REPLACING FRONT SUBFRAME MOUNTS 1996 XJS

[Mercury RV]

Good evening all,

I feel sure some of you out there will have done this, but please, is it possible to replace the front subframe round rubber mounts without the need to remove the actual subframe? Mine are looking less well attached around the metalastic section and now may be a good time to do it. If you have any good tips to do this and what tools you used that would be VERY welcome. Kind regards, Simon (Kent)

[davidr]

Hi Simon - the mounts can be changed without dropping the subframe so long as you support it as you work.
The front six-shot mounts are easy enough to do.
The rear ones are more tricky as the mounting nuts are hard to get at. The trick is to break them by threading a long bar down and hitting it with a hammer. The metal of the mount is quite brittle so breaks easily enough.

[Mercury RV]

Hi, Thank you so much for your reply. Do I assume with the front mounts, you cut through the rubber then metal to be able to extract the old ones, then the new ones could be pulled in with some threaded bar? Sorry if that sounds a little basic, but the car is not here at the moment for me to look as to what you may mean in terms of removal of the front ones. Kind regards, Simon

[PaulGover]

AFAIR you're over-thinking this. I'm not under mine at the moment, but I think the front mounts are held to the subframe in a ring of metal that's closed by a bolt - remove this bolt and the ring expands (rust permitting) and the bush becomes free. It's held to the chassis by a long nut and bolt through the middle; remove that and it should just slide out of the bush. There may be pipes and stuff in the way, but I think not.

See this site:
https://parts.jaguarlandroverclassic.co ... nd/jaguar/
(hope that's not specific to my browsing session; if it doesn't work, dig your way down through the Jaguar Classic Parts web site to the front crossbeam for your car).
The two bolts are parts 11 and 16 in the picture.

If they're hard to remove, coat everything with a thin layer of copperslip before reassembly.

[Mercury RV]

Good morning, All is much clearer now I have had the chance to look at the car this morning, and what you say is correct, the bushes are clamped into the frame, so yes you are right, it SHOULD be easy. Thank you for clarifying this for me. Kind regards, Simon