Welsh shock top mounts. What can you say. Mine are 2.5 years old with less than 3K miles on them. Worthless.



The forum suggestions to contact Wayne Tate for his new top mounts was a winner. I dreaded doing this job again
as it did not go smoothly last time. My fears were well founded. Car up and get started;


Both upper A arm pivot bolts were brutally difficult to get out. I did the right side first and just getting this bolt out took me three hours. It was well lubricated from the anti-seize I put on it 2 years ago and I could turn them by hand but they would not move laterally. At Waynes suggestion I put an air chisel against the bolt head and it finally backed out a millimeter or two at a time. Even the last 3 inches required the chisel to push it out. The other side took over two hours to remove and I found this:


My guess is this thin washer was jammed in each bolt thread as it backed out. The sledge hammer finally broke the washer.
I flattened it and re used it on assembly.

Day two got the drivers side bolt out and took a break for lunch. Came back an hour later to find this:

My 3 year old Twin Busch scissor lift had an “UP” hose leak at a fitting:



It seems to have set the car down softly as the only damage to be found was dented rotor dust shields. Pulled out the
old fashioned jacks and jack stands and lifted the car enough to get a wheel on the right side (I had already installed the new
mount on that side) and a jack stand under the drivers side and press on.

I knew this time around to have two pairs of spring compressors ready and did use all four on both springs to get them squeezed
down enough to safely try and remove the top mounts. Removed the center shock nut and of course neither mount would come off the spring. More prying and hammering and no luck.

Wayne again saved the day. He suggested I drill off the top layer of the mount:


This exposed the inner plate that had been jammed onto the the shock rod because all the rubber had disintegrated out
of the mount. Note the crumbles. Both were shot:



Luckily I had a puller that fit this job to a tee. You can never have too many tools. Note the socket used to protect the shock rod.



A few turns of the puller and the mounts finally came off the spring.

The rest was straightforward. Dropped Waynes new top mounts onto the spring and snugged the nut down:



Install was the reverse, as they say, and much easier. Once both shocks were in I took the car for a drive and then torqued
up the three upper mount nuts. My car now officially looks and drives awesome!

I called Twin Busch on Monday and to their credit a new hydraulic line is on the way. To be fair I had the lift holding the car about
18 inches above the ground which is below the lowest lock position so when the line failed it slowly lowered the car.

In any case the job is finished although almost none of it went as planned. Welsh gets all the blame and Wayne gets
all the kudos and my many thanks as well.

Neil

 

I've battled so many seized Upper Wishbone fulcrum bolts over the years, I always replaced them with new.

It's a while since I did one and I see the cost from Berkshire Jag Components has jumped to 29 UKP and British Parts list them at 20 UKP. S N G Barratt (US) has OE at 75 USD or aftermarket at 24 USD.

Graham

 

Well done. During the course of the past year or so, Wayne has gradually become the leading XK8 / XKR shock mount expert on the planet. If / when my late-2015 Welsh shock mounts begin to fail, the only replacements I would trust would be Wayne's custom design. I wish we knew exactly what happened with the Welsh components being sold by mid-2016. I strongly believe they changed materials or fabricators (or both) in a cost-cutting move, but they refuse to acknowledge the ever-increasing failures. I wonder how many sets of these things they sell per year now vs. five or six years ago. As word gets around, I would expect their sales to decline significantly....

 

Thank you Neil, Jon and all who have been a part of this adventure.
I really didn't mean for this to turn into a job and so far am keeping up with request.
Most of the initial information is there in the long thread but because of the different bell shapes that have been replaced over the years, it does require some tweaking for a good fit. That is where Baxtor (Steve) is helping. Between us, he has poured some rubber mounts that incorporated his and mine best ideas.
I do use what he can supply, but the cost from Australia and the time laps puts a strain on any large amount of parts. Until we can sort that out, I'll just keep using the Energy Suspension parts and cutting rubber spring pads from stock sheets of the correct hardness. Thanks to Dale we did have that tested.
Anyway, job well done Neil and glad you didn't get hurt with the jack failure.

 

Wayne thanks again for being available (on a weekend as well) and offering constructive suggestions
to a frustrated DIYer.

 

I can see replacing them if they were rusted and seized. These were still in good condition, smooth and not corroded. I also rolled them on the edge of a piece of glass I keep in my shop for flat surface sanding. Straight as an arrow. They went back in fairly smoothly although I did have to tap them a bit.

 

I've never seen one that wasn't rusted but we live in very different climates.

Graham

 

Doesn't the lifting devise have MECHANICAL LOCKS on it?

All the hydraulic lifts I have or have ever worked with in the last 40+ years had mechanical locks.
To lower the car, you have to disengage the locks on them. (scary if you are under it and the hydraulic fluid leaks)

 

He mentioned that it wasn't high enough to engage the lock.

 

I was gonna ask that. This would be an item to put in my thread from a while ago about safety tips you use in the garage. I never trust the hydraulics alone. I use tripod type jack stands under the arms of my lift. No chastising here just concerned for a fellow forum member. Something could have been put in there to support the lift. Thanks goodness you weren't under there when it failed, even slowly. TM

 

I initially had the car up high enough to engage one of the lower locks. See picture above. I did not have a way to support the weight of the rotor and caliper from underneath when the car was that high up. So I lowered the car to a point where the jack would reach and support the assembly after I removed the A arm pivot bolt. In retrospect I could have used wire or bungees or rope to accomplish this and then raise the car to a comfortable height that was at least above the first lock.

I have been under the car dozens of times but always with the locking ratchet engaged in one of its six or seven positions. This leak is a disappointment because I would like to think things like this are over built, stronger than it would ever need to be. I will be checking for leaks every….single….time prior to using it from now on.

Lastly I will mention a significant point for anyone integrating a lift into their garage. In an effort to keep my garage looking neatly done I put the control stand in between a table on one side and a work bench on the other. You can see both of them in the picture above of the leaky fitting although the table has been moved so I could get back there. It really looked very flush and organized. Unfortunately it also prevented me from seeing the hydraulic oil tank and lines on the back and also hid ALL of the liquid puddle that was accumulating behind and under the table. These lift control carts should be placed in a spot where the is room enough on both sides to keep an eye on the tank level and catch any developing leaks early. I will be moving mine to an open section of wall after the line is replaced.