bolt. Allowed them to cure overnight and bolted things back together this morning. I used some peel and stick foam gasket that I had from putting the camper shell on the truck, just had to cut a thin strip and put it around one of the covers that had been put on with gasket silicon due to loose nuts and failing failing gasket. All looks good after a little simple green clean up.
Time to start working on painting and interior fixes. I have something that needs fixing with left door glass from poor replacement of regulator by mechanic hired by PO, door panel loose I am sure that is going to be some fun trying to piece it back together correctly.