Rebuilding the Jag Rear End

Dang.. lots of parts in a Jaguar IRS. The axles act as the upper control arm.

The lower control arms hold everything so that the aluminum outer hub can only go up and down in a vertical plane. The axle with inside mounted brake disk acts as the upper control arm. It is in constant compression but is free to move in any direction as required.

Initial design sketch to coordinate clearances with actual wheel well, wheels, tires, and Jag rear end. It all turned out that everything fit just as planned. This also told me that I probably would not be able to remove the rear wheels just by jacking up the car. It's necessary to disconnect the shocks to allow the axle to drop down far enough to remove them. That's why there is an removable (Zeus fasteners) panel in the trunk, so that a lot of the rear end parts can be accessed from inside the trunk. See page 2 of "The Interior" about 3/4 of the way down for pictures and assembly of the cover plate.

NOTE: Click on picture to see full size . for some reason the host site screwed this up. New wheels...on the Jag rear end. The outside of the rims measures 70 inches. The stock inside dimension of the Shoebox is about 67-1/2 inches. The tires will be about an inch wider than the rims (10.2 inches). It's upside down.

Appears virtually new. Bought it from a guy in Florida for $1,500-not the best price, but in very very good condition. This is a 1985 Jaguar XJS/Xj6 2.88 ratio rear end assembly. Notice the inboard brakes. The lack of "Unsprung weight" makes it ride very very smooooothly.

Jaguar XJS/XJ6 rear end assembly that's going in the '49

The "craigslist" wheels that came off of a "California born" '57 Chevy are Nine Inches Wide.. Time for some tires so measurements come out correct to fit inside the wheelwells and still be able to take them off when jacked up..Just ordered the tires so I'll have real dimensions.

How 'bout those 255/15's with the wide whites - "V" speed rating - 148 mph. NOT cheap.

Bought the rear tires and wheels to assure measurements for chassis fabrication. Beginning taking apart the Jag rear end. 73 inches outside to outside, 51-3/4 inches inside (tire measurements). 67-1/2 inches inside the wheelwells.

Gotta pull it all apart to get things new.

ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ATTENTION ! DO NOT DO WHAT I DID WHEN I REBUILT THE CALIPERS !!!! Check out that left side brake pad. Compare it to the one on the right.... the dang caliper piston has NEVER moved since it was built/rebuilt. Hmmmm maybe that's why the thing is so clean and very low mileage. Just guessing, of course, but it's probably cheaper to replace an entire rear end than to do a brake job on this thing. EVERYTHING has to come out of the cage to get the calipers off. Crazy.....

If one were to cut down the width of the cage.....oh hell, never mind. Wrong thinking...forget it...hahaha.. besides, the diameter of the shock/springs is a little problem right here...(maybe 2 inches ?)

Takin' it all apart.

Pressing the bearing races out before cleaning and reassembly with new bearings, seals, etc.

Stub shaft, bearing housing, and bearings and crush sleeve disassembled. The spline on the shaft plugs into the differential, and 4 bolted flange connects to axle shafts that also act as upper control arms. Really, no lie.

Ok, so it's another Chinese tool.

Pressing in the inner bearing races. I bought a number of pieces of pipe, all 6 inches long to use as press assistants.

Inside U-joint connection. Original axle shaft shown.

Unique emergency brake guts with ratchet assembly.

Disassembly of axle shafts - the inboard joint bearings were totally rusted up and seized...

Getting ready to ship the axles and lower control arms to Calif. to be cut down/shortened..UPDATE: Curt Hamilton does not cut axles down; he builds them from scratch, so won't be sending them out.

Inner stub shaft of Jaguar center section all together, ready for final pulldown with the huge nut on the shaft. The crush spacer must be started with the press, then finished off with the big nut for accurate preload.

Ready to start pressing. Note the green grease, a synthetic bearing grease, said to be about as good as it gets.

