1965 3.4S-Type upper ball joint issue

[Thor-320C]

Having bought 2 new upper ball joints (all suppliers seem to be selling XJ ball joints) I have found that they are too large to fit. The metal around the bolt holes is wider than my original replacements from the early 1990's, meaning that it is necessary to remove the upper bump stop to fit them, and it cannot be re-fitted! Separately, the replacement part for for the long bolt through the rear of the ball joint (C17171) is listed as a 4" bolt by all suppliers is too short to fit a nut to. The bolt I removed (bent) was 4 1/2". Has anyone else encountered such problems or have any idea on how to resolve them?

[piman]

Hello Thor,

I have recently fitted two new top ball joints to my MK2 and found that I had insufficient spacers compared to the workshop manual's instructions. Buying and fitting the correct number meant the upper bump stop would not fit, as you found out. As I preferred to stick with the correct number of spacers, I slotted the bump stop so it would fit.
The joints I bought from Martin Robey and I chose the Lemforder ones as supposedly better quality. Whether they are the same as the XJ6 I don't know?

Alec

[piman]

Hello Thor

Further to my earlier reply I have been and looked at my front axle assembly (It is on my workbench and I think you may have done me a favour as I noticed a problem).

The rear bolt is a 41/2" with a 4" in the front due to the taper of the arms. The ball joint is not the correct Jaguar part number and is indeed an XJ6 item, CAC9938 (40mm wide). SNG Barratt do list the correct C23024 upper ball joint. Cheap it isn't even compared to the Lemforder.
What I did notice just then is that the arms at the rear have a gap between the inner shoulder and the bush face on both sides. I intended to tighten them only when I put the car on it's wheels to avoid straining the bushes as is normal practice. However this will put an undue end force on the bushes, and tend to bend the upper arms which is far from ideal.

I intend to reduce the number of shims such that they will just fit with the inner bushes tightend. While this reduces the scope of adjustment I hope that will not cause aproblem. However should it be I can't get the correct camber adjustment I will probbably shim inside the bushes such that they fit correctly without any strain.

i hope that gives you some options?

Alec