Doesn’t help when the rubber is loaded in shear rather than in compression, as rubber mounts should be.
I think sports bushes fitted correctly ie. One each side of rack with flat face to outside would put them in compression.
Have these on my xjrs and steering is as precise as ever. If otherwise, maybe bushes have not been fitted in correct orientation.
I can’t remember exactly what was in my XJR-S, maybe SportsPack, but they got binned. Poly bushings, much better.
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Well I have come to the conclusion that I should leave them alone. The general consensus seems to be that as they are the SportsPak bushing they may never fail. I will just wait until I need to pull the rack or have to drop the front subframe. Many Thanks to those who commented and offered advice. I really enjoy the willingness of the members to offer the input.
I have the sport bushings on my 89 xjs steering rack
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Can’t believe it. Old gits forgot to mention another important reason for float drive in XJS?
Say hello to Bullshit_joint. Also known as anti-gravity joint or hydroelectric magnetosphere regulator. Usually have unseen level of play and you cannot find replacement (refurb only).
Would like more info on this please, Janusz.
Does this joint only exist on the v12 engines? Pre-facelift?
Thanks.
You mean the steering knunkle (u-joint)? What’s special about it?
That’s lower column joint, always forgotten:
There is aslo an upper one that can be inspected with your head in footwell, but this one is actually designed by healthy person - 99 out of 100 examples it’s like new.
The bottom one mentioned earlier has a play that is virtually invisible unless you’ll inspect it with someone rocking your steering wheel. ShitJoint confirmed in pre/post lift, regardless of engine version (unsure about 6.0). It seems that design originates from mismatch between engineering drawings… Off-centre action makes no sense otherways…
The U-joints in my '83 looked like the ones in that exploded drawing, not like the one in your photo.
Kirbert - they’re the same, only photo was taken in different position (due to its “swivel” action)
No, they’re not the same.
They’re not the same, but if there’s play in there, you can check from the engine bay, and it’s not the problem if the whole rack moves on the design failure that the bushings are.
This makes a whole lot of sense, and it something that I only had a cursory thought about it being a problem.
Those steering knuckles are a known weak point on the 80’s & 90’s BMW 3 series cars. There are a few types of disc’s of various materials made by several outfits that tighten up and eliminate the slop that seems to be inherent in those joints. It seems to me that the steering rack bushings are only one part of the equation.
But the most major part. Having done it on three Jaguar front ends, the improvement for replacing the bushings with poly is huge. I did eliminate some sloppiness in the linkage on one car but the change was minimal. But if you have a problem after replacing the bushings, then this is worth a look.
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Just took this pic of knuckle from mine for comparison…
Here’s a pic of a washer I had to remove to put new bushings on the rack…
Interesting U-joint. I wonder if Jaguar changed suppliers somewhere along the line.
That channel piece is supposed to make fitting the steering rack easier. The OEM mounts have rubber-faced washers on both sides of both mount, so rather than trying to hold all four in place (plus the two at the other end) while fitting the rack up to the subframe, the channel is supposed to hold that set of four in place. Of course, once you change to aftermarket, it’s not as helpful.
Still, it shouldn’t have been a problem – and in fact, the mounts should have fit loosely without it. My aftermarket bushings came with a replacement channel!
If it didn’t fit up right, chances are good that the bosses on the subframe had been mangled by previous assembly. That’s why I suggest using some threaded rod and nuts to push the sides of the bosses back out to where they should be prior to reassembly. Then the channel should slide into place easily. And, of course, it’s important to fit enough fender washers so everything fits snug before torquing the mounting bolts down.
Yeah, but just as Pirk above, I had to eliminate that channel piece as well after installing the poly bushings. From the way things looked at the rack (as well as everything else that was attached to the subframe) it was all original. Not only that, but at least one or two of the large washers had to be eliminated as well and replaced with smaller diameter washers that were thinner in order to fit. I didn’t want to bend the ears back as you suggested, in fear of taking the earlobe bolt holes out of center and making bolt harder to push through and line up with the hole on the other side 
Any slop in the steering knuckle is obviously in the joint. If a type of plate could be devised that would directly join the two ends together, I think that would effectively eliminate any existing slop. Way out of my league, though 
.