New pistons, seals, and cleaned up calipers. MISTAKE TO REBUILD! I did NOT assemble with "caliper grease"... See the gallery "Fixing brakes".

All the new parts to put the calipers back together.

ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ATTENTION ! DO NOT DO WHAT I DID WHEN I REBUILT THE CALIPERS !!!! YOU MUST GREASE THE CALIPER PISTONS WITH "CALIPER REBUILD GREASE". OTHERWISE, SOONER OR LATER ONE OR MORE OF THE CALIPER PISTONS WILL GET STUCK AND CHEW UP ONE OR MORE PADS. BELIEVE ME.....Brake calipers all cleaned up, new pads, seals, pistons, etc. ready to re-install.

Top, second, and third row: needle bearings and races for lower control arms. Forth and fifth row, rings with raised inner part is for the lower axle hubs felt seals to fit on. Sixth and seventh row are the inner pivot seals for lower control arms (LCA) there are eight of them, four on each control arm, with inner and outer steel rings holding a rubber, ridged seal in place, with the big "fender washers" on the outside of each mount. Castle nuts, brass ring, and washers below are for axle stub shaft mounting. Torsion bar ends have bushings pressed in and ready to install.

The original lower hub bearings are tapered bearings-critical adjustment on pre-loads, spacers, etc. I chose the newer technology which is a high density oil impregnated bushing, lower row. Loaned spring compressors from Advance Auto Parts.

Differential center section is all assembled, safety wired bolts, and ready to go. There is no evidence of any leaks on the front seal, so I chose not to disassemble the gears/bearings/seals. The wear pattern on the ring and pinion gears looked real good with no indication of wear. No need to screw up a good thing, I always say.

Another pic of calipers and disk. Emergency brake assembly is on top.

View of calipers with new disks.

Lower control arms all cleaned up and ready to temporarily reinstall, confirm all measurements, then ship out to be cut down/shortened by Curt Hamilton in Van Neys.

Inner pivot of LCA, needle bearings pressed in and new Zurk fitting. Polished off the truck bed paint because the surface acts as a grease seal component.

Another view of both original lower control arms with pivot rods and washers/seals on the rods. All pivot points have needle bearings except the hub bearings which are tapered. New ones will be bushings.

$900 bucks later......Bottom axle is new, fabricated by Curt Hamilton in Van Nuys. Top axle is original. New one is 4.25 inches shorter and a bit stronger than stock (Really?). The axles act as the upper control arms too.

Axles built by Curt Hamilton with universal joints and stub shafts installed, and ready to reassemble. Both fabricated to be 4.25 inches shorter than the stock axles. Ready to bolt up !

Just got a set of hole punches, too. Works pretty good ! Large hole is the fill plug, the square thing is the vent to assure that no pressure is built up in the housing.

Well, they will match my ignition wires.

Decided to bake the paint. 200 degrees for two hours. Stinky.

Got some gasket material from Winkley's Hardware down the street. Need to make a new cover gasket for the Jag rear end. That's a 1965 Orange Bowl Champions Glass paper weight/St. Genevieve White. Have a full set. Texas 21, Alabama 17.

Xacto knife - awesome for flossing, too...

If it rains in your sandblasting media bucket, it doesn't spray at ALL. Took another two hours to fry out the water. It's the last of my blasting sand until I get to the store. It's steaming here.

She's ALL TOGETHER and ON the GROUND! And bounces OH so smoothly ! AND GUESS WHAT?! I DON'T HAVE ANY LEFTOVER PARTS! 1/9/2013

Slightly different angle. When I removed the springs to paint them, I found that two of the four shocks were worn out/bad. On order from Advance Auto Parts. Supposed to be here Friday.

A little closer. That's not grease on the floor. It's black overspray and water from the rain and wind last night. Ain't them yalla springs purdy?

Checking total height of tire movement, 9-1/2 inches above top of crossmember. Will need to tub the wheelwells.

Wheel bearing hub and bump stop.