Ebay is magic - Reconditioned front vertical leg/ ball joint

[J44EAG]

Thinking to the future and with J44EAG reaching a mileage where front ball joints would begin to become a possible MOT failure item, I tripped over an ebay posting for two newly reconditioned vertical front suspension legs together with a wheel bearing/ABS sensor thrown in.

Reconditioning of these legs can be difficult if you don`t have access to a bench press. Even garages so equipped often fight shy of this particular reconditioning procedure. It can be a bit tricky if the right supports and mandrels are not available.

Jaguar obviously will sell you a complete new unit, but it comes at a fair old price.

Independent parts suppliers will sell you an identical unit to the part sold by Jaguar but at a much reduced price.

Somewhat controversially in a scenario very akin to the issues surrounding reconditioned lower rear wishbones, worn front vertical legs can be fitted with new ball joints. The cost for a ball joint is between £23-£26 per unit. Typically, there are individuals who market reconditioned units at around £110 each. Those guys generally want your old unit as an exchange item, plus a cost for postage of a recon unit and return of the old worn part. A surcharge is usually applied at around £30, refundable upon receipt of an old exchange unit. So I suppose we are talking about £120 per unit when all said and done.

To return to my ebay thread, I placed a bid on two surplus legs and a ball joint being offered. A starting bid was £55 plus £13 postage for the lot.

Leaving my bidding until the last moment, I won the auction for a total figure of £69.78.

The point about all this is that with some careful forward planning of ones car maintenance needs, considerable sums of money can be saved if you don`t mind shelling out a few quid in advance of future known needs.

So my ebay legs and ball joints will go into stock together with my pair of refurbished lower rear wishbones and a new header tank. I also hold a stock of reasonably priced ebay sourced brake pads together with wiper blades, fuel and oil filters, spare wheel nuts etc, all held back for a rainy day.

Should an MOT failure occur over the next couple of years, I have a good supply of parts to hand for immediate fitment and the pressure of finding parts in a panic is vastly reduced.

My reckoning is that I saved around £170 today. That does me very nicely.

Ebay is certainly the thing for me now. I have placed a link to S-type parts on my laptop favourites bar and can at one click instantly look at the latest postings and pick off the bargains as they are posted.

I have to say that I`m not unhappy with today`s little dabble. The trouble is that ebay can be every bit as absorbing as a one arm bandit or a flutter on the gee gee`s!

As with all things of this nature, it is essential to know in advance of bidding, just what the general market rate is for either new or second hand parts. Decide your maximum bid figure and stick to it. Bump the bid in at the last moment and resist the temptation to declare your interest before that last minute or so. Early bidding only serves to push up the price between two or more competing bidders. Play your cards right and you could end up with some real bargains.

Mike

[dg4cars]

You are dead right Mike. Bought brake pads last August on ebay at very reasonable price and used them this July when the car was being serviced. Have procured many other service items as I see them on ebay to hold until needed. The only problem is remembering where I carefully stored them! Derek

[J44EAG]

Here we are. This is what I bought for under £70 delivered.

A true ebay bargain if ever there was one. Note these units are for the earlier S-type only, with the ball joint within the leg. Later cars together with X350XJ and XF models having an inverted ball joint mounted within the lower drop arm.

Then the trouble started. I put the two legs in through the boat window after photographing. I rested them on top of two large cans of spray builders expanding foam and carried on with an epoxy slurry mix on a rudder that I was repairing for a friend. As I laid the mix on the rudder at the stern of my boat, I heard a loud crash from the main cabin. Thinking little about it, I carried on with the job.

When I entered my cabin ten minutes later, I was horrified to find the two cans of foam had fallen off the shelf under the window, one of the puncturing itself on the diesel heater on the way down to the floor. The devastation is interesting. My dinner jacket trousers have taken the worst. I fear they are probably a goner. No matter really. I had difficulty getting them on six months ago and the fly zip had suffered the effects of marine corrosion!!

The contents of the can and indeed the can itself sit in a huge mound of bubbling foam on the floor. Knowing how hard that stuff is to clear up, I have elected to treat the mound of ever expanding foam as a marine roundabout until it goes hard , hopefully by tomorrow morning. At the moment there appears to be about two shovel loads of the stuff growing by the second as I write. It doesn`t half pong as well.

So there we are. More tales from the river bank here in Fareham.

Have to say I`m well pleased with my purchase. Just the old rivets for the dust shields to drill out and these units are ready to fit straight to the car when the need arises. I would appear I have paid about one third of the going rate for a pair of recon items.

Mike

[J44EAG]

These are the rivets needed for the dust shields. 6 off (3 each side) required.

Part number is C2C4400. Either from a Main Dealer or in this case, Black Country Jaguar.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/XJ-XK-S-Type- ... 256729d54f

The remains of the old rivets can be seen in the images above. They need to be fully drilled out. The person who removed the dust shields previously, failed to use a correct size drill bit, thus leaving the bulk of the rivet still in the vertical leg.

Mike

[J44EAG]

Further to my post above, I ordered six rivets from Black Country Jaguar for £10.24 inc post.

This kit is applicable to pre MY52 plate cars with ball joint mounted in the vertical leg.

Delivery was next day so full marks for that. However, what arrived was curious! Three rivets, six dry locktighted bolts (four needed for the wheel bearing cartridge, two,location unknown at present) three assorted nuts presumably for the steering drop arm and two ball joints at the top and bottom of a single vertical leg.

Curious indeed. Not quite what I ordered so I phoned up BCJ. Not a problem they said and sent me another kit in the post! So I now have the six dust shield rivets plus six assorted nylock nuts and twelve bolts! Not bad for £10.24 in total and enough parts to do two legs!

Image below shows one complete kit for one leg. Two kits will be needed to do two legs. Rivet mandrels are 3mm OD, so a pretty big pop rivet tool needs to be sourced to fire the rivets off.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/XJ-XK-S-Type- ... 256729d54f

Dust shields from your old worn legs can be reused by drilling out the rivets in your old legs. Drill size, 6mm.

If you wish to fit up new or refurbished leg units prior to stripping your car to save down time and panic rushes, then new dust shields can also be supplied by BCJ. Cost is £8.19 for each shield. Remember to specify drivers or passenger side requirement.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/S-Type-Jaguar ... 2567e8b875

Full marks to Graham and Mike at Black Country Jaguar. What I received will enable me to refurbish without using second life critical nuts or bolts. Great service indeed.

Mike

[J44EAG]

Dimension details for unpulled rivets as follows.

Pull shank mandrel diameter 3mm OD

Pull shank mandrel length 35mm

Rivet grip length 19mm

Rivet diameter 6mm OD

Preformed rivet washer covering dust shield plate 19mm OD

Rivet material aluminium

Pull shank mandrel, plated steel.

Part number W7011950S100, forming part of kit JAGKNUCKLESUB which includes wheel bearing nuts and bolts from Black Country Jaguar. (Graham Taylor)


I`ll take my anorak off now!

Mike