Jaguar front suspension

[boxhead]

Hello again to all the people in the nut house.
Here I am with yet another question to the Classic Revival builders.
Here is a link to a picture of my front upper control arms (dont know how to make the pic appear in a thread) http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/s...cat=500&page=1

Can anyone go and look at there upper arms and tell me if they look the same?
I am worried that the springs will contact the upper arms where they tapper inward.

I have my springs and shockies here but it is late at night and I have had a BIG day and the last thing I feel like doing is staying at work even if it is playin with MY car.

My fear is that since I bought my front end without seeing the car it came from that it is not a series 3 even though it has the large 4 piston calipers.

Thanks in advance for all and any help.

Tomorrow is my day off so I will be at work early fitting my shockies and makeing the rear shockie mounts (I have bought the shorter shockies and will fit the shocks upright so I can fit big wheels if needed.

[Mando]

Hi Boxhead, top A arms dont look like series 3 but I could be wrong. My shockers just touch the A arm when car is raised on hoist. Under normal conditions shockers clear easilly. I didnt think they could when I first started bolting everything up. Regards Mando.

[Aussie Mike]

Hi Mando,

Good to see you posting in here. As Leeroy, Phil and me were saying, there's a ton of useful info here and some smart guys who have found and fixed all the problems before.

David, those arms look like series 2 but Jaguar chopped and changed a bit in the different models. I think it was a case of what was available in the parts bin.

Here's a picture of my upper arm which is the straight one. Upper Arm

I think you will only have contact at full droop and that's just on the bosses for the bump stops. Remember though you will still have some shims in the back to set your camber and that will move the arm further away from the shock.

The real clearace area to look at is the pivot bar. for the upper arm. I milled a chamfer into the edge of mine to make a bit more clearance for the spring. I'll try to remember to take a picture on the week end to show you what I mean.

Cheers

[boxhead]

Thanks for the reply's guys.

And welcome to Mando, I see we have another Classic Revival amongst us.

How far into your build are you Mando?

Got any pics for us?

[Mando]

Hi Boxhead, hope to get some early pictures on by next week. Ive sent some to Aussie Mike who has been kind enough to post them for me because Ive got no idea about computers. Im nearly ready for paint and Ive just got approval for 5.0L, stroker, alum heads, fuel rails and twin throttle bodies. Its taken some time. Regards Mando.

[boxhead]

I have added some new pics to my gallery showing what I achieved in a few short hours today.
I have modified the B&M shifter to fit the T56 and it works perfectly when I get the body on I will work out how much I want to shorten the shifter.

The rear springs and shockies are all fitted after I made the lower mounts, I made the mounts so that the mounting point for the shockie is further inboard than as shown in the build manual.
I did this as Aussie Mike advises it is needed to fit larger wheels.

I still couldnt get the front spring/shockies in.
The front upper control arm contacts the spring way before the arm is anywhere near where it needs to be, there is alot of clearance at the rear arm.
Does anyone know (before I try) if the L/H side and R/H side arms are different? could I have fitted them wrong?
Also I didnt think to measure before I left the car at work, is the upper control arm inner mounting stub different for L/H side versus R/H side?
Because I was just thinking if I have fitted it wrong then that might move the whole assy forward approx 1/2 inch then I will have clearance at both arms.
I dont want to re-drill the holes as this will change the caster set into the front end.

Any way have a look and tell me what you think, I am happy

[Aussie Mike]

David, I think I see what your problem is. Ian uses shocks with spherical bearings in the ends rather than nolathane bushes. The spherical bearing is only about 12-15mm wide. The sides of the upper mounts are wide enough apart to allow the sherical bearing to be adjusted back and forth along the pivot bolt to get it in the right alignment. I've machined up aluminium spacers for my upper and lower mounts to offset the shock to best clear the upper arm.

There is also a front half and back half to the Jag upper arms. There is a bit of positive castor built into the arms. It's quite obvious on mine but may not be so easy to see on yours.

Hope this helps.

I didn't get out to the shed today, most of the day was spent cleaning up the gardens. Got to build up some brownie points.

Cheers

[pneall]

David,

Your top arms look OK. You will need to relieve metal around the redundant bump stops.

As Mike said Ian uses the spherical ended shocks which gives some amount of adjustment with spacers either side of the ball joint. I played with this for hours to get clearance correct so that there was no interference between the spring and control arms no matter what position they are in.

Ended up with different spacers for RH and LH.

Unfortunately the shocks mounts top and bottom did not end up in the centre of the chassis brackets.

With the style shock end you have you will probably get interference with the springs in full droop but should be OK at normal ride.

Its also important to relieve the top arm support to give clearance to spring.

Regards,

Phil

[boxhead]

I will remove the top arm support and get it milled away through the centre.

I have removed as much of the bump stop metal I feel comfortable with, and in any case that is not where it fouls.

It is contacting about midway between the bump stop and inner pivot.

As you and Mike have said the problem may be in my rubber bushed mounts, but I think I would need to move the top mount backwards allmost 15mm to gain the clearance required.

I will remove the spring from 1 shockie and see how hard it will be to remove the upper mount, it looks like it just screws on.

I most likely wont be able to play until the weekend, we are very busy at work and with end of month comeing up it gets even more frantic

[pneall]

David,

You could try using earlier model Jaguar top arms, they are straighter and may give the clearance you want. Don't know for sure just a thought.

If the the top mounts of your shocks do screw off then maybe spherical ends may be available from the OEM??


Phil.

[boxhead]

Well everyone I finnaly got my straight upper arms back from my machine shop friend (took awhile as he was doing it as a favour and is very busy) and I am glad to say they fit perfectly without contacting anything.

I will paint them this weekend and final fit them, then it will be time to drop the body back on and start running a wireing loom.