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Hi Some great cars cheers Joe

Yes Trevor They are really great shots -thank you for share them with us . Frank

Thank you! I actually like doing all this stuff. Obviously it would be nice if the car didn't need work but then I wouldn't have paid so little for it. On the plus side doing it this way means it's got new components, not just serviceable ones. I'm looking at buying some new upper front arms (genuine Jaguar ones no less) to fit at the same time as the re-bushed lowers even though I don't actually know how worn they are. I can get a bit of movement in the bushes with a pry bar but the ball-joints will only tell their tale once it's all apart. They're integral to the arm, joy.. If I do replace them then it would then have all new joints and bushes at the front bar the track rod ends, an outer one of which is to be replaced next week anyway. The rear upper arms were replaced by the previous owner about 25k ago. I replaced the lower arm bushes a few weeks ago so all that's old there is the ARB bushes and drop links. Oh and a track rod which I will buy a standby for. I'm not counting damper bushes in all that. I replaced one front lower one while chasing the knocking that turned out to be the ARB bushes. But really they don't affect things as much as the arm bushes as they don't allow geometry changes. I am still toying with the idea of some Bilstein B6 dampers, but they are huge money so unless a long, low interest credit arrangement is possible then it won't happen. I've spent over twice what I paid for the car in replacement parts and general service stuff but it still stands me in at well under a grand so I'm very happy with the return. Just don't bring the hours of work I've put in into the equation!

Well I fitted the new ball-joint and hub in the upright today. I didn't use the press at all, as said before the upright is a really awkward shape to get in it. Yes I could have made up some bracketry to mount it but it would have been a lot of faff. Instead the ball-joint took a chilly little holiday to the bottom drawer of the freezer. The upright was going to go in the oven but for some reason Mrs Woodbine was not cool with that.. Instead I heated it with a blow lamp until it was too warm to touch then put the the two together. I actually ended up with the ball-joint balanced on the nose of an anvil and then inverted the upright over it ready to go together. I reused the piece of steam pipe from the lower rear arm bush job to go over its pin and onto the upright. It was just the right size and sat happily on it surrounding the ball-joint register. Steam pipe With another pair of hands and eyes to make sure it was going in straight I boshed the steam pipe gently with a heavy hammer and got them together halfway with no trouble. Within five minutes though the upright had cooled and the ball-joint had warmed so any temperature expansion/contraction advantage was gone. At this point though that didn't matter so much as the ball-joint was well started and definitely in line. From here on we pushed it home gently in a vice. I know it may sound like an horrific way to do such a job but with some sympathy towards the materials involved and carefully ensuring that the pieces go together in line with each other it's a perfectly good way to do it. It is true that easing it in with a press would be more controlled and harder to get wrong but plenty of care needs to be taken either way. I have the greatest interest in the long term safety of my suspension and wouldn't do a job if I didn't know it was going to be done adequately. The hub pretty much just dropped in. I cleaned the hole it sits in and coated it and the hubs mating surfaces with CV grease, I used this for its stickiness and temperature stability. Although the old hub came out easily the other spare upright had needed about 12 tons, I'd rather avoid having that fun again in the future. The hub, £48.95 from eBay with 2 years warranty and an ABS sensor. Cheap but I'm willing to take the risk. Ideally I'd not do the job again soon but even if lasts only 60k miles it's good value The ball-joint. Under £20 from the local factors with a three year warranty which at least implies they're confident in it.. I would have liked to put top quality parts on for sure but I'm not in a position to do that and have other jobs to budget for. Such as the new Powerflex Black lower front arm bushes which are next weeks job, watch this space (actually it will be new thread but you know what I mean).