Tearing down the jag IFS in my 1951 Ford F1 for rebuild and have some questions I hope someone can answer. IFS is from a 1986 XJ6. What is the correct way to get the lower control arms off? Is the shaft that runs through the crossmember supposed to slide out towards the front or the rear? Right now mine may be rusted to the bushings and need some persuasion to come out and I dont want to ruin it. Also my left side spindle stub is junk, has a lot of wear marks where the wheel bearings ride. The spindle stub is bolted on to the steering upright, does anyone know if it is the same part for the left and right side? I can get a good used rigth side one but need to know if I can use it on the left side. Lastly for now how do the brake pads come out of the caliper? I have the calipers off the truck and the pads are still in them.
the long lower control arm bolt can only come out one way. take the cotter pin out, back the nut to the end of the threads to keep from beating the threads to death(my neighbor is probably gonna have to buy a new one for his left side as he beat the shit out of it with no nut instead of coming and asking me how to get it out) spraying some sort of lube in there will help with getting it out but they can be tough. whatever you do try to avoid beating the hell out of it like he did. i've only found the replacment 1 place and that bolt is $40. i guess we see why his donor front had a rebuilt rack, new upper control arm bushings and most of the other components replaced but the lowers are still the beat originals. i'm going from memory but i beleive the bolt is supposed to come out from the back, but i've seen one in from the other way i think. for the spindle stub i'm not sure. if it's just grooved you can usually polish it and as long as you bearing still fits with no interfirence call it good. i've pulled a dozen or so of those calipers and the pads have always slid out(to the inside). again i told the neighbor to break down the crossmember and what to do and instead of just removing the caliper from the spindle he also removed the bolts holding the caliper together. guess he's gonna learn to put all that back together also. i'm doing xjs ifs and irs in his '52 f1....
oh and the best pricing i've seen on the parts involved are from a regular seller on ebay. he sells stock type control arm bushings and ball joints as a kit for a little over $200... don't fall for the overpriced reman racks on ebay and most online places. your local advance auto(and others) can get them for $200-250 with lifetime warranty. i've got a commercial account and theres 2 different remans my local can get A1 cardon 2 day to get $196. I forget who the other was from but it was $178 but takes 2-4 weeks....
Thanks, I got all my rebuild stuff from rockauto, actually had good prices on the stuff. I am hoping not to have to replace the rack but wont know until the truck is on the road. I think I will try an air hammer on the bolt, might be better than the BFH but whatever works will do. Can you tell me who supplies the lower control arm bolt in case I end up needing one? I almost split my calipers too until I figured out just what bolts were holding them on the spindle.
My lower control arm fulcrum was so rusted, I had to use a large sledge hammer to persuade the shaft out. It cam out mushroomed with the bushings still attached. It took quite a pounding to get it out. I'd try some penetrant over night too. The lower fulcrum pin is still available from SNG Barret. They are an excellent company to do business with. If it matters to you the ZF rack from a 95 XJS is a better rack and a bolt in. Prior to that the racks were Adwest. The ZF rack is dimensionally the same as an 86 rack but is much lighter and has improved road feel. The seals are know to last much longer too. Aston Martin used the ZF rack in the DB7 too. I'd strongly suggest a power steering oil cooler and inline filter. Jag did use a small power eering fluid cooler.
i'll have to dig the link for the bolt back up. i know i saved it but i have alot of jag parts links hahaha. i need to start labeling them as to what part i saved them for hahaha....
Thank you, that is great information on the steering rack upgrade, I know the earlier units have a reputation for leaking. I checked the SNG Barratt website and they have downloadable parts catalogs which are great, found the PN Lower fulcrum pin C30722, superceded to another PN....$125 each! Hope there is another supplier.
