Suspension 101 questions

[400TT]

1. If you pulled those top arms apart and sit the pivot end flat on the ground(with hole facing up) and measure up to where they bend at the end where the ball joint mounts, both arms measure the same that way. The way you are measuring them will always be affected by those bushes. According to the jag manual this is how you determine if they are still straight.

2. That's where the camber adjusting shims go. Personally how close does the camber look, it would be nice if those spacers were cut out on one side so they could be slide off without removing the mounting bolts. When you take it for a wheel alignment they are fit appropriate sized shims that just slide in.

3. Yep, just buy a nut for that steering linkage, so you can tighten it against the end of the tie-rod end. As you guessed.

4. New upper ball joints don't have any play. Also new lower jag ball joints don't seem to need shimming any longer, they are non-shim ball joints now. Well mine were not shim ones.

5. I think you can just replace the boot over that steering joint. What brand/model column & rack are you using out of interest? I don't think you can get those upper control arm ball joint boots separately, but sounds if those joints were 2nd hand and ordinary anyway. New ones would be a good idea. They range in price from $50 - $80ea depending on where you buy and the quality of the joints you buy. I hope you have also or will buy new wheel bearings etc.

Have I missed anything.

Also make sure you have castle nuts/nylon lock nuts on all those suspension bolts & steering bolts things like tie rod ends, steering rack mount bolts, steering uni bolts etc etc. If they don't have nuts(bolts only), make sure you use spring washers e.g. caliper mounting bolts, tie-rod arm bolt etc.

[Rebel1]

What Craig said plus:

1. Series 1 jag upper arms are handed..ie., a front one and a rear one. If you're not sure what you have send me your email and I'll send you some pages from the Jag manual.

What lower arm do you have?. Series 1 is different to series 11. They should be from the same series.

2. Toss the jag spacers and use hardened washers to set your camber. when you're got it right you can machine up some solid spacers.

Advice: Get all new ball joints and rubber bushes.

Don't torque the lower a-arm pivot shaft until car weight is on the front end.

Spend time getting the camber right....You might find the car handles better with a slight neg camber whilst driving straight.

Dunno about the g-force but the RMC needs a spacer between the steering rack and chassis. ie.....lower the rack so the steering arm and lower a-arm are somewhat parallel and move thru the same arc.

Best of luck