Getting that LCA "fulcrum shaft" out can be a bitch. I bought a '86 Jag front end that had been in a serious accident leaving the xmember unusable; but it was bought with that understanding. The shaft does indeed exit the rear of the xmember. Don't try turning the large hex nut CW to try to free it up....it may end up stripping the threads. The hex nut is threaded on then the end of the shaft is swaged to lock it up. So, even turning it CCW will probably damage it too. After unsuccessfully trying penetrating oil, etc; I ended up cutting a hole in the bottom sheet metal to gain access to the tube that the shaft "slides" into. (HA!) Then ground the middle of the tube away until I could see the shaft. Took a chisel and opened up the tube to get some penetrant in. Let it soak for a coupla days, but it still didn't want to come out. Fought it for quite some time and added some heat....finally came loose enough to pound it out using a brass drift and 2# hammer. Threaded end was OK, but I did run the hex nut onto it just as "luckystiff" advises. The right side was even worse (last pic). On both sides, the rubber bushing separated from the inner sleeve. These pictures show just what can be an extreme situation and I would hope that no one has to go this route just to get those damn fulcrum shafts out. If the IFS in your F1 is as rusted tight as this one, you may want to drop the whole unit out and get it on a bench to work on it. Would recommend anti-seize when assembling. Did a little sandblasting of the LCA forgings and primered them. Was able to save the shafts intact. Made a pull-in tool to install new bushings. They end up being centered in the eye of the LCA forging. Used some dry silicon spray when installing them, which works really well.
The front spindle shafts are interchangeable. Front pads: You have to remove the 2 pad retaining pins in order to remove the pads. As Luckystiff mentioned, you slide them out to the inside.
Holy crap I hope I dont have to deal with that, I am starting to think I should leave the old bushings in place. Found a few place with the bolt, around $30 to $40 each. Also are there bushings inside the crossmember as well on the lower control arm? If so I will have to order those as well as the bolt.
no bushings inside the xmember if the LCA bushings are going to be replaced, the UCA bushings should be as well. (then ball-joints ?) pic of the LCA fulcrum shaft and inner sleeve of the old bushing which separated from the rubber, ....it took alot more persuasion to get the RT fulcrum shaft out. And the RT side UCA a'y
Great pics, they are a big help. My upper control arm bushings look like new so I am leaving them alone, but I bought new ball joints, rod ends, and LCA bushings. This is a build in progress and now that all the fab work is done on the chassis I am taking it all apart for paint and the front end rebuild.
Left side shaft came out pretty easily, looks like the bushings were replaced not too long ago, but they have cracks on the outer exposed rubber. Right side is not moving, looks like this one will be a problem. I am worried about hurting the crossmember by beating on the bolt, how hard are you guys slamming this thing? I have a small 5 lb sledge and a large drift punch to use but so far no movement. Looks like the bolt is siezed to at least the front bushing so would it help to burn out the bushing? Do the new bushings just press into the arms or any special info needed?
It could very well be that the shaft is seized to the bushing; but could also still be seized to the xmember tube. (FWIW, & IIRC, the shaft is nominally 13/16") If the rubber is gone, yes you can cut the sleeve off the shaft. Sometimes just layin' a cutting torch on its side and skim-cut the bushing along the length till it pops loose.....you can kinda tell when it lets go. I don't think that'll hurt the shaft if you plan on reusing it. Another method is to use a bushing chisel. Once the bushing sleeve is off, then you can tell if the shaft is still seized. I only used a 2# hammer and a hefty brass drift; but I don't think you'll hurt or distort the xmember by layin' into it.....would be a good idea to "buck" it. Regardless, use plenty of penetrant and give it some time. Something you might try short of blasting a big-ass hole in the bottom like I did, is to drill a rather large hole (like with a hole-saw) somewhat centered on the width of the xmember and eye-ball it inline to the fulcrum shaft & tube. Once drilled, you should be able to see the tube inside. Then drill a small hole (like 1/8") into the tube to get some penetrant in there, being careful not to drill too far, although it's probably not a big deal if the drill goes into the shaft a bit. If you use a big enough hole-saw, you could also get a torch tip in there and heat things up a bit.
Good info and timely for me. If anyone has a pair of decent front springs for one of these front ends that they don't need let me know what you want for them. The guy who I got my front end from was going to bag it and decided to go in another direction with the front end on his Square body Dodge.
One thing you should always replace on a Jag front end is the steering rack bushings, and replace them with urethane, not rubber. This is a known weak point, and the harder bushings will improve steering response by quite a bit. For front springs, make sure you get the six-cylinder versions; the V12 are too much. You can get 'conversion' springs here if you can't find a set.... http://www.jaguarspecialties.com/Prices-V8Conversion.asp
Steve, Are those conversion springs just standard XJ6 springs? That is what I have and right now with the F1 frame assembled with the engine, trans, and empty cab the upper control arms are barely off the bump stops. If these were conventional springs I would take off a coil, but they have squared off ends that obviously would be gone on one end if I cut a coil. How are you guys dealing with these springs? My rack bushings were oil soaked and junk but I already bought the replacement rubber ones. Hoping they are good enough to use since I dont plan on having them get soaked again. The hole saw idea is a good one to get the torch in there to heat up the tube. I bet with some heat the bolt would come out pretty easy. Gatz thanks again for the info. I am trying the penetrating oil first to see if I can free up the bushing, if not I will burn out the rubber and go from there.
Those lower control arm bolts do become seized in the crossmember. When they are like that the best thing to do is to take the crossmember out of the vehicle. Unfortunately this means removing the engine or otherwise supporting it. To drive out the seized bolt requires a hollow punch so the load is on the shoulder of the bolt and not the threads. I had one of these made up for the job. Then apply some heat to the crossmember in the area of the bolt. Then start with a 4lb. hammer on the punch. When I did this I had an assistant to hold the torch to keep the heat going whilst I started to hit the bolts. This resulted in both bolts coming out and both capable of being reused without damage to the threaded area. They don't have to be badly rusted to seize up. When assembling put plenty of copper/graphite based anti seize compound on the bolts.
Here goes. The dimensions are as follows: Length 6 1/2" O.D. 0.809" I.D. 0.585 Bore Depth 1.387" Best to use a high grade steel that can be hardened and tempered. Mild steel is too soft.
Well I got the right side bolt out but had to sacrifice it to do it. The bolt was siezed to the front control arm bushing and would not let go of the sleeve. I burned out the rubber and heated the sleeve directly, NG. Had to remove the large hex head on the back of the bolt which trashed the threads when it came off, but the bolt was not siezed to the rear bushing or crossmember and I was able to drive the bolt out towards the front. Replacement bolt is on the way and will be replacing all the control arm bushings. The old control arm bushings do not have an outer sleeve, they were rubber with only a metal sleeve in the center. Is this how the replacements are? Must be easy to push them in place with no outer metal sleeve.
That's how my replacement bushings came. I used a 10 ton press and still had a tuff time getting them in... I centered the bushings in the eye of the lower A-arm, but had to use a grinder to trim the insides a little as I trial fitted the arm back on. Could not get the inside washers back on without trimming. New bushings may have been a little longer?
It's not that difficult to get those bushings into the LCA I made a cup bushing that has an ID somewhat larger than the rubber with a draw bolt. The Silicone Dry spray does wonders to get the rubber to squeeze in. I pulled the bushings in until they were centered on the ring portions of the LCA. the 8 3/16" dimension is what the original x-member tube had the old worn bushing (below) and the replacements & fulcrum shaft laid out BTW, anyone got one of these layin around? It's the front sway bar mounting bracket.....the front end I got had one missing. I really like how the picture posting works now.....THANKS RYAN !!
I turned down and bored out a short steel pin 20 thousands under to fit the threaded end of the bolt welded it to a cheep HF 2 ton jack chained it to the cross member put a heavy wood 4 X 4 on the opposite side to protect the control arm gave it several pumps and soaked it over nite with Krol it poped loose the next day on the first pump of the jack saw this done in a UK repair shop no real hammering involved other than to finish tapping it the rest of the way out.
You didnt happen to take any pictures of this setup did you? Putting a jag IFS into a 41 cadillac and both lower control arm bolts are stuck solid. I love these jag setups but these bolts are a real pain in the ass.
Many thanks to all the posters who contributed to this thread. Countless people will get the benefit of your experience over time, even if they are mostly lurkers. I'll put your knowledge to good use on my current project. It's my first time messing with suspension swaps, and it's a great challenge, with dreams of smooth rides in the future.
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